Well looks like things aren’t going to well at all in the “sales department” true it’s early days, but this article doesn’t have much, if any thing good to say about how OTC is being sold in department stores right now.
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It’s probably a little early to make any judgements. And a lot of people have negative experience with amplifiers. The public needs to be better educated. The question is will the manufacturers make the effort.
Yes Definitely, a lot more needs to be put into training staff, also that store that put “amplifiers” in the same cabinet as OTC HAs is gonna confuse the public!
I found that article unintentionally HILARIOUS, and I think the author did a BANG-UP job of highlighting the challenges and almost ABSURD idea that folks who may actually need a hearing aid can just waltz in to the corner drug store, try a bunch 'o models out and VOILA! Their hearing issues are solved.
With that kind of optimism and chutzpah, we should be performing our own brain surgeries or perhaps heart/lung transplant - kit to be found at local CVS Pharmacy, along with small booklet of instructions.
Face palm. Audible GROAN. 
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It’s all about education. But these new aids also are mostly for people with mild hearing loss so adjustments are a lot easier to make. But still there’s a long way to go especially the stigmatism of just wearing aids. Let’s see if the reduced cost is enough incentive for people to try them. Unfortunately, at least for now, there seems to be a very great possibility for people to get ripped off.
Well I can’t disagree with you, I mean it made a complete mockery of how this should’ve been played out, but I’m still hopeful that they’ll get their act together and the old “must try harder”
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Yeah definitely, but by who? The manufacturer or the retailer or both.
Again this is definitely going to be part of anyone’s decision, the cost alone is enough to get people in to try them, just got to get that sales pitch sorted.
When the Walmart display says to ask the staff for more information and the staff knows nothing about them, it is a failure. I was at Walmart for eyeglasses and saw the OTC aids on display. She admitted they know nothing about them.
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When I first heard about this new development, I immediately felt skeptical. No retailer is going to let various customers place the devices into their ears for a try, because (for one thing) no customer is likely to want to try devices that may have been in someone else’s ear! It’s not exactly like trying headphones or sunglasses. 
Also, how many people off the street will know how much amplification they need or whether a given device will supply that much amplification?
Maybe after enough brave souls try the things and, assuming they like them, tell their friends all about the experience, then perhaps word-of-mouth could lead to a surge in sales. But I won’t hold my breath. 
The “OTC” aids have no streaming capabilities and limited adjustability and the audiologist dispensed aids are grossly overpriced due to excessive mark-up. Costco is the sole source of a properly priced full featured aid.
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@hass5744: But - as you yourself have pointed out on numerous occasions - HAs don’t work like spectacles where you just measure that sort of thing and apply a standard correction.
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My biggest concern, based on what the op said is that these new otc aids won’t be handled properly by the seller to the consumer resulting in a huge fail. And yes every aid will need to be programmed. There’s no one size fits all. It will be interesting to see how this evolves. It’s early but the aids are out there and based on the ops experience it doesn’t sound too promising.
Your source for this, as I’m not so sure this is correct, most do have it with only a few not offering, one thing for sure is with LE Audio just around the corner, everything electronic will have Bluetooth, so as new models are released over the next year, they’ll include as a standard feature.
Look around (i have for a temp spare when the main HA is charging) and the previous commenter’s post is mostly true. There are quite a bit of OTC aids (ie: rebranded Bose aka Lexie B2) do not have Bluetooth streaming. Bluetooth LE for their respective apps, yes. The earbuds (hearables) that fall under the OTC category are a bit different imo since their main emphasis is to play audio by default but not one last half as long as you’re effect so mostly situational use. All others that stream are almost all MFi which is a no go for anyone not willingly to move to Apple.
Yeeeesh. Good point. It could be that folks have to buy a boxed set and NOT even try on a pair to see if they are comfy - let alone if the simplified “amplification” is all they need.
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“My source for this”? All the information released by the OTC “aids” (AKA amplifiers) on the WWW. Perhaps you can name some that do?
I just did a quick search and even this sit list OTC aids with streaming.
Jabra, and Sony, Apple, HP Hearing PRO (Nuheara) Sennheiser Clear Plus and I’m sure others, all and everyone will be releasing LE Audio products in the next year, but I’d point out that a lot of people don’t buy HAs for how good,or if any bluetooth they have, it’s a very nice feature, but people just wanna “hear”
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Hold up guys, you’ll get a money back guarantee, 45 days is OTC requirement I think, but yes we’re gonna need a lot of reviews before I’d try some out, I’m sure a lot of them aren’t going to make the cut, only the fittest will survive!
And one more thing, PSAPS are not OTC, there’s definitely some confusion out there at the moment.
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Some confusion, some wilful obfuscation.
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