There are cracks in the armor Sean.....
Dive Rite rebuild kits can be bought on the net now. That's new within the last year. Oh, its an authorized dealer selling 'em too.
Abyss and Apollo, along with a couple of others, have declared they believe in open, free markets. A large number? Not really. Not now, anyway. But its better than it was.
There are other signs that there is significant unrest in the ranks out there. The volume has gone up considerably (the yelling, that is) by the LDSs and the manufacturers about the "evil" of the internet retailer. At the same time, Johnson Outdoors sales were down 10% Y-O-Y last year... and their profit margin shrank THIRTY percent. Some shops are closing, and many are carping louder and louder about the price competition.
Are they really upset about the internet retailers? Well, why? They aren't going to go away. So where else can they direct their anger? Where is it REALLY simmering? Hmmmm... maybe in a different direction.
Change takes time Sean. Violent revolution does happen, but its, well, violent. There are other ways. Oh sure, fomenting a revolution is good when things are being done that you think are wrong, but not all revolution happens overnight.
I am guardedly optimistic, to be honest. There are shops showing up - and a few cloning one another - selling gas at realistic prices. $0.06/cf for Nitrox is a fair price. Its profitable, but not a "gouge" - and its not just a Cave Country shop doing it now - there are at least two more in Florida that I know of.
Two years ago there were none.
Progress is being made..... and, as time goes on, more will be. Eventually critical mass will be reached and the game will end.
My prediction for "the cataclysm" comes in the form of a group of dive shops who are tired of being squeezed by both sides. A few dozen (30ish) form a buying coop, and start shopping vendors. There's enough money there between them that somebody rolls over - or, if they refuse, the shops simply pick on one of the manufacturers that's on the outs a bit and buys them out. End of problem.
Once it happens, just once, the game's over. Those shops will have such a massive competitive advantage that the rest will fall over themselves to join the coop. The collapse of the current structure, once the dam has been breached, will take place very, very rapidly.
SP and a few others are running around sticking fingers in the dike. The problem though is that the dike is being undermined from both top and bottom, the cracks are spreading, and SP is running out of fingers.....
