classicwireless.co.uk/D.E.R. 50

D.E.R. Domestic Electrical Rentals

Radio Rentals, that’s the name that immediately comes to mind when thinking of rental companies. However, there were others, and a couple grew to be a significant force that Radio Rentals at least had to take note of. Probably the two main competitors to Radio Rentals were D.E.R and Rentertainments, but D.E.R was the real threat, and is featured here.

Immediately post-war D.E.R operated out of a single shop, renting out pre-war receivers. The business was taken over in 1947, and a change of direction saw the company buy in quantities of receivers using Ferguson chassis’s and branded as D.E.R. The receiver shown would have been available quite early in the company’s post war expansion, and D.E.R. receivers are seen less often now than those from Radio Rentals sets of the period. Like Radio Rentals in the 1950’s D.E.R. offered sets for sale as well as rental, though the back of this receiver indicates it was definitely intended for the rental market. The unreliability of television gave D.E.R the opportunity to make significant profits, and the chain expanded quite rapidly. It is doubtful D.E.R could have expanded to the degree it did if it had only had radio as an entertainment product to rent, as the cost of radio receivers had by now dropped significantly, making radio rental uneconomic for all except the poorest families unable to save a deposit required by hire purchase terms. Eventually the rental market started to tail off as the reliability of television sets improved. By this time D.E.R. had merged with Radio Rentals.

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