On Thursday, June 29, 2000 1:40 AM, Carl wrote:

> I responded to the warranty issues in another post so I'll jump over
> that here...

(snip)

None-None (Darin) :-) wrote:
> > dive shops is ridiculous and these manufactures are backing up this
gouging.
> > If anything, the online stores are bringing some competition to the dive
> > gear market, the dive shops could always choose to offer a more
competitive
> > price on their gear.

Carl!  The main point that I was attempting to put across in my original
post concerned the relationship that exists between dive stores and
equipment manufacturers and the importance of that relationship in terms of
recreational diving's development.

I don't know what the situation is like in, for example, the USA, but in Oz,
I know of few dive retailers who manage to survive on the 'profit' (?) from
teaching diving.   (Year's ago - before Training Agencies established a hold
on the industry - the whole purpose of a dive store's teaching diving was to
sell equipment to those wanting to learn how to dive.)

It would be difficult in the extreme for a dive shop - with their attendant
overheads - to compete on price alone with an on-line or mail-order
operation.

There's a guy here in Sydney, for example,  who buys brand-name regulators
from the manufacturer in the States.  He stores them in his garage and sells
them via classified advertisements.  His overheads are minimal, (as his need
to make a huge profit.  He has other sources of income and does this to
largely get up the nose of the official distributor!).  As a result he can
afford to sell them to both the public - as well as to dive shops - for less
than can the accredited distributor of those regulators.  But he doesn't
offer the same level of support as the official distributor (actually he
doesn't offer any!) - nor the range of other products.  Neither does he
offer training, (thankfully!!), nor any of the other benefits, both tangible
and intangible.  But I digress!  :-)

(snip)

> > Personally, I've never shopped on price alone.  And I do like the idea
of
> > dealing face-to-face with the person that I buy a product from -
> > particularly in the area of life-support equipment.

> I too do not shop on price alone, however, there is a point at which I
> will go mail order for something.  The mark up of $500-$1000 for gear
> that was mentioned above is OUTRAGEOUS and he's right, dive stores
> are cutting their own throats with prices like those.  While I do NOT
> like Leisure Pro and will not buy from them, there are plenty of other
> dive shops that I WILL do mail order business with.  The VAST majority
> of the time the mail order items I buy are because my favorite local
> stores simply do not carry it.

That seems to me to be perfectly sensible and reasonable.  But I don't
believe that the prices charged by dive stores should be driven downwards by
pressure to compete head-to-head with on-line operations - as Darin appeared
to be suggesting.

Were that to happen to any great degree then recreational diving - and
divers - would, to my way of thinking be the losers.  I accept the fact that
I might pay more when buying through a dive store - but I also regard it as
an investment in diving's future!  :-)

Strike