RADIO SALES DOWN

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28801, 23 January 1959, Page 7

RADIO SALES DOWN

Some Firms Blame Interest In TV

Radio sales are so slow that some manufacturers are becoming alarmed, and one Christchurch dealer yesterday described business oyer the last few months as “lousy.” At least one Auckland manufacturer is blaming the growing interest in television, but others feel it is the effect of the general decline in business since the last Budget. “I’m pretty sure it is not tele-' vision,” one retailer said. “People are not really aware of it yet. There’s just no money about.” Whatever the reason, trade is certainly quiet and only one radio shop manager could report that his December sales were up. His is the Christchurch branch of a Dominion-wide firm, and he believed his was the only branch to show any increase in business. Few radio dealers have had many inquiries for television sets, and those received have come, in the main, from amateurs who want the components to do their own aaaenably. “We have had the odd inquiry,” said another dealer. “It was the same before the National Government went in. in 1949, but they died down again when television was said to be 10 or 15 years away. Still Needed “Thefe is ho doubt, though, that the introduction of television will knock back the sales of radios and radiograms. Once people bear that television is round the corner they won’t want to buy radios. “But they don’t realise, and we keep telling our customers, that they will still want a radio. They can’t sit round all day wafching television—even if the programmes last for more than a few hours at first.” The sales trends were not good, said another retailer. Even Christmas business, which normally boomed, was slow until the last two days. “People just don’t buy radios and radiograms to-r day.” There is even little interest being shown in a new development in high-fidelity reproduction, which was introduced before Christmas. “Frankly, things are not too good. Anyone who tells you that business is booming today is talking rot.’*