I haven't read all of this thread. I have just one comment - use your local shop or lose it. Then don't winge because you can't get a tank filled for local diving.
This problem is not specific to diving, but to all specialised retail industries. It's easy to make money by choosing a few high-volume items and just selling those. You don't need to hold much stock as you can always get more in quickly, & you don't need to worry about giving after-sales service as most of your customers will be too far away to bother you. They'll go to friends or their LDS (if it still exists). If that doesn't work you can refer them to the manufacturer or importer.
The fact is that much scuba gear is badly made these days. I stopped selling one well-known brand of dive computer when I had an out-of-the-box failure rate of 50%. I have experienced several brands of regulator which are incorrectly adjusted in the first stage, so the inter-stage pressure is wrong. I have seen BCs that leak the first time they're put in the water. I often see hoses that fail within the first month.
Usually it's just a question of adjustment, though in the case of a regulator that isn't a 5 minute job. Sometimes, as with the computers, the only remedy is to return them to the manufacturer.
I can service everything I sell, so I can help my customers. What would they do if they'd bought mail-order? Long ago I started refusing to help people with gear that wasn't bought at my store, or at least at another reputable store. I make no apologies for that, and many smaller retailers now do the same. Why should we incur the costs of a workshop with all the associated tools, of training courses and of providing time to do these things, when I have had no profit from the original sale and the person who sold the goods was able to offer a low price because he had few stocking costs and no workshop costs?
I only have a small shop, yet I hold all the time over US$100k's worth of gear. How do you think that's financed? You go and get a loan for $100k and see what it costs you.
Along with many others my business is now struggling. That has nothing to do with the quality I provide as that has always been regarded as high, but with people who buy all their dive gear (or at least the expensive items) on-line. When I go out of business, and thousands have already gone that way, not only will you not be able to buy new gear locally, but you won't be able to get any help with it, you won't be able to get it serviced, and you won't be able to get a tank filled.
I'm thinking here more of my operation in Britain than my resort operation here in Belize. Here we can't come near to competing on price because of severe import taxes and restrictions, from a government that seems intent on strangling the tourist industry.
This problem is not specific to diving, but to all specialised retail industries. It's easy to make money by choosing a few high-volume items and just selling those. You don't need to hold much stock as you can always get more in quickly, & you don't need to worry about giving after-sales service as most of your customers will be too far away to bother you. They'll go to friends or their LDS (if it still exists). If that doesn't work you can refer them to the manufacturer or importer.
The fact is that much scuba gear is badly made these days. I stopped selling one well-known brand of dive computer when I had an out-of-the-box failure rate of 50%. I have experienced several brands of regulator which are incorrectly adjusted in the first stage, so the inter-stage pressure is wrong. I have seen BCs that leak the first time they're put in the water. I often see hoses that fail within the first month.
Usually it's just a question of adjustment, though in the case of a regulator that isn't a 5 minute job. Sometimes, as with the computers, the only remedy is to return them to the manufacturer.
I can service everything I sell, so I can help my customers. What would they do if they'd bought mail-order? Long ago I started refusing to help people with gear that wasn't bought at my store, or at least at another reputable store. I make no apologies for that, and many smaller retailers now do the same. Why should we incur the costs of a workshop with all the associated tools, of training courses and of providing time to do these things, when I have had no profit from the original sale and the person who sold the goods was able to offer a low price because he had few stocking costs and no workshop costs?
I only have a small shop, yet I hold all the time over US$100k's worth of gear. How do you think that's financed? You go and get a loan for $100k and see what it costs you.
Along with many others my business is now struggling. That has nothing to do with the quality I provide as that has always been regarded as high, but with people who buy all their dive gear (or at least the expensive items) on-line. When I go out of business, and thousands have already gone that way, not only will you not be able to buy new gear locally, but you won't be able to get any help with it, you won't be able to get it serviced, and you won't be able to get a tank filled.
I'm thinking here more of my operation in Britain than my resort operation here in Belize. Here we can't come near to competing on price because of severe import taxes and restrictions, from a government that seems intent on strangling the tourist industry.
