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Yes it will cause tough times and big changes on how scuba business is conducted.
The times of a inexpensive ow course as a loss leader for gear sales may/should possibly end. The past model of doing business for LDS cannot survive with so many gear sales going to internet retailers.This is how people shop today.On their computers.
Perhaps the future LDS should concentrate on training and forget about gear sales completely! Sort of like when Walmart gets into a neighborhood and all small retailers go out of business. Only thing is a student cannot develop inwater skills on a computer.
Charge a much higher fee for training.The cost of training has been too low now for a long time.Should be in the range of $1,000.-$1,500 for a ow class.That is without the 4 required training dives.Think about it,back when I took a class I was making $85. a week and the course was $50. Now a blue collar tradesman,lets say a person who works for Verizon,as I was, as a installer/repairman, makes up to $1,500 to $2,000. a week with overtime..thats 20 times + more than what they made when I was certified.Should not the course have gone up also because of inflation alone?
Just using inflation as a guide the $50. course of the 60's should now be a minimum of $1,000.Not even adding in any periodic increases due to cost of doing business.
Even this way has it faults.
It will cause less people than ever taking a scuba course which will lead to less gear sales for the internet dealer. Less gear being sold/manufactured means the price of the gear will have to increase due to lower volume. Diving will cease to be an activity that it is today. Perhaps its getting close to a time I should learn to play tennis?
You are right about competition.But charging a low ball price does not pay the electric bill.LDS I am at now currently charges up to $600. for a private 1 to 1 class and $500. for 2 students.That is acad/pool only. Seems to work as I have continual clients to work with. Have a class of 2 tonight-Saturday and Sunday. Another 2 private course students on Thursday morning.Funny thing about dealing with this type of student is very often they purchase full gear kits vs the standard group class of 4 students that pays $269. for a course and purchases nothing more than mask/fins/snorkel,many times showing up with borrowed personal gear so no gear sales at all..so I can see why a facility would rather deal with a smaller client base that spends more $$ than a large one that spends little.Why don't you go ahead and start charging those prices for training?
There is a new thing settling into scuba retail - COMPETITION. In stead of jacking up prices to ridiculous levels, it may be time to look for efficiencies rather than schemes and scams.
As a consumer, I like the overall direction things seem to be taking. Time for survival of the fittest.
You are right about competition.But charging a low ball price does not pay the electric bill.LDS I am at now currently charges up to $600. for a private 1 to 1 class and $500. for 2 students.That is acad/pool only. Seems to work as I have continual clients to work with. Have a class of 2 tonight-Saturday and Sunday. Another 2 private course students on Thursday morning.Funny thing about dealing with this type of student is very often they purchase full gear kits vs the standard group class of 4 students that pays $269. for a course and purchases nothing more than mask/fins/snorkel,many times showing up with borrowed personal gear so no gear sales at all..so I can see why a facility would rather deal with a smaller client base that spends more $$ than a large one that spends little.
As a consumer initally online sales may seem a good thing,more choice! But for the industry there will be less choice on where to get training as many LDS will close shop.So less LDS around to market diving,less consumers diving, smaller market for gear sales.Eventually be a much smaller market than what it is now.Smaller market=less gear manufactured=higher cost of existing gear.