In Reply to: Re: What's happening to the dive industry? posted by Max Bottomtime on September 06, 2008 at 08:56:37:

Part of the problem is that in California the commercial rents are so damn high and the cost of living is higher than any other state, so the owner and employees have to make more money to be able to live here.
I'm sure this is a huge factor in why LDS's around here don't have much choice in their markup.
But despite their catch 22, people are still going to buy from the internet if they know what they want and if they can save a bunch of money. But LDS's can't survive off airfills and seasonal ab gear alone so if things continue on in this pattern, dive shops (at least in my town) will become obsolete.