Future of DiveShops?

[Eric Sedletzky]

What you guys are describing is an overall less physical society. It is evident in the increase general unhealthiness. I've never seen so many overweight young people diagnosed with diabetes and obesity.
I think as a society we are changing from a once actual physical activity minded to more virtual mental entertainment minded and any form of excercise and sport that requires any sort of physical effort is being abandoned. The financial and monetary reasons of course are there too but I think they are secondary.

 

[ktomlinson]

I'm not sure the PADI video is what we're looking for, I personally found it pretty cringeworthy. Getting more warm water vacation divers is good, but who spends more money on diving? I'd think it would be local divers and tech divers.

Edit:

And who doesn't like good food? Wtf.

 

[drrich2]

People often talk about using Discover Scuba to introduce people to diving. Yet I don't see Snuba mentioned as a way to do this, even though it seems it'd be easier to do. Any thoughts on this?

Richard.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

What about just snorkelling/freediving to start? It's a quick cheap way to see what's under the waves.
A lot of people discover the underwater world this way and it leads to scuba.

 

[MrCultureJammer]

What about just snorkelling/freediving to start? It's a quick cheap way to see what's under the waves.
A lot of people discover the underwater world this way and it leads to scuba.

Agreed. On two of my trips to Hawaii/Maui, I went out on a dive boat, and I was the only diver: the rest were snorkelers. On the trip out, they talked amongst themselves. We all dropped in, we were all floating on the surface, I deflated my BC, and swam after the turtles and shot foto/video while they pointed and hit each other and watched.

On the way back in, I was assaulted by questions: How to learn? How much? Where have you dived before? What's it like?

I couldn't keep up with the questions! They were all quite interested after that.

 

[ktomlinson]

Because it was brought up, I searched for outdoor recreation participation rates and found a report by the Outdoor Foundation. The report shows that scuba diving has a relatively high first time participant rate compared to other activities. Of the people that reported scuba diving in 2012, 26% were first timers. That's why I think it's important to foster the idea of diving locally, wherever that may be, to hopefully create active vs vacation divers. The report only shows participation rates as a percent of the total respondents for years 2006-2012. During that time scuba diving was reported by 1% of the group. Anyone seen any data on scuba participation rates over a longer period of time?

http://www.outdoorfoundation.org/pdf/ResearchParticipation2013.pdf

 

[RJP]

The pitfall comes when potential customers start asking about the price tag to put themselves in the position of any one of those pictured divers.

You just need to upgrade your customers, that's all.

---------- Post added November 19th, 2014 at 10:35 PM ----------

Because it was brought up, I searched for outdoor recreation participation rates and found a report by the Outdoor Foundation. The report shows that scuba diving has a relatively high first time participant rate compared to other activities. Of the people that reported scuba diving in 2012, 26% were first timers. That's why I think it's important to foster the idea of diving locally, wherever that may be, to hopefully create active vs vacation divers. The report only shows participation rates as a percent of the total respondents for years 2006-2012. During that time scuba diving was reported by 1% of the group. Anyone seen any data on scuba participation rates over a longer period of time?

http://www.outdoorfoundation.org/pdf/ResearchParticipation2013.pdf

It's hard to get at any good data there. Because c-cards don't expire... there's no way to know whether someone became an "ex-diver."

Also, there will always be a fair segment of people that simply want to cross diving off their bucket-list. That's ok. We should do a bit to keep poeple engaged, but at some point we to need to accept that the attrition rate will be always be higher than other things.

 

[drrich2]

In a glass half full over half empty perspective, there are some people who won't be sustained divers whatever you do, and if you sell them gear & services to get certified & knock it off their bucket list, then you make more money that if they had not done so.

It's fine to wish every diver were an active diver, but all things considered, make money off the active divers, and the one shot bucket list folks, too!

Richard.

 

[oly5050user]

Interesting thoughts, but I see the elite rich diver as not really helping the industry much. For training, they'll hire a private instructor, likely not affiliated with a LDS. For gear, since they do everything else online, they'd buy gear online, and bypass the lowly LDS and his dingy shop in a strip mall entirely. Plus, they like getting a deal and possibly working towards a small savings on a package deal. High end gear makers might see some return on this elite diver, by selling more titanium regs and high end computers, etc, but I doubt the LDS would see anything from him to make a difference.

Cannot agree with this..here in Westchester NY we have all types walk into the store. Anything from cops,firemen to mechanics and plumbers,and janitors. Some that walk in May be among the 1% of the country in wealth as well.
They are all important to us. True the "elite rich" walk in and spend more easily than some of the others. Had one this week that came in and purchased all high end gear for herself and daughter. Dropped just short of $10,000. That is not even with training, as she signed up for PADI eLearning through us but had arranged to do all course work at their home on Abaco in the Bahamas. MSRP on all of it...So we set them up with gear, took them into our onsite saltwater heated pool for a discover scuba session , made them feel good about their purchase , and off they went the next day to the Bahamas. Our "dingy shop" is on a major street full of all kinds of retail stores, so it is a great location. Luckily the owner owns the property , for to rent this space would run about $10,000 a month and another $1,500 or so for the electric bill. It's a stand alone building with its own parking lot and pool. They received the valet personal attention they wanted and did not once blink at the price. To succeed today the LDS must be fully stocked, present well and be all about service.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Cannot agree with this..here in Westchester NY we have all types walk into the store. Anything from cops,firemen to mechanics and plumbers,and janitors. Some that walk in May be among the 1% of the country in wealth as well.
They are all important to us. True the "elite rich" walk in and spend more easily than some of the others. Had one this week that came in and purchased all high end gear for herself and daughter. Dropped just short of $10,000. That is not even with training, as she signed up for PADI eLearning through us but had arranged to do all course work at their home on Abaco in the Bahamas. MSRP on all of it...So we set them up with gear, took them into our onsite saltwater heated pool for a discover scuba session , made them feel good about their purchase , and off they went the next day to the Bahamas. Our "dingy shop" is on a major street full of all kinds of retail stores, so it is a great location. Luckily the owner owns the property , for to rent this space would run about $10,000 a month and another $1,500 or so for the electric bill. It's a stand alone building with its own parking lot and pool. They received the valet personal attention they wanted and did not once blink at the price. To succeed today the LDS must be fully stocked, present well and be all about service.

And it must be in a location where expensive people live and like to be.
In my town (a little cow town) our LDS was owned by the same guy who also owned an LDS down in Marin County ($$$$). The store in Santa Rosa and the Marin County store had about the same volume of customers but the Marin Co. store did twice the actual dollars in sales.