[TowerTalk] Cheap Hams

[Rudy Bakalov]

Yes, the retail world has changed, but the ham radio market is trying to ignore the changes and pretend the 21 century does not apply to them.

Products do indeed have slim to non-existing margins and this is precisely why ham merchants must look into services, cross and upselling, and much better customer service. Again, technology makes this possible and affordable for anyone.

Today's example- earlier in the week I had been pricing a 80m 4SQ system off the DX Engineering site. Between the aluminum needed for full size elements and the controller itself, we are talking a decent sale. When I came back to the DXE site today my shopping cart still had the bill of materials, but I was not presented with any incentive to actually buy.

I'm comparison, I placed $100 worth of Stella de Oro plants in my shopping cart and then took my son to his lacrosse practice.  3 hours later I got an email reminding me to come back and check out, plus a 10% discount.  Keep in mind that this is a small family nursery in MI, not a giant retailer. If they can do it, so could DXE.

And yes, Jim, I have had P&L responsibilities for decades.  I know how to run a business, albeit in professional services.  $2.7M YTD, $750 in unearned revenue, and a pipeline of $4M. But my professional experience is irrelevant here, what's relevant is my experience as a consumer.

Rudy N2WQ

Sent using a tiny keyboard.  Please excuse brevity, typos, or inappropriate autocorrect.


> On Mar 25, 2017, at 2:29 PM, Jim Brown <jim at audiosystemsgroup.com> wrote:
> 
>> On Sat,3/25/2017 9:34 AM, Rudy Bakalov via TowerTalk wrote:
>> Let me offer some examples:
> 
> Good suggestions, Rudy. But have you ever run a biz with employees? Ever done retail? I've done both, and I can say that it's cut-throat, both with vendors of the products you sell and with other sellers like you. Profit margins have gotten smaller and smaller, the vast majority of buyers seem to look far beyond price.
> 
> If all a vendor is doing is handing (or shipping) me a box and taking my money, I don't consider that worthy of much profit margin, so I'm likely to buy from a known reliable vendor with the lowest price, shipping included. OTOH, if that vendor is adding value, as in some of what you've suggested, or with in-store displays or an operating setup with the gear, I will buy from that vendor if they're selling what I want to buy, even if they're more expensive.
> 
> The recently closed ham store in Sunnyvale that started this thread DID have a station setup with a tribander on the roof, but I didn't want to buy the HF gear they sold (my HF gear is Elecraft) and I never found their sales staff particularly helpful. I did buy incidental accessories from them that were in stock, and one or two FM rigs. And in one transaction early on, I was treated badly with respect to warranty. As a result, the only thing I felt badly about when this store closed is that the staff lost their part time jobs.
> 
> As to those extra services -- those are functions that, in the great ham tradition have always been provided by other local hams. Some call it "elmering," others mentoring, others call it "paying back" or "passing it on" for how we were helped when we started out. As a teenager with a new General ticket, I was given my first rig by an older ham, was taught CW and electronics/radio by the local ham club, got help with antennas, was mentored in contesting, all by local hams. The technical writing and teaching that I do is payback for all the help I've received over the years.
> 
> 73, Jim K9YC
> 
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