1. How you feel about dive shops being affiliated with a specific agency? Would you prefer generic stores? Do you feel more comfortable or more alienated by agency branding?
I don't pay much attention to it, honestly; the only exception being that a shop that offers GUE training is likely to have the types of items I'm likely to be looking for.
2. How do you feel about education? Are the time frames for classes too long, too short or just right? Do you like having lots of specialties? Or, would you prefer less specialty education? Did seeing all the educational opportunities excite you or almost turn you off to diving?
Having been both a student and a professional participating in training, I'm very ambivalent about this. I think many classes are simply too short in total duration to allow students to integrate learning effectively. The shop Peter teaches for has nine hours of pool time . . . but it's spread out over three weeks, and two of the sessions are AFTER the first OW dives, so students can bring their experiences in OW back to the pool and work on what they found difficult. I know of other shops with the same, or nearly the same total pool time, but it's done over two days; people don't have time for reflection and integration.
I think the program our LDS runs would turn out people very decently prepared to do dives within OW limits in good conditions (warm water, good viz), but I think most people do not come out of the program as very solid cold water divers, no matter how hard we try. It just takes more time than four immersions to master heavy exposure protection, heavy weight, and low visibility. That makes it good that there are a lot of "specialty" classes, which require shorter time commitments and aren't terribly expensive as individual courses -- that makes it easy to encourage people to do more training, whereas it would be more difficult, I think, to try to sell a several week combined commitment at a thousand dollars or more of cost, all at once.
What matters more than length is the quality of the instruction. Teaching to minimums is not going to create a good diver, no matter how long the class is.
And unlike other posters, I think having classes associated with dive shops that sell gear is just fine, so long as the dive shop doesn't sell people their most profitable equipment, without regard to the students' needs. I do get furious, seeing the number of people who come to class in the most expensive fins and the crazy high mark-up snorkels, when a good many of them are never going to pursue this sport with any seriousness. And don't get me started on split fins on OW students . . .
But training creates divers, and divers need gear; so long as the shop doesn't have Byzantine rules about instructors only diving equipment the shop sells, and so long as the shop sells people gear that matches their needs, I see a pleasant symbiosis possible that benefits everyone.
3. Do you feel comfortable or a little nervous walking into a new shop? Why or why not? Are you happy or unhappy with your local shop? Do you go because you enjoy it or because they are "the only game in town" or have some form of emotional blackmail in place keeping you loyal out of fear?
I like going into dive shops. Some are pleasant and welcoming, and a sad number are kind of shabby, poorly kept and poorly lighted places that make neither diving or owning dive equipment seem appealing. But they all have that lovely neoprene smell . . . and I've never been treated badly walking into a new shop. I've been treated with indifference, though.
4. What improvements can be made to the inventory? Too many choices? Too little choices? Too much fluff and not enough of what you need? Or, are you happy with the inventory? What products would you like to see taken off the shelves? What would you like to see carried in the store?
I'd love to see my local dive shop carry the stuff I routinely buy . . . and they do carry some of it. Consumables like dry suit zipper lube and Seal Saver, and repair stuff like Aquaseal and Cotol. Bolt snaps -- my old LDS, which folded, had an extensive selection of SS boltsnaps and double-enders in various sizes. Hoses in a wide variety of lengths (and with no hassles attached!). Although it's undoubtedly true that the biggest profit for the shop is made in selling the new diver his first complete gear setup, the continuing diver represents a market that will only make sales if the customer is IN the shop -- and we come in to get the stuff we routinely use. Once we're in the shop, that's the chance to show us the newest backup lights (I'm a sucker for lights) or a dry suit heater setup, or the newest undergarment . . . continuing divers replace and upgrade, but all too often, they don't do it through their LDS, because they have no reason to go there.
5. Do you think a dive shop should just sell scuba equipment? Or, would you like to see something else in the store as well? If so, what?
I've been in Sports Chalet. My brain has a bad reaction to a sports department store; I find it hard to believe that the scuba section of such a store will be a high quality place.
6. What kind of employee do you most want in the store? What kind of employee makes you want to go elsewhere?
Friendly is what I'd like to see. One of the saddest things to me is that so many dive shops are manned by the owner. Owners have headaches, and those headaches are all too often visible and audible when you're in the shop. I really don't like dealing with bitter people.
7. Do you like going into the dive shop when the owner is there or do you try to only go when other employees are working?
See above.
8. What do you consider timely service on equipment? Do you think service prices are fair or a rip-off?
A week is fine. Two weeks is annoying, and anything longer than that and I'm finding someplace else for service. Prices are absurd. I have serviced regulators, and it doesn't take that long, and it isn't rocket science. Yes, the equipment and the tools cost money, but $125 to service a regulator is a ripoff. Why do you think I learned to do my own?
9. What about gas fills? Do you feel hassled when you need an air fill, nitrox fill, or trimix fill? Or, is this normally an enjoyable part of going diving? What do you like or don't like about getting fills? Does your shop charge by the fill or by the cubic foot? Would you rather pay by the fill or cubic foot? Do they fill the gases that you need or do you end up going elsewhere for different fills?
Our LDS (the one we teach for) fills Nitrox. Once a week, if there are enough requests for it for the owner to do it. (And as you can imagine, there aren't that many requests.) We don't get our fills there.
I used to have a yearly deal on fills -- one price, paid once a year, and all the Nitrox I could use was covered. It brought my per-fill cost down to about $4 or $5, and got the owner a big cash influx at a time of year when cash was scarce. That shop is gone (and I don't think because of that plan, because I frequently asked the owner how it worked for him, and he said far more people bought it than used the amount of gas they paid for). I now pay by the cubic foot, which is extremely nice. Paying a full fill price for a topoff on a tank you used 500 psi out of -- or worse, paying TWO fill prices for a topoff on a set of doubles -- is really unpalatable.
10. Anything else? This is a great opportunity to put it all out there.
Dive shops can evolve, or they can die. Owners who put energy and excitement into selling diving, selling gear, making customers good deals and providing good service will prosper. I think ScubaToys and Dive Right in Scuba are good examples of this. Dive shop owners who sit in their offices and grumble and grouse about how hard things are and how they can't make a living drive people right out of their stores. In a world where I can buy my goods from Mike at DRIS almost as easily as I can buy them five minutes from my house, the local shop simply can't depend on convenience as the sales gimmick any more. A good shop has to have good energy -- that means cheerful personnel, good lighting (I think a lot of owners don't realize how much mood is changed by a poorly lit, inadequately cleaned, or poorly painted/floored store), artfully displayed goods, and an overall upbeat "feel", which is hard thing to describe or measure, but I think is VERY obvious to the customer who walks through the door.