Dan

Perhaps. But to say that the gear became “too reasonably priced” is sort of simplistic. Small shop owners had no paradigm for dealing with online suppliers, which were new at that time. Margins are what they are, and no small shops are gouging customers with high prices — if you buy fifty sails at a time for your online site, you’ll get a better price than the guy at the local shop in a small beach town who buys two at a time. The shops couldn’t compete, and when the shops went out of business, there were no longer rental/demo beaches, as I outlined in the article. That’s why it’s a cautionary tale.

Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment.