Here’s a different take on the Internet/LDS debate. My LDS is one of the Top 5 internet retailers. The "World HQ" is located in this area. They have a HUGE stock, great facilites and good online prices. However, they could not care less about thier local customers. They make so much from their online customers, they do nothing for the local people. They charge us more than the advertised online price of their own merchnadise unless we mention they need to price match themsleves. If we drop off equipment for service, it gets put beihind any equipment that gets sent in from the an internet customer. My last set was in the shop 6 weeks when I finally took them back and had another person service it. Although they have a pool in the building for students, they have no equipment days, no try and buy, nothing like that. There are no meet and greets for divers, they don’t even do anything with the local area for charity or fund raising or even trash clean up.. They do absolutely nothing for the local community except take up space on a corner lot and pay their taxes. There is HUGE potential in that business for the local divers and the community but the owners don’t consider us worth their effort. I even watched the owner tell a guy to leave one day and that he "didn’t need his business." It’s very sad because of the potential. I will say the "Staff" is awesome!! They are always willing to help, but their hands are tied because of the Management’s mentality towards the local customer.
So needless to say, places like Leisure Pro and the LDS’s that I go to on my dive trips are the folks I use now. Price means a lot to people, but respecting customers will get you further.