The internet has changed, in a lot of fields, how business gets done. The dive industry is not special in that sense, but it does have some very unique issues. LP is the most extreme example of the issues facing our sport. It sort of natually ends up dividing people into two camps, and while there may still be a fair number of people on the sidelines today, just wait and everyone will be effected.
The two haves of this coin are:
1. I like the lowest cost, and I am willing to take some risk, as long as lowest cost is what I get. Forget all of the justification about "LDS which uses it monopoly position in the county to do whatever they wish with costumers and are generally happy to see LP being bashed. The issue is just cost. The bigger the difference, the more important it is.
2. The LDS trying to stay in business, attempting to compete against someone without the overhead, without the storefront costs and with tremendously bigger volume to cover expenses.
I don't know if any LDS getting rich on running a dive shop in most of the world. I would guess there are some really special locations that do really well, but that is not the norm. I believe most do it for love of the sport, first and making a living second. (with some exceptions).
The first major problem with LP versus the LDS is that, in many locations, if the LDS losses all of its sales, or sells at the LP price, they will no longer exist. The other option would be to greatly increase the cost of the other services they provide. And that decreases their market, at a time they need to increase it.
Some mfg have decided to fight this issue by only selling through the LDS, which is somewhat like sticking your head in the sand to avoid trouble. Other have decided to join the internet, but in as controlled a way as possible.
LP is taking free market advantage of the turmoil all this has caused and is making money. Those that buy from them get the lower price, at our sport will eventually pay a price for it.
Ever wonder how LP gets it stuff? There are a bunch of ways, but the following is a good example:
A LDS, who sees reduced sales from the internet, decides to buy a large amount of product to get a very low price. They then sell as much as they can at the low price and dump the excess to someone like LP. They are happy, because they increased their sales, the customer is happy, because they got a lower price, and everyone on the LP side is happy, because they also got lower prices. Unfortunely, all the other LDS, although they did not know it, lost a small amount of sales.
Over a long time, this situation sucks for the entire sport, but we have no easy answer, nothing that will make all sides happy, so expect this issue to just get worse as time passes.
I understand why people buy fro LP, but I, for one, will not.
The two haves of this coin are:
1. I like the lowest cost, and I am willing to take some risk, as long as lowest cost is what I get. Forget all of the justification about "LDS which uses it monopoly position in the county to do whatever they wish with costumers and are generally happy to see LP being bashed. The issue is just cost. The bigger the difference, the more important it is.
2. The LDS trying to stay in business, attempting to compete against someone without the overhead, without the storefront costs and with tremendously bigger volume to cover expenses.
I don't know if any LDS getting rich on running a dive shop in most of the world. I would guess there are some really special locations that do really well, but that is not the norm. I believe most do it for love of the sport, first and making a living second. (with some exceptions).
The first major problem with LP versus the LDS is that, in many locations, if the LDS losses all of its sales, or sells at the LP price, they will no longer exist. The other option would be to greatly increase the cost of the other services they provide. And that decreases their market, at a time they need to increase it.
Some mfg have decided to fight this issue by only selling through the LDS, which is somewhat like sticking your head in the sand to avoid trouble. Other have decided to join the internet, but in as controlled a way as possible.
LP is taking free market advantage of the turmoil all this has caused and is making money. Those that buy from them get the lower price, at our sport will eventually pay a price for it.
Ever wonder how LP gets it stuff? There are a bunch of ways, but the following is a good example:
A LDS, who sees reduced sales from the internet, decides to buy a large amount of product to get a very low price. They then sell as much as they can at the low price and dump the excess to someone like LP. They are happy, because they increased their sales, the customer is happy, because they got a lower price, and everyone on the LP side is happy, because they also got lower prices. Unfortunely, all the other LDS, although they did not know it, lost a small amount of sales.
Over a long time, this situation sucks for the entire sport, but we have no easy answer, nothing that will make all sides happy, so expect this issue to just get worse as time passes.
I understand why people buy fro LP, but I, for one, will not.
