It would give more of a reason for dive clubs to pop up in areas that don't have active ones. Everyone pays dues to cover the initial purchase and a token amount for each fill to cover maint, service and training for a couple of the members.Otter:
Why do the LDS's take it????
- Thread starter DavidHickey
- Start date
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Gee, my LDS has never even mentioned my daughter, or my son, or my wife, or my daughter's best friend. I paid for five people to be certified and made the mistake of buying my wife and my BC's and regs elsewhere. I was never offered a discount nor was I offered any recommendations on what to buy.
Prior to our certifications I finally confronted him with the issue. I didn't feel comfortable going into a training situation with the level of animosity I felt. We continued but at this point has cost him complete sets of gear for at least two if not three people. And oh yea, I am also a gadget freak. I want and buy all the toys for all my vices... Very costly for him.
I too am a retail manager fighting for my share of the market with other brick & mortor stores plus the internet. I survive and flourish by providing superior service, knowledge and product lines not available elsewhere.
My LDS has a "private club" where discounts are listed and offered. I am not allowed access because of my "lack of support" and probably never will be. All he is doing is "forcing" me to look elsewhere by punishing me. He may win the battle but he will never win the war.
LDS... you know who I am. You make the effort to win me back. Don't expect me to be the one crawling...
Prior to our certifications I finally confronted him with the issue. I didn't feel comfortable going into a training situation with the level of animosity I felt. We continued but at this point has cost him complete sets of gear for at least two if not three people. And oh yea, I am also a gadget freak. I want and buy all the toys for all my vices... Very costly for him.
I too am a retail manager fighting for my share of the market with other brick & mortor stores plus the internet. I survive and flourish by providing superior service, knowledge and product lines not available elsewhere.
My LDS has a "private club" where discounts are listed and offered. I am not allowed access because of my "lack of support" and probably never will be. All he is doing is "forcing" me to look elsewhere by punishing me. He may win the battle but he will never win the war.
LDS... you know who I am. You make the effort to win me back. Don't expect me to be the one crawling...
mels_2:
That wasn't intended as advice but a snide snipe at Jonnyboy. Fell flat, I suppose. Peace,evad:
Neil
Kriterian:
I have been there, too. I lived on an island in Alaska with only two dive shops. One shop was complete insanity and the owner of the other shop would yell at customers and invite them to fight. Strange place!
The solution was simple. I moved and found a better place to shop. I am fortunate enough to be surrounded by dive shops. Most of them are not overly nice. I get asked questions like,"I see that you are looking at regs. Is it time for you to upgrade (to TUSA)?" or "We have an advanced open water class this weekend. You should join. You could learn many valuable skills." All of this before they even say Hello.
For the folks who have crappy dive shops in their area, I'm can empathize with you but don't stop looking. There may be a shop around that fits your personality and diving style. When you find a good match, enjoy the relationship. It will be beneficial to both you and the shop, but more for you. It's not gonna be the shiny shop with 4 of every color or size in stock either. Those shops have to sell a lot of crap to keep the doors open. Personal dealings come in small shops with friendly staff who call you by name and ask about your kids because they care about YOU, not because they care about your money.
I believe in supporting my LDS...that being said, I am fortunate that my LDS will come as close as they can to meet either LPs or ScubaToys price. It is not advertised as such, but as any good shopper, I do a little research, ask the manager how close he can come, and then usually by it from him. Do I pay a little more, usually, but not enough to make me hit the Internet sites. I realize this is not a norm, but I think for LDSs to survive it will become more normal as time goes on or they will be out of business.
lamont
Contributor
What I would do if I was running an LDS:
1. for a compressor, skip membrane systems and other expensive crap. keep it simple and bank EAN32. charge the going rate in the area. p-p blending for other mixes may be labor intensive and i'd look at continuous flow blending, but i'd need to carefully look at TCO on how that affected compressor maintenance, etc. i think i'd rather train my customers that if they want it fast, they should get air or EAN32.
2. never deal with manufacturers who try to push a lot of inventory on you that you can't move.
3. only stock items that move. keep the inventory low. ebay anything which doesn't move. skip gimmicky crap.
4. get online and compete with leisurepro directly.
5. cater to all kinds of divers. i'd start with making sure I took care of the DIR divers, but i wouldn't have a problem with selling bungee wings, split fins or AI computers. the AI computers are going to be high margin, which keeps me in business. for online websites, i'd have different virtual storefronts for DIR divers, other tech divers, cold water rec divers, and warm water vacation divers.
6. stock and resell popular smaller mfgr stuff like DSS backplates, FredT BPs, oxycheq O2 sensors, photon torpedo backup lights, etc. all stuff which moves and doesn't sit in inventory though.
7. stock a good supply of popular books. people who read more about diving probably spend more money on diving. you want those people in your store, even if you don't make a lot of money off the books...
8. research popular dive items on the net (scubaboard) and stock them. for example, with camera equipment, cater to the oly C-5xxx crowd, and the nikon DSLR crowd. skip most of the crap.
9. carry what people want. scubapro and apeks regs, DUI drysuits, etc.
10. stock and sell bulk and at slightly-above-cost equipment like boltsnaps, cave line, bungee, etc. price competitively with online places.
11. location is important, but rents need to be low. make sure your compressor is next to a green belt rather than a highway. make sure that you have walk-in traffic to move the split fins and snorkels to...
12. for pricing, everything should be priced at LP + shipping (+ sales tax). for discounts, begin by giving them the LP prices + sales tax (should be roughly equal to LP + shipping).
For everything above, the margins are squeezed. The only way you are going to make money is by selling volume. In order to sell volume, you're going to have to attract a lot of different customers, which means you'll need a lot of selection, but that will push up your inventory costs. Initially target different diving enthusiasts and stock what they want and cater to them really well. This includes DIR divers and tech divers, but also the guys who want to be streamlined and like air2s. Once you get good word of mouth and start attracting other divers, stock what they want to buy...
1. for a compressor, skip membrane systems and other expensive crap. keep it simple and bank EAN32. charge the going rate in the area. p-p blending for other mixes may be labor intensive and i'd look at continuous flow blending, but i'd need to carefully look at TCO on how that affected compressor maintenance, etc. i think i'd rather train my customers that if they want it fast, they should get air or EAN32.
2. never deal with manufacturers who try to push a lot of inventory on you that you can't move.
3. only stock items that move. keep the inventory low. ebay anything which doesn't move. skip gimmicky crap.
4. get online and compete with leisurepro directly.
5. cater to all kinds of divers. i'd start with making sure I took care of the DIR divers, but i wouldn't have a problem with selling bungee wings, split fins or AI computers. the AI computers are going to be high margin, which keeps me in business. for online websites, i'd have different virtual storefronts for DIR divers, other tech divers, cold water rec divers, and warm water vacation divers.
6. stock and resell popular smaller mfgr stuff like DSS backplates, FredT BPs, oxycheq O2 sensors, photon torpedo backup lights, etc. all stuff which moves and doesn't sit in inventory though.
7. stock a good supply of popular books. people who read more about diving probably spend more money on diving. you want those people in your store, even if you don't make a lot of money off the books...
8. research popular dive items on the net (scubaboard) and stock them. for example, with camera equipment, cater to the oly C-5xxx crowd, and the nikon DSLR crowd. skip most of the crap.
9. carry what people want. scubapro and apeks regs, DUI drysuits, etc.
10. stock and sell bulk and at slightly-above-cost equipment like boltsnaps, cave line, bungee, etc. price competitively with online places.
11. location is important, but rents need to be low. make sure your compressor is next to a green belt rather than a highway. make sure that you have walk-in traffic to move the split fins and snorkels to...
12. for pricing, everything should be priced at LP + shipping (+ sales tax). for discounts, begin by giving them the LP prices + sales tax (should be roughly equal to LP + shipping).
For everything above, the margins are squeezed. The only way you are going to make money is by selling volume. In order to sell volume, you're going to have to attract a lot of different customers, which means you'll need a lot of selection, but that will push up your inventory costs. Initially target different diving enthusiasts and stock what they want and cater to them really well. This includes DIR divers and tech divers, but also the guys who want to be streamlined and like air2s. Once you get good word of mouth and start attracting other divers, stock what they want to buy...
lamont, RE: your #1.... there's a shop in Ottawa that uses I believe a membrane system. They have an expensive yellow box that basically delivers "dial-a-nitrox."
They charge $5/tank for nitrox fills, and apparently make quite a killing off of it.
They charge $5/tank for nitrox fills, and apparently make quite a killing off of it.
lamont
Contributor
jonnythan:
the thing is that they're expensive to buy and expensive to repair. i'd look *very* hard at TCO for those things.
cool_hardware52
Contributor
lamont:
When is the grand opening?
Tobin
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