Make it Clean. Keep it Clean

Few of us feel comfortable shopping in a dirty store. Just about no one wants to buy merchandise covered with layers of dust, dirt and grime. Yet you wouldn’t know this to look at some dive “shops.”

Over the years I’ve seen far too many dive stores that look as though they are part of an organized movement to make the purchase of dive equipment as unappealing as possible. Among the things I’ve witnessed:

Floors that don’t appear to have been swept or vacuumed in weeks.
Display merchandise covered with cobwebs and dust.
Windows and display cases caked with dirt and grime.
Partially emptied boxes of merchandise left blocking aisles.

What is most amazing is that, at each of these stores, sales personnel were frequently standing around as if they had nothing better to do. Get a friggin’ clue! This is a dive store. There is always something to do.

As Sandy Hootman, co-owner of Underseas Scuba Center in Villa Park, Illinois, once told me: “The staff knows that, whenever we get back from an outing, either the cash register should be full of sales receipts, or the store better be spotless.”
Scott Evans of Adventure Scuba in Chantilly, Virginia, is but one of many successful dive retailers who takes cleanliness seriously. “We vacuum every day. We wash the front windows, inside and out, every day. No exceptions.”

If your store looks the least bit unkempt, before you address any other visual merchandising issues, get out the vacuum, get out the broom, get out the Windex and paper towels and get to work.

Get organized »

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