What would you want?

[jasondbaker]

The shops on the net do have to meet payrolls, pay insurance, shipping, etc. The only significant differences between the internet shops and the local dive shop is that internet shops do not provide training or airfills, and they sell much more equipment. Many of the online shops are just an online extension of a "real" dive shop. They are using their vendor relationships to buy goods and sell on the net.

The LDS could begin selling gear locally on the net. It doesn't cost much. Customers can then buy gear 24x7 without the need to interact with a salesperson. You can potentially reduce payroll (or maintain it) while increasing sales. If you want to compete with internet shops you have to compete on the same turf.

The LDS can increase training fees and decrease equipment prices. It seems like the LDS uses equipment sales to subsidize training costs. They use deals like "buy this equipment package and we will throw in training". I can understand these packaged deals from a marketing perspective. But if I don't need more training and just want to buy gear it doesn't make any sense. Of course maybe in this market 90% of gear buyers also want training. I may just be in the minority.

The shops should have one "get together" a month. Pick an interesting regional location (no more square lake). I think it would be cool to invite a "dive expert" to each gathering. The dive expert could provide mini-seminars on dry suit techniques, equipment maintenance, navigation, etc. Or maybe topics like underwater archeology, search and recovery, overhead environments. I'm not talking about padi specialty classes. Diving with a purpose. Diving is always fun, but when you add a goal it becomes memorable.