There is only a select few brick and mortar stores left in the USA that still sells amateur radio equipment, and of those big 3, at least one - Amateur Electronics Supply - AES, has stopped mailing catalogs and has gone mainstream - online only, unless you visit their store.
Ham Radio Outlet too - has not sent a catalog in several years...
The question is - how much profit is there in selling a $25 or $35 handheld radio?
How many do you have to sell - per a day, to keep the lights on and pay the bills, along with the help?
The bubble has already burst.
Some simple numbers...
There are about 750,000 amateur radio licenses in this world.
At least 25,000 of those licenses are club call signs - not an actual person...
At least 50,000 of those licenses are no longer alive, but still on the books, because no one notified the FCC that they had died!
At least 100,000 of those people, is a ham in license only.
Most of these people either got a license and then never used it, or they got a license as a condition of employment and then never used it, or they got a license so they could use ham radio like a telephone and when the cell phones came along they just quit using amateur radio.
Another 200,000 has a license, but their only equipment is a handheld radio, or they never bought any sort of radio, even though some of these people holds an amateur extra class license.
Some did it because their husband belonged to an amateur radio club and they didn't want to be excluded. Some did it so they could teach license classes. Some did it so they could become Volunteer Examiners, but they never operated a ham radio. Some were semi active hams, but they had to move to a rest home or high rise and they just kept up their license, but they don't operate anymore.
That eliminated 375,000 license call signs.
65% of all licenses are only Technician - so we have to assume that 150,000 of these remaining licenses are only technicians. They are delegated to frequencies above 28.300 MHz unless they know how to operate CW.
So 225,000 licenses is all that is left - these are the people you hear on HF and the higher frequencies.
So if you only have 375,000 people that at one time in their life is in the market to buy a new transceiver, how many transceivers a year will you sell when eBay offers them for less money or free shipping, or no sales tax.
Amateur Radio is at least 100 years old!
Manufacturers have been making modern radio equipment since at least the 1960's.
Divide how many licensed amateurs we had in 1960 - lets say 300,000 by how many licensed amateurs we have today, lets say 400,000 and since some people owns more than one HF transceiver, lets say there is 800,000 HF transceivers in the USA.
Out of those 800,000 - probably 150,000 are DOA - dead on arrival...
That means that there is more HF transceivers then there is people.
The only way to attract new customers is by offering a new model that does something better than the older model, or by increasing or decreasing the cost of the new transceiver.
Vanity - someone that has money and thinks that they can buy their way into amateur radio.
They will spend thousands of dollars on new HF transceivers, new / bigger amplifiers, a large tower, a big beam antenna, or even just a G5RV on a telephone pole.
watts.
This is why ICOM equipment is so attractive to the new ham.
The IC 7600, 7700, 7800 offers a flashy multi colored display, with lots of bling, and things the new operator probably doesn't even understand, but appeases the CB'r inside of him that wants a big flashy radio...
The Kenwood's are more utility type transceivers, you turn them on and they work!
Yaesu is for someone that just wants to be different....
As a retailer, you have to ask yourself, how many can I afford to keep on stock?
Is the model going to change tomorrow?
Will I get stuck trying to sell a model no longer in production to someone that is holding off - waiting for the newer model to come out...
How much money will I loose before I close my doors?
The Brick and Mortar retailer is under a lot of stress....
A Internet sales web site, doesn't physically own the equipment.
A internet sales web site doesn't have any major overhead, gas, water, electric, rent, insurance - to keep a store open.
A internet sales web site can take orders, broker a deal with the wholesalers, have it direct shipped to the customer, collect the profits and not take any of the risk!
A lot of retailers are getting screwed right now!
The new customer comes in to the store, looks at and tries the new transceiver, then walks out the door, goes home, orders it online for a few dollars less - and they think that they were a smart consumer. When it breaks or they don't know how to use it, they walk back to the brick and mortar store and they demand the retailer return their product back to the manufacturer for warranty work or to have it repaired, when the brick and mortar store did not sell it to them and never made a thin dime on the sale..
