The future of listening to retail stores

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VA3ADP

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Hello all,

I thought this would spark an interesting discussion. Since Motorola released their DLR business radios, I am seeing a lot more stores using them, but not all lchains at least as of yet. Mainly Best Buy, Home Depot, and Canadian Tire. Apple Canada went to DTR's a few years back in all their stores. I know MotoTRBO is becoming more popular in stores. I've only ever seen one H&M location using SL7550's on simplex so there a little more hard to find. A lot of places (even new locations) are ditching those CA10's and going to CLP's which is surprising, I am seeing a of CLIP's pop up lately.

Just wanted some thoughts and opinion on this. I understand every area is different an may not reflect your area. I know this is more of a regional discussion based on the locations I have mentioned. If the thread needs to be moved to the Ontario forum. I understand.
 

TampaTyron

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They also are releasing a CP100D, which is a digital capable version of their CP100, which was a very popular radio for a long time. TT
 

radiopro52

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I worked at a Walmart for seven years, and believe me there is some entertaining chatter on their radios. The problem with listening to retail stores though is that the range on their radios is usually no more than a mile. Most Walmarts use MURS and we had trouble hearing some workers on the other side of the store.
 

KK4JUG

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Out of curiosity, what is interesting on the retail store frequencies to listen to? I don't think I ever considered that.
In the last 50+ years, I have been a news reporter and a cop, mostly a cop. Both are occupations that are well-suited to a nosy person and I believe I was but for the life of me I can't understand why people want to listen to Walmart workers, McDonald's drive-thrus, the neighbor's baby monitor, etc. I have enough going on in my life that those trivial things aren't necessary. Am I missing something? Rather, am I missing something meaningful?
 

GlobalNorth

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Back in the fun old days [the 80s], a fellow scanner enthusiast was a bug about monitoring retail store frequencies like Sears, JC Penney, Montgomery Ward, etc. He considered loss prevention [store detectives] to be one of the most elusive challenges on business radio.
 

n1das

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Hello all,

I thought this would spark an interesting discussion. Since Motorola released their DLR business radios, I am seeing a lot more stores using them, but not all lchains at least as of yet. Mainly Best Buy, Home Depot, and Canadian Tire. Apple Canada went to DTR's a few years back in all their stores. I know MotoTRBO is becoming more popular in stores. I've only ever seen one H&M location using SL7550's on simplex so there a little more hard to find. A lot of places (even new locations) are ditching those CA10's and going to CLP's which is surprising, I am seeing a of CLIP's pop up lately.

Just wanted some thoughts and opinion on this. I understand every area is different an may not reflect your area. I know this is more of a regional discussion based on the locations I have mentioned. If the thread needs to be moved to the Ontario forum. I understand.

The digital radios are slowly trickling down to retail business users. The DLRs are great little radios.

The local Costco near me uses DLR radios. I can hear them on one of the default public talkgroups on the default hopset when I'm in range. I have owned a small fleet of DLR1060 radios and currently own a small fleet of DTR650 and DTR700 radios. I purposely left most of the programming at the factory default settings so I can listen for activity on the default public groups. That's how I found Costco is using them. I also have a few private groups programmed for my use. The DLRs and DTRs have worked out very well as my high quality digital replacement for GMRS/FRS for local on-site simplex type use with family and friends.

My wife while not a ham loves using the DTRs when we are out shopping or doing whatever together. She now much prefers to use the DTRs over any GMRS/FRS bubble pack radio because they work so well and totally blow FRS away. We always take a pair of DTR radios with us when we go shopping at Walmart* or out to do other stuff.

The DLRs and DTRs will talk to each other right out of the box at the factory default settings. People seem to be using them out of the box at the factory default settings like FRS bubble packs. Major urban areas and retail districts is where I find the most activity.

The DTRs have a lot of nice features but often are too much radio for the average business radio user in a retail environment. The DLRs are Motorola's answer to that. The DLRs are aimed at businesses where you see the very popular CLS series UHF analog radios. The DLRs make sense for the target market. DLR = Digital Lightweight Radio according to Motorola.
 
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citiot

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frequencies like Sears, JC Penney, Montgomery Ward, etc. He considered loss prevention [store detectives] to be one of the most elusive challenges on business radio.
Wards in my town sold scanners. I was loss prevention at another department store on the other side of the mall.

During my breaks, I'd nonchalantly programmed their loss prevention frequencies in the Wards display models. I heard they were not amused.
 
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GlobalNorth

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Wards in my town sold scanners. I was loss prevention at another department store on the other side of the mall.

During my breaks, I'd nonchalantly programmed their loss prevention frequencies in the Wards display models. I heard they were not amused.

Now that's funny!
 
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