Posted by tleemay on November 01, 2000 at 12:38:51:
In Reply to: Re: Bruce Weinke's summary of the NAUI Conference posted by Ken Kurtis on October 31, 2000 at 23:50:29:
Ken wrote:
"Reef seekers is certainly not the only store in
the country without nitrox capabilities and to
require stores to convert to nitrox compressors,
train their staff in nitrox use, perhaps buy
additional equipment (properly marked tanks at
least) and train their instructors - thus
incurring a fairly significant expense for little
or no increase in business from a training
standpoint - seems like a good way to lose a
number of affiliates who don't have the finances
to make the switch."
That was a fair statement Ken. You point out that
it's not necessarily a good business venture to
delve into for those shops. That may be
particularly true for shops that don't have a
demand for the gas' usage or the capitol to expand
the EANx services offered.
In Florida, the useage of EANX is much more
mainstream than on the West Coast, but I don't
hear the shops pumping the gas complain they do
not feel it was a bad business decision. The demand
may or may not have been driven by vendor or agency
marketing, the point is, they established a new sub-
market. A market that has been widely accepted in
the industry (after a rocky start ;-)). One shop
I am very close with in the Fla Keys tells me they
pump more EAN32 and EAN36 fills than air on any
given day. Because they can provide EANx, they feel
they are generating regular and repeating business
from the visitors as well as the locals. People
prefer to use their shops. I don't believe they have
the lion's share of business down there but they
do attribute as well as they do to their offering
EANx fills. When foot traffic into a shop is built
on a particular niche, other profit points of the
business will grow from the traffic.
Your statement left another question to be
answered in my mind. How many other shops in the
nation, regardless of agency afilliation, apply
the same restriction on the training, support
(fills), and usage of EANx on shop charters? Are
there other shops you are aware of that have the
same "absolute no diving on a gas other than
21%O2/79%N2 policy?
Everywhere else I have ever been to dive, and this
includes some not so tropical/touristy locales,
no one has ever told me I could not dive EANx on
their charters other than the reason it just
wasn't readily available.