Independents and LDS

Does anyone deal with or Instruct for a Sports Chalet ? Here is a recent encounter I had at their shop. I am an Independent Instructor, I recently moved to a new area so I had to leave my old LDS and seek a new home for all my students gear rental, and a place to conduct an orientation to the gear they must purchase or have for prior to our fist pool session. At my previous LDS the MGR. gave my students discounts on any gear purchased, and even greater discounts on larger purchases. As for me I got free air, and 40% off in the entire store, and Very good rental package prices. Ok So here I am in S.C. first I was told yes they offer package deals to independents, I brought in 2 students they very next night, I went over all they gear, pro’s con’s ect. ect. They purchased $600.00 of gear that evening. Two days later I get a call from Dept. Head, he stated his staff was miss informed and that were not able to cater to my needs. He said in the summer months he could not provide gear due to the large influx of students, But if I wanted to work something out in the winter months he would be willing to meet and work out a deal. BTW no discounts for my students only S.C students. I explained to him that I need a shop I can work with all year round not 4 months out of the year. So bottom line, I take all my students 45 min. away to another LDS that I know to be business friendly. I also now instruct my students not to frequent S.C due to their higher than thou corporate attitude. Oh yea I forgot to mention the DH asked me if I had thought about working for S.C
Now that I have vented, do you feel the shop made a mistake or should have at least offered something? To me it’s totally bad business when you are turning away future divers, they are the ones looking to buy gear afterwards and looking take continuing education courses. Oh well thanks for listing. For you S.C people I am no longer in San Diego, so I am not talking about your shop.
:doctor:

I am sure they will post my PIC on the employee board to look out for.

Jeff,
Sent you a PM. I hope to save you from beating your head against a wall that will NEVER give.

Neil

You do mention that they provide discounts to their own students. It seems the main criteria you seek with your relationship with an LDS is what can they do for you. It's not convienience- you are willing to drive 45 minutes to avoid the place. It is probably short sighted on their part to not work with you but all in all you're no saint either.

yknot once bubbled...
It seems the main criteria you seek with your relationship with an LDS is what can they do for you.

Click to expand...

Yknot,

What other criteria should there be? It's a 2 way street. Jeff BROUGHT them customers. He didn't need to. That's worth $$. The children at Sport Chalet misled him and he's ticked off, so he's taking his business elsewhere. Whether this is cutting off his nose to spite his face is another story, as Sport Chalet prices are hard to beat ordinarily.

He was looking for a business deal. If he wants warm and fuzzy he can get a dog.

Neil

I've never been in a S.C., guess we dont have em' near me in florida. As a self employed buisness owner in retail, I know in the long run it would have paid off for that shop to offer him something in return for bringing in buisness. You don't just look at the 2 or 3 new clients that now have a bad taste in their mouths for that shop, you look at the potential that shop is losing over the next few years. But thats a large chain, I prefer to do buisness with privatley owned LDS, they WANT it! And like my store there willing to do what it takes to get and keep it coming back.

I guess I have grown tired of the greed that has become so prevalent in a lot of the scuba industry. I am of the mind set that Scuba is a great sport that everyone should experience at least once in their life time. My motivation to teach is not for big profit, it is the enjoyment I get taking a land bound mammal and watching them transverse into a bottom dweller. All in all I only wanted to locate a shop near me that was friendly and helpful, and understood the potential customers I could generate for them. I do not care about sales commissions, I only want to give the students honest opinions about the various gear and let them decide. The store had to do nothing except ring up any gear the students bought. As for me I indeed feel they should in exchange for free advertisement I am giving and bussing my students to them they should at a minimum show a little appreciation to the little guy. I just feel they saw me as a territorial threat no matter how small I am. So in conclusion I feel its corporate greed driving some shops in the ground loosing site of the forest due to the trees.

I’m 23 days later on this tread, thus wondering if anyone would be reading this.

There’s a total misconception of where sport chalet stand in defense of their economic foundation. Ideally, they are driving away customers, but in contrast, they’re racking in money after eliminating a potential threat which does not appear to exist.

I would like to make some points clear about sport chalet:
1) Sport Chalet is NOT and will not be a Scuba store – They have idiots behind counters reading magazines and not speaking a word nor helping consumers.
2) Sport Chalet is a super market – You grab a cart, walk down isles and isles of tragically useless mountain climbing gears to get to scuba sections, grab what you want (no deals) and walk over to check out counter.
3) Sport Chalet will have swimmers selling Scuba Gear – last time I walked in there to buy a snorkel, a punk told me that the $20 snorkel that I wanted to buy was not pressurized to withstand the recreation of scuba diving.

Do people really want to shop in some grocery store for their scuba gear? What may be their intent in trying to save money on life support? Do their life and the life of their loved ones cost only $199 on sale?

I personally will never shop at Sport Chalet; with a little prayer, no one will either.

People literally would have to be crazy to buy anything from sport chalet…just go to Costco; you get better deals at Costco for identical items...and return policy isn't so assed up.

mistake #1 talking with the kids in the store, should have asked for the head manager before any dealing started...

mistake #2 thinking big chain store would want to do any business with a little guy...

their loss, why would they want an experienced instructor associated with them......DUH!!