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Quantity Over Quality (Was: Unwritten policy and the intent ofthe average amateur ...)
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 |
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