The future of LDSs? (in America anyway)

[MikeFerrara]

There is a store near me that has been around for 40+ years. They have always sold general hardware, marine supplies and SCUBA equiptment and have always had the best prices around on equiptment. The small shops need to diversify into other sports and even totally unrelated areas to remain competitive. I myself was part owner in a hardware and sporting goods store in the 60,s and 70,s and sold SCUBA equiptment and air fills. We referred those looking for training to the YMCA. I would also like to see the training agencies seperated from the shops.

Most scuba equipment manufacturers require a store to be a full service dive shop in order to get a dealership in the first place. You must sell breathing gas and provide training. In some cases they also require that your primary business be scuba. If you're interested in being a retail member of a training agency like PADI they have their own list of requirements. Neither the manufacturers or the agencies want hardware stores competing with real dive shops.

Not that there aren't combination stores around...the closest shop to me is a dive shop and they run a video business. The store that was in town before I had mine was also a camera shop. In the first case I know for a fact that there have been many years when it was the video business that carried them. In the second he closed the store to do the camera thing on ebay.

 

[captain]

There is an old saying "Everything old is new again". Before dive shop came on the scene scuba was sold by Sears, Abicrombie & Fitch and local sporting good stores around the country. If the dive shops fail because they won't change something will come in to fill the void.

 

[blueeyes_austin]

To survive the LDS will have to charge more for air, charge for pool time, charge for information, and charge more for classes. They will have to abandon equipment margins as rent payers because customers won't tolerate the price difference with the internet.
As an interim measure we'll see more "reimbursible" services. That is, trying out a BC in the pool will cost you $20, but that comes off the price if you buy.
Rick

I think there is an empirical question here. It is self-evident that there is SOME benefit to being able to purchase and take home immediately...the question really is what is the margin a customer is willing to pay for LDS service. I think Scuba Toys has a good handle on this...they're not stuck on MSRP, they're willing to make reasonable deals, and by all accounts they seem to have a successful business model.