DougWare - If you have some patience, you might find a dealer at the next hamfest in Winston-Salem on January 9th, or the Charlotte Hamfest in March. You'll want to check with the organizers to find out what vendors have committed to the respective hamfests.
Another possibility is that someone might be bringing a 396XT to the month Tarheelscanner meetings in Raleigh. You might want to subscriber to the Tarheelscanner list on Yahoogroups.com, or watch for the next meeting announcement on the N.C. forum on RadioReference.
With regards to internet dealers, I would recommend ScannerMaster (
www.scannermaster.com ) or Communications Electronics (
www.usascan.com ). The latter is a "master distributor" for Uniden, which means inventory is never an issue. ScannerMaster offers a good variety of accessories and hobby expertise. Both process their orders quickly, and are currently within $4 to get the scanner to your door.
Barefootdipole wrote:
>> just a general observation......but this is why we have virtually no ham stores or radio/scanner dealers left in NC...."a penny wise and a pound foolish"......folks are so intent on saving the sales tax money that they take their big purchase business out of state, and SHAZAAM ! guess what ? our in state dealers go out of business !!
I've been living in the Carolinas since 1987 - before Internet shopping - and I don't remember there being many dealers around, even then. I can remember once driving to the original Grove Enterprises / Monitoring Times "headquarters" ... out behind Bob and Judy Grove's home ... to buy a Uniden scanner. Eight hours of driving ... but it was a nice, spring day for driving.
And. despite my numerous trips to pick-up items at Communications Headquarters in Wilmington (7-hours round trip), I don't think my purchases made any difference when they decided to close the business.
Seriously, the two-way radio and scanner business is no different than what has occurred to drug stores, hardware stores, supermarkets, etc. ... if you don't sell products in huge volumes, either through numerous locations or on the Internet (or both), your business is at a competitive disadvantage.
And, unless you're a friend, family member, or can offer me a service that the other dealers cannot, please don't expect me to pay more than other dealers are charging for the same product.
We already have enough subsidizing of bad business management and financial irresponsibility going on in this state and nation with the TARP funds.