In Reply to: Re: Re: Why????? posted by Jeff on June 17, 2016 at 22:21:51:

Dive shops are not responsible for the decline in scuba diving, a general shift in cultural interests is.
The dive shop is just a casualty of the inevitable. At a standard 100% markup on most goods, which was a standard for many years in retail, the dive shops have become sitting ducks in the sights of online sellers. 30% off, free shipping, no sales tax, you don't even have to leave your house, how is anybody supposed to compete with that. But it's a fact of life. Art stores, book stores, other sporting goods, they've all suffered. The recession didn't help.
It's a combo of many things, higher rents, higher wages, higher workers comp, higher PG&E, and fewer shoppers, and cheap online shopping.
BTW, online shops are suffering too. Many are robbing Peter to pay Paul.