Manufacturers can and do dictate price ranges at which you must sell their stuff. They also vary their pricing levels over a wide range based on volume bought. Those who think the manufacturer can't dictate all sorts of conditions for the sale of their stuff (they think it's "crap") are not in the business of retailing scuba gear, or they'd know better.
It may not be "fair" and it may not sit right with you, but your local shop owner is under all sorts of agreements with his suppliers just to be able to sell their stuff in his store. This cuts both ways... the supplier guarantees that their stuff will not be offered at lower prices anywhere in exchange for the retailer agreeing to the price mark that guartantees the retailer a margin high enough to pay the bills. He'll usually cut margins for you on "packages" where he can hide the item prices under the overall price, which is also acceptable under the pricing arrangements with the manufacturer.
Any time you see greatly discounted major brands, it is either (1) counterfeit or (2) someone has decided to violate their agreement with his suppliers and either sell a bunch of stuff sideways (grey market) at low margin to get volume discounts on gear he doesn't have to support under warranty - so he can endure low margins and charge for taking care of the gear if it does come back in the front door - or to just violate the agreements outright in hopes of selling at a great enough distance that he doesn't have to provide the customary support that is so expensive, and the manufacturer won't get too many gripes (from customers or other retailers) and figure out what he's up to and cut him off.
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Now, where is all this going? The demand for low profit/no profit merchandise has already overtaken some industries (personal computers are a prime example), and the Scuba equipment business will eventually get there, albeit much more slowly as the "life support equipment" behemoth is carved slowly away. It's easy to see the pressure in the posts here. All it'll take to truly accelerate the process is for one major company to remove all restrictions on resale of its stuff, and some enterprising dot com stock boy will offer the entire line - no support, no help, no knowledge - at a 2% margin... his business isn't Scuba, but commodity sales. He needn't know anything more about the products he's selling than the price he pays and the price he has to charge to move it out and still make a point or two on every sale. Overnight the attitude of the customer will be that any higher price is "crap" - and the retailer may as well hang it up - or - become a service only shop, where he charges for every piece of information he provides, every bit of advice, every helpful hint. Timing is critical; make the move too soon, and the shops still trying to make it the old way will run you under even while they are going bankrupt - wait too late and you'll be bankrupt. With margins gone from Scuba equipment, (after all, we want "fair" [translate "low"] prices, don't we? and so we'll buy from the 2% margin no frills guy on the internet) as customers we have to ask ourselves "what does the shop have to sell that will feed the families of the employees?" Service (annual inspections, repairs etc) and air.
Now, gang, put on your thinking caps and figure out how much those *must* cost to feed the shop employees and their families. After all, just taking retail out of the shop won't lower overhead by much at all, and we'll still want all the great info, courses, trips, repairs, rentals and air we've come to expect.
Today, air and service are subsidized by the relatively high margins on equipment. This benefits the "serious" (frequent) diver, since equipment purchases form a fractionally lower per-dive part of the overall cost of diving, and for those of us who dive a lot this arrangement keeps our per-dive costs down. If we support on-line buying we are just shooting ourselves in the foot - air and service costs will go through the roof. (unless you're *really* serious like a few of us who do all their own service and own our own compressor)
Still, the overall trend is toward internet buying with no frills, and I believe that's the way the industry will go, whether I like it or not.
Rick
