Universal Radio closing November 30, 2020

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MTS2000des

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Why is there a constant demise of places like this? Is it because people don’t buy enough merchandise?
Online availability and the proliferation of Chinesium electronics from Amazon, Ebay, etc are killing these small businesses. It's following a sad retail trend. 5-10 years from now, most shopping malls and centers will be gone. A few "Mega Malls" may remain, and of course Wal Mart, Home Depot, etc but everyone else is squeezed out.

I'll miss Universal Radio. Their website, while some say is dated, has some of the best information on older rigs, scanners, accessories and easy to search. I've ordered all my SWL gear from them over the years, but SWL itself is dwindling thanks the Internet. Nothing like paying the corporate cartels to play what was once widely available for free.
 

K2KOH

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Online availability and the proliferation of Chinesium electronics from Amazon, Ebay, etc are killing these small businesses. It's following a sad retail trend. 5-10 years from now, most shopping malls and centers will be gone. A few "Mega Malls" may remain, and of course Wal Mart, Home Depot, etc but everyone else is squeezed out.

I'll miss Universal Radio. Their website, while some say is dated, has some of the best information on older rigs, scanners, accessories and easy to search. I've ordered all my SWL gear from them over the years, but SWL itself is dwindling thanks the Internet. Nothing like paying the corporate cartels to play what was once widely available for free.
You are so right. It killed AES, and it killed a store I used to love going to in Connecticut, Lentini Communications. It was great beomg able to drive an hour and drool over the new stuff. *sigh*
 

jaspence

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I have dealt with them for many years and never had a problem. Best wishes to you and the cats.
 

phask

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It is almost local to me if you consider an hour drive local. I started going to the Reynoldsburg location several solar cycles ago. Spent too much money there over the years, but have to admit
 

palmerjrusa

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Online availability and the proliferation of Chinesium electronics from Amazon, Ebay, etc are killing these small businesses. It's following a sad retail trend. 5-10 years from now, most shopping malls and centers will be gone. A few "Mega Malls" may remain, and of course Wal Mart, Home Depot, etc but everyone else is squeezed out.

I'll miss Universal Radio. Their website, while some say is dated, has some of the best information on older rigs, scanners, accessories and easy to search. I've ordered all my SWL gear from them over the years, but SWL itself is dwindling thanks the Internet. Nothing like paying the corporate cartels to play what was once widely available for free.

Economies evolve and change, it's "creative destruction" and has always happened. My local Borders Books was my favorite place to spend an evening browsing books with friends, they had a great selection, knowledgeable staff and great prices. They were also accused of putting small independent booksellers out of business and with a dominant market presence seemed invincible. Then Amazon came along and put them out of business in short order while at the same time providing a global virtual storefront for small independent second-hand booksellers who thrive on Amazon.
Borders Books never saw it coming...
Bezos' company philosophy = "at Amazon it's always Day One, because as soon as it's Day Two the company begins a rapid or slow decline to oblivion."
Sears was the "Amazon" of the 20th century and is currently teetering on the edge of extinction.
Bezos understands Amazon isn't immune from a similar fate.

As businesses go, Universal Radio had a good run and I'll be sad to see it go away, but change and evolution is a sign of a healthy economy.
 
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palmerjrusa

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It is almost local to me if you consider an hour drive local. I started going to the Reynoldsburg location several solar cycles ago. Spent too much money there over the years, but have to admit

It was local to me when I came to the US, there was nothing like it anywhere near where I grew up.
Loved going out to their store in Reynoldsburg and I also spent way too much money there over the years.
 

kb7gjy

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As one who worked in my fathers store (Amateur Radio Team of Spokane "Arts") Catalog stores killed us. It was very aggravating to spend hours with customers showing a radio, having demo units on hand, traveling to hamfests just to have these same customers save $20 on buying a radio from a catalog store. Almost as bad when someone bought a new radio from somewhere else and then brought it in to learn how to run it. We did it in hopes they would buy from us next time. I can't imagine competing against everyone plus Ebay and Amazon.

I have shopped from Universal Radio myself. Even stopped in a couple of their stores. I always bought something, because I knew what it is like being on the other side of the counter.

Just wait till you can buy new cars and such from Amazon or the likes. Car dealers will still try but will fall to the side.
 

N8FNR

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So sad to see this but nothing lasts forever. Great folks there and they usually had the best prices.

In the past 12 months I bought these items from them; Icom ID-51A+2, Yaesu FT-70DR, and two Sangean HDR radios, HRD-16 & HDR-14.

I will also miss the cat photos.
 

palmerjrusa

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So sad to see this but nothing lasts forever. Great folks there and they usually had the best prices.

In the past 12 months I bought these items from them; Icom ID-51A+2, Yaesu FT-70DR, and two Sangean HDR radios, HRD-16 & HDR-14.

I will also miss the cat photos.

They were often undercut by other Ham Radio retailers, and they always charged shipping no matter how much you spent, in fact, the more gear you bought the higher the shipping cost was.
 

Firebuff880

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Sounds like this group in Newton MA. I remember shopping here in the 70's for my first regency scanner.


Couple of years back I went by on my way to a funeral, and was shocked they were still there.
 

palmerjrusa

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Sounds like this group in Newton MA. I remember shopping here in the 70's for my first regency scanner.


Couple of years back I went by on my way to a funeral, and was shocked they were still there.

It's great to see these small-scale operations still have their niche and can thrive.
 

NowhereMan66

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I'm bummed too, 2020 is starting to suck more and more. I wonder if the Coronavirus had a role in their decision. I hope they find homes for the kitties there. BTW, Grayson is still there, he is 24/25 and still going strong. My antenna on my PL-660 will be lowered to half mast. :(
 

palmerjrusa

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I'm bummed too, 2020 is starting to suck more and more. I wonder if the Coronavirus had a role in their decision. I hope they find homes for the kitties there. BTW, Grayson is still there, he is 24/25 and still going strong. My antenna on my PL-660 will be lowered to half mast. :(

I was wondering that too since they so recently relocated, I doubt they'd have done that if they'd intended to retire soon.
 

iMONITOR

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I think someone is possibly staged to buy the business along with their inventory and customer list and reopen under a new name. Otherwise I think it would be odd not to have a going out of business sale to liquidate the inventory.
 

palmerjrusa

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I think someone is possibly staged to buy the business along with their inventory and customer list and reopen under a new name. Otherwise I think it would be odd not to have a going out of business sale to liquidate the inventory.

I hope that's the case, would love it if they stuck around.
 

AK9R

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I wonder if the Coronavirus had a role in their decision.
The other ham radio stores in Ohio, R&L Electronics and DX Engineering, closed their showrooms back in March, I think, and haven't reopened them. I have heard through the grapevine that R&L will provide curbside delivery, but they won't allow customers into the store.
 

KevinC

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This thread is about Universal Radio closing, not the survival rate of a virus. Please stay on topic.
 

prcguy

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If Universal is closing then who's gonna sell all those CommRadio CTX-10s piled up the the back room???

Aaah, never mind, the IC-705 and Lab599 TX-500 are out now and that will surely kill CTX-10 sales.

Am I off topic? Oops.
 
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