Will GRE drop in price after Radio Shack sale?

[dakota91]

Given that Radio Shack has placed the Pro-106 (nearly identical to PSR-500) and the Pro-197 (nearly identical to the PSR-600) on sale for $299 each, will we be seeing price drops in the GRE and Uniden digital scanners anytime soon? I'm not sure how Radio Shack is able to sell them so cheaply but I managed to snag one of each to compliment my PSR-600.

 

[rdale]

It's just a sale - in a week they'll be back to $499

 

[smokeyjones666]

The Radio Shack markup is absolutely huge.

 

[rdale]

I don't think so, they sell them about the same as non-RS dealers do.

 

[hoser147]

The Radio Shack markup is absolutely huge.

40 to 50 percent, seems common for most retail stores, some a little more some less.

 

[rdale]

What I'm saying is that all digital scanners sell for $500, so you can't jump on RS because they sell them for $500.

 

[thewenk]

If RS continues to have sales on the 109 and the 197, even though not as good as the current $299 sale price, GRE prices may come down a bit. The GRE 500 and 600 have been available at lower prices than the $499 advertised for some time.

It will be more interesting to see how this RS sale pricing affects the pricing on current and future Uniden scanners such as the 396XT.

If no one is willing to pay $450-$500 any more for a digital scanner, the price will certainly come down at least for "specials" and "sales". I think $400 might be a likely price for GRE/RS in 2009, especially if the economy stays slow. As for Uniden pricing, who knows?

Dave

 

[MStep]

The Radio Shack/GRE pricing situation is most interesting. My guess is that Radio Shack ordered a huge number of units BEFORE the September/October nationwide financial meltdown, and that they are doing everything they can to clear as much inventory as possible. The radio is certainly a bargain at 299.00. This of course has put pressure on retailers carrying the GRE series of radios to become more competitive with their pricing as well and as suggested, may also cause Uniden to lower prices or offer rebates. Two other considerations-- the GRE series have been out now for (I believe) over a year, although Radio Shack has only had them available for a month or two--- it is possible that the current series will continue to be discounted or go on sale if GRE has new model(s) in the wings. The second consideration, as mentioned, is the current economic situation, which is likely to force many prices down (especially on electronics) for the next several months.

 

[hoser147]

This is very similar to how Radio Shack did with the Pro 96, I really don't see much of a change, other than more and more communities going to digital radio systems. With the tight reins GRE has had on their pricing I wouldn't anticipate any great sales or decrease in price from any of the manufacturers than we have already seen. They know that there are alot of households in the country that have scanner in them and in time in order to be able to listen to the traffic in their area that they will have to upgrade. Its just a good way to entice customer's in the door, and make their product known. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Eng74]

The Pro-96 didn't go on any kind of sale like what they have done with the PRO-106. The 106 has been out for what two months now and it is almost half price. I think the 96 didn't go on any kind of a sale for about two years after it came out.

 

[hoser147]

It wasn't that soon but I got mine a few years ago out the door for around $320 just prior to Christmas.

 

[commstar]

I Love It When Stores Reveal Thier Margins

I am with MStep.

Man, I love it when stores reveal their margins over wholesale cost. No one sells at a loss unless they really have to & now we all know what their cost is....I would say that this pricing begin to answer that question. Empowering times for those with ca$h.

In a similar vein, check out www.carsdirect.com to see the auto manufacturers reveal their cost to you. Magical stuff when they really need your business. This sale might be a case of that, I agree.

My guess on the W's of this deal are that to get the price down on a RS branded model, they had to commit to GRE for a full container or two of these radios.

On that note, I cannot see GRE purposefully diluting the marketplace in this manner UNLESS this is their way to dump parts and pieces in favor of a new model. This seems a more likely scenario in my mind.

If I was a GRE dealer right now, I would be pi**ed, so do not count on this ever happening ever again as GRE will likely not let it happen.

Then again, perhaps I am just overthinking this whole thing and RS wanted to give everyone a decent deal on a GREAT radio for Christmas. Possible but not probable.

In closing, I bought one of each on the last RS F&F Sale and I am truly impressed with both,very nice radios indeed. If you are on the fence, take the jump if you are not in an intermod-prone locale this is a truly great radio that it is at a wonderful price point for the moment. Pull the trigger you probably will not regret it.

Merry Christmas to each and every one of you RR's out there and thanks Lindsay for a great site/community.

Frozen in Spokane.

Mike

 

[rdale]

You are overthinking. Read the RS thread - they needed cash, and what better way to get it in a hurry?

These are RS scanners, not GRE, so I can't believe GRE controls the pricing. Sort of like saying Mattel gets upset if Wal-mart busts a sale on Barbie. Ain't gonna happen.

 

[hoser147]

Bust and Barbie in the same sentence.:lol:

 

[DonS]

You are overthinking. Read the RS thread - they needed cash, and what better way to get it in a hurry?

These are RS scanners, not GRE, so I can't believe GRE controls the pricing. Sort of like saying Mattel gets upset if Wal-mart busts a sale on Barbie. Ain't gonna happen.

GRE controls the pricing on the PRO-106 in one respect: they sell the PRO-106 to RS for $x. Of course, RS could decide to take a loss on each PRO-106 sale, selling the unit for less than they paid. Or, RS could be paying GRE less than $299 for the PRO-106.

Either way, I don't think the RS sale tells us much. It doesn't necessarily indicate that RS is hurting for cash. It certainly doesn't tell us that a new scanner is on the horizon or what RS paid GRE for the scanner.

A local electronics chain ("Fry's Electronics") often prices their big-ticket items at a loss. The idea is that a lot of people will come in to buy those items, but enough of them will then end up buying lower-priced / higher margin items to make up for the loss - resulting in a net profit (e.g. an inkjet printer for $39, but paper and ink cartridges at huge markups, high enough that "one replacement set" of ink cartridges more than makes up for the loss on the printer).

Of course, RS could just be trying to get rid of high-priced stock. I don't know when their fiscal year ends, but a pile of high-priced inventory sitting in a warehouse could be a tax liability. It may be cheaper to unload it at a small loss than to pay the taxes on it.

 

[smokeyjones666]

I have a feeling that GRE isn't too concerned about the RS sale. I have a feeling (from experience) that your average RS scanner customer has never even heard of GRE, neither have most employees (I remember a guy made a comment to my manager about the Pro 96 being designed and manufactured by GRE and that RS just put their name on it, my manager actually had the balls to tell him that RS engineers designed the product and that GRE just made the units.)

RS does this with everything at some point and I'm sure it's all buttoned up nice in tidy in whatever contract RS has with GRE. I recall when they did this same thing with the Pro 96, I bought it at $299 minus 30% (the employee discount on RS-branded products) and that was still higher than the store cost for the unit.

I will agree with MStep, the $299 price is absolutely geared toward moving units. They may not make as much off the scanner sale as they did at the $399 or $499 prices, but they're going to try their hardest to tack on accessories. A $19.99 800MHz antenna cost the store a whole dollar to put in inventory. $32.99 for the USB scanner programming cable? Try under five bucks for the store to purchase. (That exact same USB programming cable, I might add, comes with the PSR-500.)

I think MStep had it right about the economy angle. I'm sure RS was planning to do this eventually, later on down the road like they did with the Pro 96. Unfortunately the economy's down, middle management is in a panic because everybody's down in sales and a lot of holiday shoppers are deciding to opt out this season.

Who knows, maybe some of these ex-holiday shoppers will just get together with their families and hang out for once instead of exchanging a bunch of chinese 'hot friday' crap that they waited in line for 6 hours on a frigid November morning to get.

 

[SquierStrat]

they already have come down a little bit. hamradio.com (ham radio outlet) has some sweet prices on the 6 GRE scanners, the cheapest i can find

 

[commstar]

You are overthinking. Read the RS thread - they needed cash, and what better way to get it in a hurry?

These are RS scanners, not GRE, so I can't believe GRE controls the pricing. Sort of like saying Mattel gets upset if Wal-mart busts a sale on Barbie. Ain't gonna happen.

Yeah, I probably am overthinking this.

 

[Eng74]

I have a feeling that GRE isn't too concerned about the RS sale. I have a feeling (from experience) that your average RS scanner customer has never even heard of GRE, neither have most employees (I remember a guy made a comment to my manager about the Pro 96 being designed and manufactured by GRE and that RS just put their name on it, my manager actually had the balls to tell him that RS engineers designed the product and that GRE just made the units.)

RS does this with everything at some point and I'm sure it's all buttoned up nice in tidy in whatever contract RS has with GRE. I recall when they did this same thing with the Pro 96, I bought it at $299 minus 30% (the employee discount on RS-branded products) and that was still higher than the store cost for the unit.

I will agree with MStep, the $299 price is absolutely geared toward moving units. They may not make as much off the scanner sale as they did at the $399 or $499 prices, but they're going to try their hardest to tack on accessories. A $19.99 800MHz antenna cost the store a whole dollar to put in inventory. $32.99 for the USB scanner programming cable? Try under five bucks for the store to purchase. (That exact same USB programming cable, I might add, comes with the PSR-500.)

I think MStep had it right about the economy angle. I'm sure RS was planning to do this eventually, later on down the road like they did with the Pro 96. Unfortunately the economy's down, middle management is in a panic because everybody's down in sales and a lot of holiday shoppers are deciding to opt out this season.

Who knows, maybe some of these ex-holiday shoppers will just get together with their families and hang out for once instead of exchanging a bunch of chinese 'hot friday' crap that they waited in line for 6 hours on a frigid November morning to get.

Don't forget the GRE also has the AC adapter which is another $30 sale with the 106.

 

[DaveIN]

FYI: Scanner Master (RR Sponsor) is selling the 500 @ $450... radio+USB cable+AC adapter.

Radio Shack PRO-106, radio only.