Leisurepro online

[tridacna]

I'd like to reverse this argument. I've been diving for the past ten years without an LDS. Not sure what one would do for me anyway.

I'm just not sure what they offer?

Air fills? For 99% of divers on the board, fills are obtained from the boat in the Caribbean or wherever else they dive. I get mine from a friend's compressor.

"Training" is suckerspeak for "sell them overpriced gear they'll never need". I used to work at a LDS that insisted that EVERY diver purchase a 3mm FULL wetsuit in order to complete the poolwork in the local 90F Y pool. Then hard sell them on Oceanic everything ASAP. The owner used to judge us on our sales efficiency - not how well we trained new divers.

Honesty? I've seen LDSs churn out new instructors from zero to ready in whatever the absolutely minimum period the agency would allow. It was amazing. I've seen owners fudge missing dives in diver's logbooks so they could start them on AOW/RESCUE/KACHING/KACHING.

I am not one bit concerned if bad stores fail. Improve the model. Become consumer friendly. Boycott companies that insist on MAP. Unless there is collective action from most consumers/stores, nothing is likely to change. The manufacturers will not care if their goods are sold in a LDS, LP or Walmart as long as their sales continue.

But wait, I forgot. The real reason that LDSs fail is LP. Silly me.

 

[mike_s]

As far as online sales, I work for a dive shop and I will be honest I buy from both but, here is an example:

Recent purchase AquaLung Legend 1st,2nd stage and octo: Dive shop price $899.00 minus my 25% discount $674.25 + .07 %tax =$721.45

LP price: $474.98 no tax and shipping was free savings of $246.47

wow... the dive shop you work at won't give you a better discount than that on Aqualung product?

I mean 25% off is the standard allowable Discount that Aqualung allows for selling to agencies such as Public Safety Diver organizations, etc...


I mean I bought a AL Legend LX + octo at my LDS and they gave me a bigger discount than that......, and I DON'T EVEN WORK THERE.

 

[Stu S.]

gone will be most of the hobbyists and mom & pop owners who lack the capital to compete on a grander scale.

There you go. This is our local situation:

Orlando, FL has a market that can support 8 dive shops. That is good. There are individuals who each year open up shop #9 or 10. Those retailers who attract enough business keep operating. A couple close each year, and the number goes back to 8.

A few years ago, there were two dive shops close to my house. A third one opened and took business away from the first two. Result: all three were unprofitable and closed. If 50% more divers arrived in the neighborhood, it might have worked. The market around here is more complicated than one shop vs. Leisure Pro.

Good luck with your business.

 

[daniel1948]

I think offthewall1's prediction that the overwhelming majority of LDSs will fail within a decade may be overly pessimistic. However, local merchants of all kinds (there is nothing unique to diving in this) are facing tremendous pressure from internet and big-box stores which keep prices low by selling in volume, selling end-runs (units made towards the end of a manufacturing run, which are a bit less reliable; still covered by the same warranty, but what good is a warranty when you are 100 feet down and your regulator fails?) dispensing with face-to-face individual service, and (very significantly!) paying their employees minimum wage.

This trend drives down wages across the board at the same time as it eliminates services. Local quality of life suffers. This is probably inevitable in a free market economy, but it is unfortunate. In my opinion, smaller is better.

 

[mike_s]

There you go. This is our local situation:

Orlando, FL has a market that can support 8 dive shops. That is good. There are individuals who each year open up shop #9 or 10. Those who retailers who attract enough business keep operating. A couple close each year, and the number goes back to 8.

A few years ago, there were two dive shops close to my house. A third one opened and took business away from the first two. Result: all three were unprofitable and closed. If 50% more divers arrived in the neighborhood, it might have worked. The market around here is more complicated than one shop vs. Leisure Pro.

We had a similiar situation several years ago. We had 5 or 6 dive shops in an area that was easily a quarter or half the population of Orlando. Way to many shops for the area. Of course most dive shops are mom and pop and run by people who are not businessmen. Those quickly went out of business.

I think offthewall1's prediction that the overwhelming majority of LDSs will fail within a decade may be overly pessimistic.

.

He might be right... and it might be before a decade.

go to your LDS on a saturday and see if there are as many people there as there were 3 years ago. LDS's are struggling... but so are the "big online shops."

Rumor is that the big manufacturers and "big online shops" have laid off a lot of employees during the past months due to the downturn in the economy and the lack of orders. This includes big manufactures like Aqualung, Oceanic, and shops like Scuba.com. Of course they aren't advertising this as it's not something they want to broadcast.

Lots of manufacturers are suspending MAP to try to boost sales. Just look at the campaign that Oceanic is doing. I've gotten emails from 5 or 6 shops with Oceanics "VIP Sales event".

The manufacturers are struggling.....

The dive shops are stuggling......


It's only a matter of time that if this continues for much longer that you'll see some major changes, or people going out of business. Scuba is a leisure activity that for the most part is "not required" for every day life. so people are holding back their "Scuba Dollars" for other uses in this struggling economy.

 

[Jandee]

I've ordered from LP and never had a problem. I would suggest a local dive shop for anything that needs to fit such as a mask, BCP, wet suit, everything else is fine if you order on line. I do shop around and have found the prices and shipping charges were better at LP.

 

[Pinepig]

I'll buy from LP without thinking about it all, on than note I just purchased a Zeagle Envoy for the wife and two Octo-Zs and the LDS price was better than LP and that wasn't some brother deal, it was what was written on the cards in the shop for everyone. The LDS that are raping you SHOULD fold so a better one will open. BTW this happened at the smaller shop in our area ( who just expanded recently, gee I wonder why ) the other shop is ALWAYS MAP or MSRP.

 

[vladimir]

3. Dive travel will shrivel and dive resorts around the world will close. In essence, leaving few places to dive unless you own the boat.

This is silly. If you want a midget in leather chaps to spank your bare ass with a hair brush, you can get it. Wherever there is a demand, somebody will oblige with supply--at a price. I have dozens of dives off outrigger canoes in Indonesia. As long as a day's fishing yields a pittance, there will be somebody with a boat willing to take a scuba diver out for something more than a pittance.

 

[tridacna]

Message 49....

 

[tridacna]

and post #50! Hooray! Another half century thread about LP!