I always enjoy a good LDS thread, and this is one of the better ones we've had, for sure! Here's my backstory, which I think is relevant to my thoughts on the matter.
In 2006 I moved to a remote island in Alaska. No dive shop for 1000 miles. We bought gear online or in shops while we were travelling, and sent it out for service. We had a local independent instructor who worked for UAF Sea Grant, a fire department with a compressor, and a dozen or so active local divers. In 2007 we lost access to the fire department compressor and one of the members bought a MaxAir 35 and started taking care of our air fills for us. It didn't take long filling 30+ tanks with that little compressor to realize it was inadequate, so we formed a proper club, fundraised, and bought a much larger compressor. Dues were $100 per year, which got you access to all the fills and loaner tanks you want. The club is still active, financially secure, has paid to train another instructor, and is currently buying a second compressor and loaner gear. They train some quality local divers!
This is on a small island with a population of 4000 people, and every conceivable challenge you can think of. If it can be done there, it can be done anywhere.
Fast forward to 2012. I moved to Alaska's largest city and away from the dive club. I no longer had the ability to do my own gas fills and there aren't abundant shore diving options here. I needed a dive shop to provide fills and to offer local diving opportunities. At the time of the move, I had multiple sets of dive gear and training above what the shop could offer. Despite making no major purchases, as a weekly customer I spent over $10k at this shop in two years.
What I received in exchange:
- Inconvenience. Tank fills took two, 45 minute trips.
- Consistent poor customer service, best described as surly and lazy.
- Steady stream of lies, half-truths and misinformation.
- Verbal abuse for purchasing gear online, that was better quality than what the shop was selling. Ironically, the shop now sells some of that same gear.
- Regular short fills on cylinders, charged as if they were filled to rated pressure. This cost me $300-500 per year.
- Poor turnaround time on equipment service. Faster, less expensive, more convenient and better quality when I started sending it out.
- Dive boat trips catered to new divers at the expense of experienced divers. Literally.
- Pressure to be a "loyal" customer of this dive shop and this dive shop only.
- Poor selection of dive sites. Shop actively discouraged divers from diving anywhere other than 1 shore diving site and off their boat.
- Exposure to the owner's poor business skills and messy personal relationships.
- Obvious focus on vacation and tourist divers over local divers.
What I needed was gas fills and diving opportunities, but the LDS made obtaining both of those miserable. It was further compounded by my personal situation; it's quite a shock to have your dive expenses increase by more than 30 fold. When I complained, I was labeled as "cheap" and a "bad customer", when the reality was I comparatively wasn't getting a good value for my money.
That relationship went to crap in a hurry and I was banned from the shop/boat and lost the majority of the "friends" and dive buddies I made since the move. I considered starting a new dive club, but ultimately decided that I was long-term invested enough in scuba at this point that it just made sense to become 100% independent of clubs or shops.
In 2014 I bought a compressor and dive boat and started identifying other local diving options. No surprise (we're surrounded by over 150,000 square miles of accessible coastline), I found plenty. Made new friends and dive buddies, and upgraded to a larger boat in 2015, and again in 2016. With all of the available options at this point, I have enough local diving to fill several lifetimes.
So yes, I would echo some of the comments in this thread than being a "shop-independent" diver is a beautiful thing. I dive more often, at a wider variety of dive sites than I ever did when I relied solely on the local dive shop. I have zero stress or outside pressures related to diving. I don't worry if my local dive shop is going to shut its doors; I know I'll keep on diving regardless. If enough of my dive buddies end up needing gas fills to continue diving, we'll figure out a solution.
As an aside, in 2015 or so I built a relationship with the other local dive shop. It wasn't so much for myself, as for my dive buddies who were looking for alternatives. The owner and I had an understanding from the beginning that there wouldn't be a financial relationship, as I was self-sustaining at this point. In exchange for supporting my buddies the best she could, I helped develop her local diving knowledge and experience and took her on some pretty awesome local dive trips. I helped with some simple fill-station upgrades that made it easier and less costly to produce the nitrox fills my dive buddies needed. Unfortunately, being in close proximity to another local dive shop just exposed me to 90% of the same problems as the first, with some new twists that were unacceptable.
We're dealing with systemic problems with many local dive shops that go far beyond the "internet sales" gremlin. These problems are compounded in areas without competition or readily available, easily accessible local diving. In these shops, the farther up the pyramid you get, the worse the experience becomes.
The biggest thing killing the dive shop is the dive shop itself.
