The LDS of the future

[beaverdivers]

you might be on an apple touch. It has problems with flash.

 

[Brendon]

you might be on an apple touch. It has problems with flash.

Usually when I run into flash it tells me to update my current flash player... I thought it was pretty funny considering your post. A voice from the LDS cemetery calling out to warn us all.... "Evolve or die!"

 

[Scubagolf]

"No sales tax." The current practice of no sales tax charged at the point of sale on interstate sales can be a significant competitive advantage for Internet sellers, but the sales tax advantage will very likely go away in another year as Amazon has agreed to work with the large brick & mortar stores to lobby congress for a workable federal enforcement mechanism requiring collection of state sales tax on Internet sales.

 

[Rascally Rabbit]

Online sellers are cheap because they have lower overheads (no showroom) and bulk purchase deals with manufacturers. Only large dive centres could match that, especially if they wish to stock from multiple manufacturers.

Wow what online sellers are you thinking of? Of the largest online sellers I can think of (Scuba.Com, LeisurePro, Scubatoys) Each is a brick and mortar dive shop that offer full services to it's customers. Each has warehouse capabilities beyond the average LDS. The added warehouse space has overhead costs that exceed that of the average LDS. They are getting a better price becuase they are selling more equipment. Each still has a normal compliment of instructors and supporting staff.

Agency costs ('main' agencies) decrease based on dive centre turn-over. Every effort is made by such agencies to create bigger, busier dive centres that offer quicker, cheaper courses to more people. An anathema to quality.

Again volume customers get price breaks this isn't a new business practice it takes place in nearly every industry and yet not every local merchant is crying for special treatment asking their customers to pay a little extra to keep them in business. Successful business' adapt and change their business model to stay that way.

Add to that the development on eLearning schemes - there is a rapidly diminishing necessity for dive operations, with increasingly more customer cash being diverted straight to the 'big guys' (agencies).

The smart op or instructor makes use of elearning to appeal to a wider audience and make better use of both the customer's and their own time.

 

[mathauck0814]

The smart op or instructor makes use of elearning to appeal to a wider audience and make better use of both the customer's and their own time.

I don't know that I entirely agree with this. I've done some training using Skype, but it was reasonably advanced training and it was well after I had a solid foundation to work with. I think for entry level training (e.g., Open Water) the face-to-face classroom is valuable - there's a lot that needs to be covered and frankly at OW, students have absolutely no idea how much they don't know.

eLearning is applicable when you have specific questions about the nuances of one decompression vs. another or other topics that come about from in-depth self study... I don't think it's appropriate for basic training.

Just my $0.02.

 

[bletso]

The successful LDS of the future will understand that no matter how many products he carries and what the prices are he only has two things to sell, quality and service.

From my experience with the american public price is king. Quality, especially not easily quatifiable quality is a no winner. Service?, Heck, just buy another.

Dale

 

[Rich Keller]

Sure.

All you need to do is get a suitable O₂ tank, say 300 cubic feet. I am not sure what that rental will set you back. You will also want to have a fill whip. If you get a basic analog one with an O₂ adaptor attachment, you can get one for under $400. A digital fill whip kit is around $800.

When you figure the cost of the O₂ tank, remember that you will only be able to use about half of the gas in it with just a fill whip at your disposal. That is because you can only fill your scuba tank up to the PSI left in the O₂ tank. You can either return the half full tank and get a new one, or you can get several of them and use them in a series, taking the most empty one first and then working your way up to the fullest. You can also purchase a Haskell booster so that you can use the whole thing. Of course, at about $3,000 for the portable model, you will want to be mixing a lot of nitrox to make that worth while.

Remember that you must top off the fill with Grade E air, so you will want to make sure that your compressor has that kind of ultra high quality filter. (Remember, fire departments do not need Grade E air for their purposes.)

So, you are right. A nitrox diver can get fills without needing a shop to do it.

You can use a scuba tank full of O2, a cross fill whip a nitrox tester and all components must be O2 safe. Cross fill whips are not that expensive and most people using nitrox already have a tester. Start with an empty nitrox tank and add enough O2 that when you fill the rest of the tank with air you end up with the O2% you wanted in you mix and then test it at the end to make sure you were correct. Since you are adding the O2 first a single scuba tank of O2 should be able to get you 4-6 tanks of nitrox depending on the size of the tanks being used. For example if you have six 3000psi tanks, one filled with O2, all the same size and you need 500psi of O2 per tank plus air to get you where you need to be you could then put 500psi into 5 other empty tanks, leaving 500psi in the tank you started with then fill all six the rest of the way with air. You need to be able to do the math and be able to test the mix when you are done but it is not that hard or expensive though I would not recommend this to someone without a lot of experience.

 

[Rich Keller]

Wow what online sellers are you thinking of? Of the largest online sellers I can think of (Scuba.Com, LeisurePro, Scubatoys) Each is a brick and mortar dive shop that offer full services to it's customers. Each has warehouse capabilities beyond the average LDS. The added warehouse space has overhead costs that exceed that of the average LDS. They are getting a better price becuase they are selling more equipment. Each still has a normal compliment of instructors and supporting staff.

Again volume customers get price breaks this isn't a new business practice it takes place in nearly every industry and yet not every local merchant is crying for special treatment asking their customers to pay a little extra to keep them in business. Successful business' adapt and change their business model to stay that way.

The smart op or instructor makes use of elearning to appeal to a wider audience and make better use of both the customer's and their own time.

While places like Leisure Pro do have brick and mortar dive shops they are not just selling to the people within driving distance of that shop they sell internationally. So if you break down their costs to a per customer amount that cost is far less then a LDS. Leisure Pros costs would have to be higher then most given their size and the fact that they are renting in midtown Manhattan, probably one of the highest cost per square foot locations in the country. In the case of Leisure Pro they do not a shop but a showroom. They do not give courses or fill tanks.

A buying group of LDSs might be able to get better pricing especially if they did so as partners in an internet shop that could also sell internationally. That would allow them to cost average their profit from the internet sales to their shops.

Elearning will work for many people but there will always be a large number of people who need to be there in a class in person until you get them into more advanced levels of instruction.

 

[Hoomi]

I fear the LDS of the future is going to be the Sport Chalet type chain of stores - sporting goods stores with a scuba department, rather than a dedicated scuba shop. The employees working the scuba department may or may not be divers, and turnover of employees is most likely going to be frequent. The inventory carried will be based on what some bean counters at the main office decide is worth carrying, and like many of the "Big Box" stores, may be seasonal. You may have a nice trip planned in December, only to find out that their scuba inventory is way down because "diving is a summer sport," according to the bean counter back at headquarters.

People can debate "business models" and whether the "Mom and Pop" style of locally owned and operated store can survive in today's economy, but much of it depends on us. I patronize my LDS because they offer excellent customer service, and always treat us like we're welcome in their store any time, whether we're there to buy a big ticket item, or just there to check out what's new. They know us, and they value our business. When we have a problem, they do what they can to help us with it. When we're on the road, I enjoy dropping by other places, and seeing what they have in stock. Mostly, I check out other stores on the road to see which ones are similar to my local shop in terms of customer relations, so that, if I need something while out of town, I have a good idea of which shop I want to patronize. Yeah, maybe I can save a few bucks, buying from a chain or the internet, and I'm not putting those places down. I have patronized them before, and will likely do so again, particularly when they have something that I can't find at my LDS, but I prefer to support the shop that is owned and operated by folks right here in Tucson. I am part of that business model, because I want to see them succeed.

 

[Rich Keller]

There was a sports store chain a couple of decades ago that tried that and got out of it very quickly for all the reasons that you mentioned. Given the more advanced knowledge of todays divers it is something that could work if they only carried the basics and shipped the more advanced items out of a central warehouse. It would be no different then a diver buying on line now.