A lot of dive shops aren't run very well as businesses. And it's pretty clear that making a living running a dive shop isn't easy -- I've laid the ill-temper and lack of enthusiasm I often find down to owners who are sick of spending 10 hours a day in their store (instead of diving) and worried about finances, but I don't know that for sure. But I shake my head about relatively simple things that shops don't do -- for example, I want to replace my hood. I bought it, on impulse, at my LDS a year ago and it turned out to fit very well. I've been in several times, and each time when I take tanks for fills, I ask the owner if he has my size, and he doesn't.
Wouldn't it seem reasonable for him, the next time he places an order with the manufacturer, to order a hood in my size? He could then call me and tell me he now has it, and I would go buy it. Instead, I'm going to buy one on line, because I can get it today, and probably cheaper.
Anyway, I think you have a great attitude and insight into how things in this sport can and will go, if you really want to optimize your gear. I think Peter and I are quite like you, in that we've been involved in other outdoor sports, and gone through the gear evolution. In diving, it went kind of like this: I bought relatively inexpensive gear recommended by our local shop when I got certified. That gear allowed me to get in the water a lot and meet local divers. I quickly learned that what I had was not at all optimal for my environment, so less than six months after I bought my stuff, I replaced most of it.
The next year consisted of adding things, mostly good lights.
Then I started tweaking the things I had -- I bought a different dry suit (utter disaster purchase!) and upgraded my computer. I sold the second dry suit and bought a third dry suit and upgraded my undergarment. I tried a heated vest. I upgraded my light, and picked up a spare, used, from an internet forum. I had a bunch of modifications made to the third dry suit. I bought an Argon bottle and argon reg.
I bought a set of doubles and a doubles wing (used) and a couple of deco bottles and deco regs. I upgraded my computer again. I bought a reel and a bunch of other stuff required for the kind of diving I had decided to do (caves).
And along the way, I replaced things that wore out -- seals, hoods (anything made of neoprene fatigues over time), dry suit inflator and dump valves, wing inflators (which can only be serviced a couple of times before they just plain leak . . .), bulbs and ballasts for lights.
And don't even get STARTED talking to people who have underwater cameras . . .
I spent the weekend at the Tacoma Dive Expo, walking around and looking at what the vendors were hawking. You can catch my eye with anything where the solution I have isn't perfect yet -- that includes dry suits, undergarments, and lights.
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. To set up a full featured site like many on line shops have I was quoted a price of over 2 grand - to start. A good designer can do one relatively quickly then it becomes a matter of maintaining it. Updating, inventory, item descriptions change etc. But you are correct the LDS that does not do this is at a disadvantage. I'm an independent instructor that operates out of his home and basement. But I have had a website since the day I became an instructor and it has paid for itself many times over what it cost me to set it up.
