In Response to "a Unified Dive Industry"

[Slonda828]

Thalassamania quotes 25 responses in one post. That has to be a record-Hey why aren't I quote worthy?

Because you isn't eloquent enough

 

[pir8]

And here I thought you gave Nitrox away cause it was just easier to fill everyones tanks with the same gas!!!

Nope, the dive shop must remain for the industry to be viable. Just because PADI embraces eLearning, doesn't mean that all sheep will follow. I don't think the majority are willing to learn to use life support equipment over the internet, then end up with whomever as their final openwater checkout diver. If that is true, then I will haul down the shingle right now.

There are a vocal few that are empowered to research their own travel, buy their gear online, have their kids taught online, etc. These folks are not the majority, but do need to have their needs catered to. Then there are the folks who spend a lot of time on these chat boards. Let us not be swayed by them, as they do NOT make up the majority of divers. The vast majority of divers who come to dive with me are just divers. They don't chat, they have never heard of Scubaboard, D2D, DiveMatrix, they dive with their shop. They buy their gear in their shop, they arrange travel with their shop, they take lessons in their shop, they go to pizza parties in their shop.

We've all heard the horror stories of the shop that won't service your gear if you don't buy it there, or won't instruct you if you are using uncle Fester's old lead, or whatever. The shop has to learn to price any service to make a profit. Loss leader only works in big box stores, or for Coke, Pepsi, or Budweiser. It doesn't work in the mom and pop industry. Try to get them in with cheap air fills, they will get their air fills at the shop, but won't do anything else there because the manager/owner/employee is sour because they lose money on every fill. Cheap OW classes, you have to jack up everything else to make up for it.

I spent quite a bit of time talking to my retailers this year, trying to figure out their needs. It was quite eye-opening. Running a retail scuba store is not for the faint hearted. It's also not for the neophyte who retired as an engineer and translated his love for diving into a dive shop. Talk about how to learn to hate scuba real quick. The job of a scuba retailer is to make a profit with every transaction. I read with amusement in Undercurrent this month about the customer who whined about the boat operator insisting on being profitable. Those that run their shops at a loss are doing a dis-service to everyone else in the business. There is room for fair profit on every transaction without screwing the customer. Trouble is, everyone undercuts the next guy, and OUT OF FEAR, we all drive each other in the dirt.

I'm not advocating price fixing or any of the other stuff that got us into this mess. I give away nitrox on my boat. I don't do it to gather business from anyone else, I don't use it as a loss leader, I do it because my system is long paid for and I think it's a safer gas for the types of diving we do. I'm saying that dive shops need to learn to set pricing without interference from manufacturers, sell their items at a profit, and continue to certify good reliable divers and not scare them away with a grumpy attitude in the shop.

Frank

 

[mdb]

certainly willing to accept a performance bonus on top of my standard hourly/daily/project rate.

So, Mr. marketing guru, what is your rate for all your wisdom?

 

[mike_s]

And here I thought you gave Nitrox away cause it was just easier to fill everyones tanks with the same gas!!!

while that might be a little easier on the crew if all the tanks were filled the same, you're often going to have a couple people per liveaboard charter that "don't do Nitrox". Either they aren't certified in nitrox, or just aren't interested in it.



back on subject, I'm still waiting to see how this is the "dive shop of the future".

 

[scubafanatic]

So, Mr. marketing guru, what is your rate for all your wisdom?

....well, based on a quote from a few posts ago....one 'hat' = $ 100, and he said he'd charge a few thousand 'hats'....so looks like a few hundred thousand $ ....

 

[mrfixitchapman]

So, we are well on the way to 100 posts. Anybody have any workable solutions? The problems are pretty well identified by now. My own 'local dive shop', (about 100 miles away), closed because insurance, energy, taxes and rent went up faster than their net profit. My view is that there will have to be some sort of hybrid facility that can have one part in the internet and another part in personal service. Haven't a clue how to do it, though.

Suggestions?

DC

 

[scubafanatic]

....don't forget to consider the reason the 'dive travel' segment of the scuba industry is achieving undue influence, relative to the 'equipment' or 'training' components......most divers dive to 'see stuff'...usually pretty fishies/reefs...which are getting more and more scarce, requiring an ever higher percentage of a diver's overall scuba budget to be diverted to expensive travel to remote locations...at the expense of gear and training purchases. If I had to predict the LDS 'last stand', it would be in the temperate/warm costal regions...California....Florida....and I pity the dive shop 'marooned' deep within the continental U.S. ...hundreds of not thousands of miles away from any sort of desirable diving...where one has to spend big $ to go diving anywhere worth a d*mn! ...the VAST majority of divers ain't getting certified to quarry dive! ...can't say I've seen too many print/TV ads extolling the virtues/excitement of diving the local mudhole.

 

[gcbryan]

Dive shops are under capitalized and just aren't run well. It has nothing to do with the dive industry.

A hardware store run by someone with no previous retail/business experience likely would not do well either. A hardware store that had little inventory would not do well.

Most dive shops have little to offer. You can't get out of the military and open a dive shop because it sounds like a good thing to do and put a few thousand dollars into it and expect to make a go of it. This wouldn't be a successful approach if you were opening a grocery store and it doesn't work in the diving industry either.

Most dive stores need to go under. The dive industry isn't large enough to support all of the dive shops that do exist and most of the existing stores don't have enough inventory to justify their existence.

People need air and gear serviced and initial training. If dive stores carried everything anyone could possible want they would get more business. However, you can't have one on every street corner since the industry just isn't that large.

It's got nothing to do with DEMA. Anyone who wants to run a successful business can do so. There are a few successful dive shops. Those need to be the models.

If local quarry diving is what you have then you have to work with what you've got. Dive quarries probably are successful so why can't the dive shops near the quarry be successful?

Really, I think the dive business is like any other. There are golf shops and I assume that some of them are successful as are bail and tackle shops but you can't have one on every corner and they won't be successful just because you open one.

I'll bet people come up with more money to open a Subway franchise than most people put into opening a dive shop. I'll bet a Subway owner/manager gets more training in retail/small business ownership than the average dive shop owner has.

 

[DaleC]

I'm going to say something that I may actually live to regret.

Turn diving into a competitive sport.

Look to rock climbing for one example. It was initially the fringy outpost for granola crunching free spirits and yodelers who really didn't spend that much money on gear. We travelled cheap and often made our own gear. Not much of an industry really.

Enter the era of competitive technical climbing and the "rock jock". Routes became popular that had no other purpose than to challenge other climbers. An easy rating scale was adopted. Contests became popular (even televised). Indoor Gyms began popping up, clothing lines came out. Superstars of the sport became well known and recognizable and younger climbers wanted to emulate them. Endorsements for related products followed. Non climbers were drawn in not by the beauty of the hills but by their competitive nature. Sport climbing revitalized and mainstreamed climbing and probably accounts for nearly all the retail revenue as a result. I was there when it happened and watched the whole affair unfold.

Isn't it odd that we keep claiming this is a sport yet there is no competitive component? No way to rate divers skill? If you could rate it people would want to compete. If they want to compete they will also want the best gear, they will want a facility to train in, they will draw spectators etc...

If you run a LDS in a landlocked part of the country and want a niche, create a diving competition and figure out how to control the merchandising. If you can figure out a way to create a competition you don't need to compete with resort destinations or live aboards. More people are drawn to indoor gyms and arenas than to the Alps now a days.

Who would have predicted that people fighting in an octagonal cage made out of chain link fencing would be mainstream? I wonder how much the UFC and the Tapout clothing Co makes/year? When was the last time someone got excited about traditional boxing?

What if someone opened a scuba gym and set out to seriously train divers to excel in specific, measurable skills. What if there were obsticale courses to run. Timed events. What if those divers became so skilled that they began to be referred to the best divers around. Would others take that sitting down. Who sells the training devices, nutritional suppliments, gym memberships.

God help me for suggesting it and have mercy on my soul but there you are. Post 89 and you have one solution. Perhaps some will poo poo the idea but then again, many people seem to be stuck in a failing paradigm.

 

[RJP]

I'm going to say something that I may actually live to regret.

Turn diving into a competitive sport.

Imagine the deaths that would be racked up...