West Marine Scuba Shops-Within-Stores - What to you think?

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johnmckenzie

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
Messages
103
Reaction score
17
Location
Kingston, WA
# of dives
500 - 999
"West Marine has quietly teamed up with Mares and SSI to test market a new scuba shop-within-a-shop concept. If successful, scuba shops will be be embedded into larger West Marine stores around the US...."

I think this West Marine move is a fascinating shift in the industry. I would like to hear how other think it will effect dive shops and in the industry in general.

You can see the full story for discussion at West Marine Testing Scuba Shops in Stores | ScubaGadget - Scuba News
 
I think it's a great idea. People who are visiting West Marine already have an interest in the water and may have a boat; showing them another way to use their boat, or enjoy the water, seems to make great marketing sense.
 
Oh Lawd...
It's going to cost $20.00 to get a short air fill from a high school kid texting his girlfriend about the party last night. Questions about gear will be answered with. I dunno... I just work here.

Everything that you want will be out of stock and everything that you don't want will be in stock and overpriced.
No thanks - I'll take my LDS.
 
Oh Lawd...
It's going to cost $20.00 to get a short air fill from a high school kid texting his girlfriend about the party last night. Questions about gear will be answered with. I dunno... I just work here.

Everything that you want will be out of stock and everything that you don't want will be in stock and overpriced.
No thanks - I'll take my LDS.

Isn't the definition of marine grade -> overpriced?

I purchased a tank checker years ago to insure a full fill from my LDS, I suspect it will work at West Marine just as well.
 
I have to be skeptical on this. West Marine’s model is high-price and (relatively) high-service. I don’t see an easy way for them to find overlapping expertise for the personnel required in the stores. It might work in Florida where a relatively high percentage of divers also have private boats compared to other areas. Should be interesting.
 
Oh Lawd...
It's going to cost $20.00 to get a short air fill from a high school kid texting his girlfriend about the party last night. Questions about gear will be answered with. I dunno... I just work here.

Everything that you want will be out of stock and everything that you don't want will be in stock and overpriced.
No thanks - I'll take my LDS.


I would like to hear from someone who has been to one of the two test stores (Secret Shopper) and can tell us what it is really like. WM says they are trying to have certified divers working in the in-store shops ("most of the time") and dive pros as department heads. That sounds like a staffing problem. I suspect that your scenario above would still happen sometimes when the cats away from the store..
 
Divers Direct tried this same thing with Gander Mountain. It ended up just as Water Boy 76 speculates.

Apples and Oranges. Gander Mountain is overpriced sporting goods in general with a small marine section, devoted mostly to fresh water boaters. Think well off red necks. They make more from selling guns and accessories.

West Marine tends to cater more to the blue water crowd, not lake boaters. Their locations are close to the ocean which is a big plus. They also have more marketing (catalogs, online tools and such) where the sporting goods stores have weekly flyers. I think he may be right about the price being high, but the bar for service at many LDS is set low, don't think that will be an issue.
 
I think if one looks at Sport Chalet one would perhaps see a similar model.
 
Looking forward to them bringing it down here. The West Marine here in Key Largo does have very good staff.
 

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