The Great local dive shop vs. online debate

[DazedAndConfuzed]

awap once bubbled...
I believe they are a subsidiary

So how could they justify the big retail price difference between Europe and US? I understand if it was a importer/distributor, where they have to buy it at wholesale and take their cut. But for a part of the same company to charge different price purely for geographic reason, it doesn't make sense. Even if they keep their accounting and P&L seperate, the subsidiary gets the stuff at cost to mfg since marketing and advertising overhead, which is calculated into the wholesale cost, should not apply.

 

[redacted]

Lwang once bubbled...


So how could they justify the big retail price difference between Europe and US? .

At least as long as they can get away with price fixing and the internet doesn't take too big a bite out of their market. One difference between Scubapro USA and the European distributers seems to be the "parts for life" program. This appears to be a USA/Canadian program only. This is at least part of the reason why US dealers treat SP equipment from European dealers as grey market and refuse to honor warranty.

I also gleanned from this board the SP equipment in Canada (covered by the same SP USA distributer) is quite a bit cheaper than in the US. Someone claimed that cost was the same in Canadian dollars as US dollars making actual cost much cheaper. I guess that is done based on what the market will bare.

I'm not suggesting that this extra cost is all going in SP USA's pocket. If sure that, with the pricing constraints, the per sale profit to the LDS is quite high. But because most are quite small in volume, they arn't getting rich by any means.

Sure would be nice to see haw this industry would do in an open unrestrained market. In the meantime I'll do my major purchase where the price is right.

 

[ZoCrowes255]

I work at a diveshop so let me just clarify something first off: I can't blame people for buying online. If I was in their same position I might do the same thing.

Here is what I do have a problem with though. I am a clerk in the store and I also help with class (TA working on DM) and I worked very closely with this couple in the class. The wife was having a lot of trouble with mask clearing and I gave her a lot of help and in the process I got to know them well. They even took me out to dinner after class a few times and I greatly appreciated that. They also went with us on a trip to Florida to get their O/W done so I got to know them doing that too. Well, last week they came in just before closing and wanted advice on gear. I helped them find the right equipment, find the right sizes and showed them what I did and did not like about certain Regs and CPUs. I made them a nice package price too (It was Scubapro and Oceanic and I went more than 10% and I threw in some extras like lights and gloves) and they said they would be back on the weekend to pick it all up and pay. We close at 7:00 and I stayed at the shop with them until 8:15. I did not mind too much though. Well the weekend came and went and they never showed up. Yesterday they showed up with all of the gear I had helped them to pick out but it was completely unassembled. I assembled it and set it up for them and I did it with a smile on my face because they are customers and they deserve my respect. BUT inside I was fuming. They had kept me after closing ON MY OWN TIME so they could go give their money to someone else. I charged them a fair price on the gear setup ($25 a pop) but I was still really dissapointed.

On a side note I made a gear sale yesterday to a guy who was not even one of our students. He went through a YMCA class and the Y instructor has been coming to our shop for over 25+ years so he sends his guys our way. He bought a very nice package from us and we gave him a hell of a discount. We gave him a higher end reg for the price of the lower end one because we did not have the low end reg in stock it was just on display and we still knocked 10% off of that. He also wanted an Akona roller bag which we did not have in stock so we sold him a more expensive Oceanic one at below our cost. We try to take care of our customers and I treat every single one of them like a friend no matter who they buy their gear from but I greatly appreciate it when they buy from us.

Sorry about the rambling I just felt like getting that off my chest.

 

[chris_b]

Just wondering, and please don't take this the wrong way, I'm honestly curious about this...

How much money do you think they saved buying all that stuff at the cheapest online prices (less the $50 they paid to have things set up)?

Would you have felt better about it if they had paid you, say 10% of their savings for your time and expertise?

I can understand your feelings, and agree that was pretty crappy of them, but can also see the other side of it as I'm sure you can. It's too bad that there isn't some sort of middle ground...

Sorry to hear about your situation, glad you could come here to vent about it, though.

Chris

 

[Epinephelus]

These "customers" who think so little of your time do not own their own business, nor have they ever worked on commission.
Now you are in a position to make a decision. You can continue to be sweet and helpful, and they will continue to abuse you - indeed, they will take you for all they can, more and more until you finally get fed up and say something less than kind - and then they'll go somewhere else to find a new sucker and badmouth you for being mean.
Normally we get rewarded for being helpful and informative and kind, but occasionally you run into "takers" like these folks. The key is to not continue to feed them, for if you do they'll just stay at the trough.
For these folks, continue to be sweet, but change the way you deliver help - for them there is a "special price" - full retail, and for them there is a specialty class with the answer to their every question. Soon they should move on to your competition and try to suck freebies there instead of from you - but they won't be able to say you were mean to 'em. There's a slim chance they'll morph into real customers, but that's unlikely, and getting rid of 'em is what's best for you and your shop.
This is a hard lesson - especially when what you really want is to share your love of diving, your knowledge and your enthusiasm - for everyone to love diving and to go diving with your shop. But if you lose the shop you lose the vehicle to accomplish the goal, and sometimes you simply have to fire losing customers.
E. striatus

 

[Uncle Pug]

And I agree with you... that was lame. I appreciate your sharing... not from an LDS owner perspective but from the sales clerk who was *victimized* by these customers... well... ok, maybe victimized is too strong... but you were taken advantage of.

Another side of the story though is the sales clerk who was mad at me because I had taken up 30 minutes of his time talking about drysuits and then bought one from another LDS!

Actually I spent 30 minutes of my time listening to his problems with their drysuit manufacturer and a little miss-measurement he had made on some suits and how it was costing him out of his pocket and how they didn't have the suit I wanted and on and on...

 

[MNScuba]

Not much you can do about it, but one of my favorite LDS's has a sign in the changing room that reads:

This is not the changing room for "www.leisurepro.com"

Or something to that effect... If nothing else, it gets people to think about what they're doing. Granted, most won't care.

I agree with you though. I bought everthing from my LDS with the exception of a few odds and ends (knife, shears, etc). Yeah, I paid more but I get great deals and information when I go there. They respect me and I respect them. There's no price tag on that.

 

[wb416]

I buy several things online, but they are things that a LDS provides little "value-add" to me on. In other words, if I bought from them, I'd be giving them a part/model # and then my credit card... all the legwork and research was on my time & dime. HOWEVER, anytime I've sought and gotten input from a LDS about a product or sizing/trying something on, I buy from them... no question about it.

I consider it bad form to use the LDS as your "try it" and the web as your "buy it" bad form indeed. There's too much overhead in "brick-n-mortar" to take advantage of their inventory.

 

[nitroxbabe]

with ZoCrowes255. That is really crappy. I don't work in a dive shop, but I do own a retail operation. It pisses me off to no end when people come in here and waste my time, having me look at this and that for them, and then go to a big-box store and buy the item.

I've been screwed so many times on special orders that I make people put down a substantial deposit first. That way if they don't pick it up at least I have covered my shipping costs.

I agree also with Epinephelus: special pricing for them. I take care of my good customers who appreciate what I can offer: service. Those who like to come in & waste my time, they can pay full price. But yes, with a smile is the best way (hard as that can be sometimes!!!)

And no, I don't mind losing customers who are difficult. They are not "cost-effective". It's just good business. For the "takers", the whiners, the general pain-in-the-booty people, you're better off if they go elsewhere.

 

[MNScuba]

How often have we all taken a car for a test drive, haggled over price for hours, talk with the finance manager and then buy from another dealership because they gave us a better deal?

I'm not trying to justify what happened, but it's not just dive shops that deal with this daily.