"If I thought about them, I would have to shop online at THEIR LDS, thus cutting mine out! 
"
Point being, Local Shops all over the country are affected by predatory online shops such as Leisure Pro. You said earlier that people could rely on charter compressors, yet much of the country has no such thing.
"According to the site, the shop is located at: 42 West 18th Street New York, NY"
I can list my physical address on my site too, doesn't mean I offer any retail product, airfills or other services at my place. LP apparently has a small showroom with 3 people at computers and limited inventory. Apparenlty most LDS shine compared to a walk in at the place. Isn't LP actully an offshoot from a long established camera mail order house? Not that that matters much, but I don't think it EVER was a local dive shop offering the typical dive shop services.
"I did that because Diversdirect is in my area and when I bought my Black Diamond, I was quite upset to find out that my LDS had overcharged so much. Not really inconsistant, I shop around and buy wherever that good is cheapest. Sometimes, my LDS is cheaper, mostly not. I have bought stuff from Scubatoys, LP, Diversdirect (I walked in, they are 10 mins from me) and even a few LDS in the area."
Once again, when comparing actual prices, you used the LP price, not the Divers Direct price. I've looked at the Scubatoys and Diversdirect websites and frankly, most shops COULD match prices with them on most apple to apple comparisons without taking a huge chunk out of their margin.
"No one DESERVES my support. This is business. Did the icehouse deserve to be propped up when at home refrigerators were invented? How about candlemakers when the lightbulb was invented? The Mom and Pop grocery store when the supermarket came around? "
Yes, this is business, however, I'm trying to look at is as an industry as a whole. It is a specialized business, requiring specialized training and services, and for the industry to thrive nationwide, those services and training need to be available to areas outside dive destinations. Internet mail order houses can't possible meet those needs, they will have to be met locally and for now the LDS is really aobut the only route to meet those needs. If LDSs go the way of the Dodo bird, the industry will suffer.
"Instead of trying to scare us into paying higher prices, they should be working on changing an increasingly unsuccessful business model."
It would be nice to see LDS in general attempt to do what they've done at Scubatoys and Diversdirect. Not all would be able to do it, and even then, it would take time. The guy who owns Scubatoys didn't just wake up one day and decide open a scuba shop and to immediately open a huge 10,000 foot store with a supporting online catalog - it evolved to where it is now. Not sure about Diversdirect, but I suspect they probalby have thier roots as a typical LDS also.
I suspect we will see more and more local shops go this route, and eventually you'll have larger regional mini-chains and the smaller guys will not be around. This will be both good and bad. Good for those concerned with price, bad for those concerned with selection and specialization.
Local Shops do need to avoid copping an attitude, but for those who think the local shops are raking it in or overcharging, they ought to try to open thier own retail businesses some day and get a quick education in the realities of running a retail shop.
later,
Steve
"Point being, Local Shops all over the country are affected by predatory online shops such as Leisure Pro. You said earlier that people could rely on charter compressors, yet much of the country has no such thing.
"According to the site, the shop is located at: 42 West 18th Street New York, NY"
I can list my physical address on my site too, doesn't mean I offer any retail product, airfills or other services at my place. LP apparently has a small showroom with 3 people at computers and limited inventory. Apparenlty most LDS shine compared to a walk in at the place. Isn't LP actully an offshoot from a long established camera mail order house? Not that that matters much, but I don't think it EVER was a local dive shop offering the typical dive shop services.
"I did that because Diversdirect is in my area and when I bought my Black Diamond, I was quite upset to find out that my LDS had overcharged so much. Not really inconsistant, I shop around and buy wherever that good is cheapest. Sometimes, my LDS is cheaper, mostly not. I have bought stuff from Scubatoys, LP, Diversdirect (I walked in, they are 10 mins from me) and even a few LDS in the area."
Once again, when comparing actual prices, you used the LP price, not the Divers Direct price. I've looked at the Scubatoys and Diversdirect websites and frankly, most shops COULD match prices with them on most apple to apple comparisons without taking a huge chunk out of their margin.
"No one DESERVES my support. This is business. Did the icehouse deserve to be propped up when at home refrigerators were invented? How about candlemakers when the lightbulb was invented? The Mom and Pop grocery store when the supermarket came around? "
Yes, this is business, however, I'm trying to look at is as an industry as a whole. It is a specialized business, requiring specialized training and services, and for the industry to thrive nationwide, those services and training need to be available to areas outside dive destinations. Internet mail order houses can't possible meet those needs, they will have to be met locally and for now the LDS is really aobut the only route to meet those needs. If LDSs go the way of the Dodo bird, the industry will suffer.
"Instead of trying to scare us into paying higher prices, they should be working on changing an increasingly unsuccessful business model."
It would be nice to see LDS in general attempt to do what they've done at Scubatoys and Diversdirect. Not all would be able to do it, and even then, it would take time. The guy who owns Scubatoys didn't just wake up one day and decide open a scuba shop and to immediately open a huge 10,000 foot store with a supporting online catalog - it evolved to where it is now. Not sure about Diversdirect, but I suspect they probalby have thier roots as a typical LDS also.
I suspect we will see more and more local shops go this route, and eventually you'll have larger regional mini-chains and the smaller guys will not be around. This will be both good and bad. Good for those concerned with price, bad for those concerned with selection and specialization.
Local Shops do need to avoid copping an attitude, but for those who think the local shops are raking it in or overcharging, they ought to try to open thier own retail businesses some day and get a quick education in the realities of running a retail shop.
later,
Steve
