KH6HZ wrote:
"Dave Heil" wrote:

I disagree, Mike. Radio Shack had its roots in selling amateur equipment
when it was a Boston firm decades back.
[...]
If Radio decided to sell a wide variety of amateur radio equipment of
assorted brands and it gave adequate sales training to
its staff, it'd be a big player.

I honestly doubt it.

There's a way for Radio Shack to put the "radio" back in its name.
Right now it is a company in need of a purpose. If it doesn't change,
it is going to disappear or be reincarnated as a bunch of battery and
cellular phone kiosks in malls.

Ham gear is such a niche market, it isn't cost effective for Radio Shack to
offer it at the individual store level. The per-capita number of hams simply
doesn't make it viable. There's little reason to carry a $1000+ product
(say, a decent HF radio) when you *might* sell 1 a year, if you're lucky.

Right. Read on for a way to accomplish it.

Sure, in some markets, where there is a densely populated ham concentration,
Radio Shack may do good. Or, perhaps offering products mail-order they might
do okay.

The company has the ability to do both. What it lacks is management
with the will and vision to set it up and a good training program for
salespeople. RadShack would do well to hire hams as sales people.

Would they be able to compete with Yaesu, Kenwood, et al with their own
product line? Again, I doubt it.

They don't have to. All they'd need do is offer those brands. They
could include some RadShack brand items if they chose to.

Will they be able to compete price-wise
with the large mail-order discount places? Again, I seriously doubt it, due
to the overhead requirements of each store.

That's not right, Mike. R&L Electronics started out thirty years back
in a garage full of shelving. The owners, Rita & Larry, began it as a
sideline business while Larry was working full time as a machinist.
It then moved to a small location in the middle of downtown Hamilton,
Ohio. After a number of years, R&L relocated again to an old
supermarket the size of an average IGA store. That's where it is still
located. R&L *is* one of the big players. It is stuffed with
equipment, runs full page QST and CQ ads and meets or beats the prices
of HRO or AES. It does this with the one rather small store.


It is my honest opinion that ham gear at the retail level is all but
extinct.

In my earlier comments, I mentioned the Radio Shack might designate one
store in a given market area for carrying amateur radio equipment.
That'd be the way they could become a player. It would only need folks
with product knowledge and stock at those particular stores. The
employees of other RadShack outlets would only need know enough to point
potential customers to that store.

Ham gear at the retail level is what *everybody* is doing. The stores
themselves buy at the wholesale level from the manufacturers. We radio
amateurs are the retail customers.

Dave K8MN