jamiei once bubbled...
hey, look at Walmart... do you shop there? Think of what they've done to their industry? Made tons of money and saved people a lot too... while putting countless small businesses out. If I pay $50 for a OW manual (PADI makes a little money) and I pay $250 for OW class time... maybe 20 hrs total and with 5 other people (you and padi make a little more money) and then pay $250 for open water dives... 10 hours including 100 mile round trip and with 5 other people (you and padi make a little more money). Thats $2,750 we've paid out for 30 hours of your time and PADI's resources. Thats almost $92/hour. Even if you split it 75/25 with PADI, you're getting $23/hour. Thats with only 5 people... what if you had 10 people? I realize you have overhead, but if you're not making decent money from certifications... PADI is screwing you... not us. If we can get equipment cheaper, most of us will be glad to spend more on trips/advanced certifications/etc. Not everyone that dives has plenty of money to spend on it. Businesses make money, not by ripping off the few customers they have, they make money by selling a lot of products/services. Walmart is a perfect example... they sell things cheaper (or used to), but make more money because so many more people buy from them. This is why all the online scuba stores can sell things so cheap.... they sell a higher volume and so could a LDS if they (and manufacturers/cert. agencies) changed their policies. Maybe an LDS shouldn't be selling equipment? Maybe there should be scuba superstores around. And they would offer the same knowledge, becaue YOU would be working there. If the sport didn't have so many people that had so much money to throw around, things would already be different I believe. It's different from walmart in that the majority of the population put walmart where it is... the majority of the people that dive put dive shops where they're at charging 100% markups because they can afford to pay it. Dive shops will not see any lasting growth because they aren't willing to meet the needs of the diver thats on a tighter budget.
Also, don't get me wrong... i feel for the LDS owner... its a bad spot to be in, but thats where change has to take place and the LDS has to speak for the divers because the manufacturers will only listen to you. Things will only change for YOU and US if you make them. I personally think that the cert. agencies should only get 10% of the costs of cert. plus card fees, etc. Another thing... if cert agencies take so much of the money... why won't any LDS tell you how much? Too many secrets...