Purchasing Scanners in Alberta

[gqtrebor]

Just cerious if anyone knows where we can buy a scanner in alberta, if any. i mean from a store. so far i have bought all mine on ebay or from rr members.

 

[NovusPhoto]

Just cerious if anyone knows where we can buy a scanner in alberta, if any. i mean from a store. so far i have bought all mine on ebay or from rr members.

Taking note that you're from Edmonton, I'd HIGHLY recommend CB City in the Road King truck stop on Broadmoor Blvd, just north of Sherwood Park.

Here's their website, if you care to poke around a bit: http://www.cbcity.ca/

Hope that helps!

~Robb

 

[gqtrebor]

Not to bash any companies, but he over charges about 500 bucks on anything, then claims he supports it. he doesent. my friend bought his frist scanner from there. i actually went there not to long ago and i think he is closed down now

 

[Jay911]

My experience has been that good scanner retailers are non-existent in Canada. Admittely I have never purchased from Radioworld or the other ones from down east.

Since I moved away from the scanners that are(n't) available in RadioShack, all my purchases have been done via mail order.

 

[gqtrebor]

I wonder how well a "scanner sotre" might do in edmonton?
might be something to look into starting up. i have been thinking about opening a store or being my own boss.

 

[Outasight]

I wonder how well a "scanner sotre" might do in edmonton?
might be something to look into starting up. i have been thinking about opening a store or being my own boss.

I would say go for it! There isn't a Radio Store from Ontario to here.

 

[electricsheep]

Taking note that you're from Edmonton, I'd HIGHLY recommend CB City in the Road King truck stop on Broadmoor Blvd, just north of Sherwood Park.

Not to bash anyone overly much here, but yeah, speaking from experience, there is really NO place in Edmonton to get a CURRENT scanner for a even remotely DECENT price. CB City is vastly overpriced (read: laughable ridiculous prices), and last time I was in there had NO current scanners, (I think he latest one they had was a BC785 and wanted something close to $1000 for it after taxes). Alfa Radio is sort of in a different boat as they cater to hams more than anything, and scanners are really not their bag. The only way to get a current scanner at a decent price in Edmonton is to order from the US or Radioworld or Durham. But even then Radioworld and Durham have not been on a vast price cutting spree on their scanners to reflect the new world of an almost par Canadian/US dollar, so the ONLY way to get a realistic price on a scanner these days is to order online from the US.

I also remember a time when I went to CB City (when they still had their west end store) on a weekend because I really needed an antenna THAT DAY (Alfa is closed on weekends), and they tried to sell me a CB antenna (with some stupendous dogs breakfast of connectors/adapters) for use on my Alinco DJx3... yeah, no... I guess with a name like CB City what can you expect though.

 

[electricsheep]

I just checked out the CB City website, and the only scanners they list, the Uniden BCT7, BCT8 and BC250d are all discontinued models unless I am wrong. Someone correct me though if I am wrong... nice...

 

[gqtrebor]

Yea the guy at cb city is a bit out to lunch. a fridn of mine spent 1300 on a bc785d with no apco card. back before i knew anything i thought that was a good deal.
man was i stupid.

Yea i wonder how one would go about opening a scanner store in the city.Like i know uniden doesent ship to canada.So where i wonder would you even start to find whole salers.i would open a store, im sure it would do good.

 

[electricsheep]

Like i know uniden doesent ship to canada.So where i wonder would you even start to find whole salers.

Uniden does now ship to Canada. I just got yet another scanner direct from them about three weeks ago.

 

[gqtrebor]

crap really? hum i just dient even check up on them cause they told me before they dident. might have to look into that now . thanks for the info

 

[mark2117]

Take the drive to Calgary to NTR, not cheap but they can get the newest Uniden's and ICOM's too I believe.

 

[NovusPhoto]

After my recent experiences with CB City, I think I have to rescind my previous.

I bought the Uniden BC246T from them, and after tax, it was JUST under $500. I get home, and look around on e-bay, bid, bought and paid for one new in the box, and warrantied and all, for under $200 CDN, shipped. From a 4000+ feedback seller. (100% rating)

Look on the Uniden website, same model, after tax, is $250 CDN.

I get pretty pissed off about the markup, and so I take the scanner back to get my money back.

Despite the fact that the scanner was MINT, with no scratches, marks or even fingerprints on it (I never even opened the box to read the manual) I was charged a 10% "restocking fee". I waited a total of 5 hours (with my wife and kid in tow) waiting to get a refund.

The guy may be nice as hell, and helpful as all get out, but I'll never buy a scanner from him again. And if I can find anywhere else to get antennas or mounts or any of that, I'll be shopping there. Charging people TWICE the price of what something costs seems a bit... excessive.

 

[gqtrebor]

Yea i feel the same way, about cd city. not a good place at all to purchase scanners from.i don't know anything about cb's. so i can't really say.But yea his mark ups are nuts.

 

[Jay911]

At the risk of getting into a topic I've no background idea about, I might surmise that the CB City markups is due to the clientele that the store probably markets to. Is it mainly for truckers? It stands to reason that that kind of buyer isn't going to be too read-up on scanners and the best available price. (Forgive me if I just slighted anyone.)

 

[NovusPhoto]

At the risk of getting into a topic I've no background idea about, I might surmise that the CB City markups is due to the clientèle that the store probably markets to. Is it mainly for truckers? It stands to reason that that kind of buyer isn't going to be too read-up on scanners and the best available price. (Forgive me if I just slighted anyone.)

Be that as it may, just because someone is ignorant of the value doesn't mean you need to fleece them.

I've bought several GPS's over the years, and I've never been charged twice the price because I didn't know what their value was when I walked in the store.

 

[gqtrebor]

Yea honesty is honesty. I guess if you can feel good about ripping people off and not let it bother you go ahead. but i wouldent want to deal with a person that is okay with it

 

[Heidi750]

If you are in Edmonton ... you can try CB City at the Yellowhead Truck Stop just North of Sherwood Park.
Guess I should read the other responses before I put in my 2 cents worth ... Sorry.

 

[electricsheep]

Even though their target market may be truckers, I can't imagine they are that sheltered that they don't see the prices at other radio stores in their vast travels and don't realize this place is some kind of obscene oddity. Especially truckers coming through from the U.S., they must think we're nuts...

I don't understand WHY the prices are so high other than to make the occasional nasty profit off unsuspecting consumers. With the dollar pretty much at par, they could be bringing in and selling a lot more radios (not just scanners) at more reasonable/sane prices and making way more money, especially since Edmonton/Northern Alberta is devoid of pretty much any other physical store for most of our needs.

Personally I am surprised they still have a store, and was expecting the one in the east to close not long after their store in the west side closed down.

 

[thehammer]

ok, I bought my 396T over a year ago from SBH corp over the internet......way cheaper and within a week was on my front door. no offense to alberta retailers but your either marking the price way up....or your not getting them cheap enough.