Than explain why Amateur Electronic Supply crashed and burned! We've HRO in nearby Winter Springs and THANKFULLY a heap of helpful hams there to help.
I went here yesterday! They sell much more equipment now. The building is MASSIVE as well. I will enjoy going there for many years
I live about 20 miles south of GigaParts and consider myself very lucky !! I retired from the VonBraun (Yes named after the Rocket scientist)Center a couple of years ago and have increased my ham activity greatly ! Huntsville is a place that you really can bump into a rocket scientist ! It is not a sleepy town. It is a growing tech city that is now the largest city in Alabama. I have been a customer of Gigaparts for years now and I know they do things very well. Hopefully they can copy this location in Las Vegas as well.
I can tell you why. The owner closed it. It was during the economic downturn time. shipping overseas was quite high and still is. Plus, they were undercut by R & L in Ohio.
No Kenwood? Also too, It will never last. It is too much of niche market. Gamers, locally might like it. Most of the stuff in there, can be bought on Amazon and also at several big parts outlet, most likely for cheaper. Nice idea, but, it'll be closed before you know it. Big waste of an investment.
Kenwood isn't a "ham radio" company. It's a global corporation of 4400 employees and $1.7b in annual sales. Ham radio products are a TINY FRACTION of their business Dave W7UUU
Oh we have in Germany. But it died down in the last several years. Here in cause of the not existing intrest by the privat customers to visit the branch network of some. So all is now in the Internet to find and order. And special HAM-Radio or radio communcations stores are unfortunately so yesterday for many (like the hobby), that it will not come back. Thats the situation and a turn back is not in sight.
Leave it to hams to piss and moan about anything positive. I'm quickly reminded why I took a long break form QRZ and the hobby. I went by Saturday and visited my long-time ham radio friends. The building is the original Huntsville Home Depot, just to give some perspective of size. The old store was a thumbnail in comparison and they desperately needed the space for a very long time. The old store wasn't very attractive and had poor product placement and floor stock was slim simply because they had no place to put it. I am glad that it finally happened and I know it's been in the works for at least 4 years trying to secure a viable location and such.
Never last because they moved to a bigger store? You know they had a store selling the same stuff before this... right?
Gigaparts does more than sell ham radios and computers. They cater to the maker community and the also do managed IT services for a number of clients in North AL.
GigaParts has been in business for over a quarter century already and thrived with their previous lackluster location. What they are doing now is a far sight better than what they had to offer before. You are entitled to your opinion that it may not last, but the fact is they are thriving. This move was long overdue and I am happy for my friends that work there and for those the store supports.