In Reply to: So Cal Dive Industry posted by Firewalker on September 26, 2007 at 17:44:19:

When you factor in such things as the disperportionate increase in rents, insurance, need for more personal income to pay your own house payment/ bills and all other increases, I'm amazed there are any small dive shops left anywhere.
The dive shops are one of the very few businesses that still enjoy a 100% markup on a lot of their merchandise. Most other retail businesses have a markup of around 30-50%.
But dive equipment is so specialized that sales are scarce in relation to other forms of sports equipment sales.