LDS VS Internet Sale!!!

[Zeeman]

Buy on the internet, die on the internet...
Who's gonna love you when your LDS is gone?

Your family and friends

Maybe your dog or cat.


Z...

 

[ReefHound]

I own a shop, I don't rip people off (at least I don't think I do) and I treat people the way I like to be treated. Do they pay a little more for stuff in my shop? Occasionally but not always, in fact I can usually meet or beat any internet price or throw in some extras to make up for the difference. Most of them are happy because they want to touch it, try it out and walk out the door with it and they know if they have a problem I will take it back or replace it no questions asked. We take very good care of our loyal customers.

Jay, I'm glad that you are one of the "good" LDS owners that treats people fairly and tries to be competitive and doesn't operate like a slimeball used car salesman. I hope that is really the case then again I've never seen an LDS owner who would say anything else. They all believe in their own mind they are offering great value at a fair price.

I don't see the relevance of your point about the new students showing up for class with low quality and poor fitting gear. Nobody here is telling new students to run out and buy off the internet without any clue as to what they are doing. And I hope you aren't implying that internet gear = junk because you can certainly buy high quality gear online. In fact, many divers buy online and spend the same money but choose to get higher end gear for the same price as they would spend locally on lower end gear. What does your new student experiences have to do with the experienced diver who knows how to select and size quality gear suited for his needs?

Finally, people may have little interest in buying a compressor when they have a convenient option of getting fills at a dive shop but we're talking about what happens when that option is no longer available. For all the doomsday warnings I don't know of any area where there are any significant number of divers that has actually seen all the shops close down and leave them without a place to get fills.

 

[Splitlip]

In the Jupiter/Tequesta/Juno (Chamber of Commerce) Florida, 3 are gone. Leaving 1.

 

[ReefHound]

In other words there is a place to get air fills, not to mention WPB is a half hour away. Divers in South Florida are nowhere close to being left stranded.

 

[Splitlip]

Drive 1/2 an hour for a fill?!. What are you nuts?

Just wanted to stir it up a little Hound. We had this discussion before. But fact is, 2 of the little shops told me people use their store front to shop, then buy from Leisurepro. Their businesses did begin to suffer when LP came on the scene. Sign of the times maybe.

Jupiter Dive Center is still going strong. And.. um...the "West Palm" Divers Direct is actually in North Palm Beach. Closer than West Palm for me. LOL

edit: and yes, we are more fortunate than most of the Country.

 

[ReefHound]

I like it stirred up! LP has been on the scene almost 20 years. I wasn't diving before that so I don't know what the glory days were like. My point is that I've been hearing these scare tactic "where ya gonna get air fills" lines since 1994 when I got certified and I've yet to actually see it come to pass. Yes I'm sure there are remote areas where the only shop has closed and now it's hundreds of miles but one might question if such areas have the demand to support a shop in the first place.

 

[ahava]

If you need fills at least 1 area shop should be able to survive just on that.
.

Yeah, I can see some guy sitting around all week waiting to fill a dozen tanks.

 

[RJP]

"...will continue to make scuba available to the overwhelming majority of those who want it."

The "overwhelming majority" of people in the world DON'T dive, so there is no real demand for multiple, convenient physical diving loci.

Even the mfgrs may change their policies a bit to keep from losing markets.

Not a chance as 99.99% of the scuba industry is still stuck in a "market share" game. They're more concerned with getting a bigger piece of whatever pie, even if the pie is shrinking. AquaLung simply wants to sell more regs that Atomic does.

DEMA "be a diver" campaign? What a joke!

 

[marcienko]

:blinking::blinking::blinking::blinking:

I think I will just sit back and watch this.

Phil Ellis

 

[RAWalker]

Yeah, I can see some guy sitting around all week waiting to fill a dozen tanks.

If your entire region only needs a dozen tanks filled each week then why haven't you bought a compressor and get the word out that you do fills 1 evening/ week and charge $20 a fill? (or whatever price the demand allows) Seems it would be worth the investment of my time and money for a small compressor and bank. I'd bet after doing that you'd even start looking to get more people in the area involved in the sport so you'd have more fills to do.
Stop crying gloom and doom!
Make some lemonade!