Reply With QuoteCPC/Farnell better on price and Amazon/eBay on variety. With fewer kids interested in electronics the writing has been on the wall for Maplins for a long time.
Where am I going to buy my electrickery gismos now?
On line presumably, which is why R.I.P. Maplin. Shame. Home of the Geek.
Last edited by unclealec; 28th February 2018 at 23:05.
CPC/Farnell better on price and Amazon/eBay on variety. With fewer kids interested in electronics the writing has been on the wall for Maplins for a long time.
I won't miss it.
For me, used to be a place to pick up components but nowadays it's full of cheap toys and gadgets which are invariably a disappointment or fail within a month.
That’s exactly what I said to the wife when I heard the news!Originally Posted by Kingstepper
Well, that's ruined my plans.
Is a “male to male adaptor” geek-speak for a spit roast?
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Problem is, pretty much all of the stuff in that shop was a lot cheaper to buy online from China. Couple that with a customer base that is probably quite savvy where to find better prices and it’s going to be difficult to do well. I think the only time I bought something there was if I was in a desperate rush and couldn’t wait for an online purchase to arrive.
Nailed it. Massively overstaffed too, always 2 or 3 staff on a small shop floor doing nothing.
Though it does just leave currys to buy my £69.99 hdmi cable or £40 8gb memory card
Not the same since it was taken over but a shame nonetheless.
I heard the Edinburgh Wollens were interested. Talk about synergy.
I feel for the people who work there, but I shall not miss the shop.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
The company is/was not as relevant today as it was 30 years ago but, as a sometime electronics hobbyist, it's sad that it means one less option for finding components (amongst the ever increasing amounts of tat that they stocked admittedly).
Only ever used Maplin for things I absolutely needed right that minute instead of waiting a day for express delivery at a lower price online. I tried to get a very short 3.5mm extension cable for my car aux port last year and the cheapest they could do in store for 30cm was £7.99 I think, all their cheap deals were online only orders - walked 5 minutes further in to town and bought the same thing from Wilko for £1.
Another nail in the coffin for the High St. what with ToysRUs as well, the only thing left to visit will be charity shops, cafes and nail bars, bear that in mind the next time you order from Amazon.
Interesting read:
http://uk.businessinsider.com/future...-retail-2017-8
This hits the nail on the head as to why these shops are closing down. was only a matter of time after the Radioshack fall in the US
Went into one for the first time around 7 years ago. Had always heard positive things about it as of that point. Once I went in I couldn't work out why - a place full of everything I could get online but at a 30% markup. Great if I need an emergency HDMI cable or Sat Nav, completely pointless for anything else.
Hardly surprising. Overpriced tat merchants.
I think Toys R US did their fair share to kill the high street with their out-of-town sheds. What goes around etc.
Last edited by Tony; 28th February 2018 at 15:57.
The original Maplin had long disappeared, overwhelmed by vastly overpriced tat. It could never have survived.
BTW, no 's'. Maplins is / was a holiday camp.
In the early 80s I did quite a lot of prototyping electronic stuff, and used to be a regular customer in the original Westcliff shop. Sad to see them go, though their recent place in the market always looked a bit odd to support a nationwide chain of stores.
On a similar theme, how are Go Outdoors still trading?
This hits it on the nail. Staff were always lovely so I feel for them.
Similar to Jessops, expanded far too much and........pop.
I remember when a new Maplin opening was something special, instead they became one of the High Street Standards.
I’d put money on WH Smith being next.
Yes, wouldn’t miss them at all. Most of what they sell (apart from books) can be bought elsewhere on the high street, supermarkets even.
Boots is another.
Very likely. The Irish equivalent, Easons, has announced the closure of a number of their branches, citing high rents etc as the reason.
Agree. You only have to see the “WHSmith Carpet” twitter blog to see it’s a dying company.
What concerned me most about Maplins was the poor quality of virtually everything they sold, poor quality tat as not so low prices. I bought a rechargable camera battery and it lasted a few months before giving up the ghost......I had a watch battery that was made in China and was dead as a dodo when I fitted it....maybe I was just unlucky but I got the impression they were sourcing stuff at rock bottom price regardless of quality.
I agree with previous comments, they expanded too much and basically lost the plot.
Paul
yea same in Sunderland charity shops, coffee shops spec shops, when she goes shopping for clothes and shoes I used to leave her and go into comet, Jessops Maplin and other man type shops, there is none there now so i get a book and sit in the car waiting for the call from her.
Sad i did like going round the store and it did have a good selection of equipment but as earlier posts have said the standard of the products has been dropping over recent years. Expensive prices and lower quality doesn't cut it on the High St anymore - Boots & WH Smiths take note sharpish!
If you look at the figures, it was mad what they were sold for as well.
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Went into Maplins 5 or 6 years ago to buy a HDMI and Optical cables cost £34 for the two, I thought not paying that I will wait and order from Cables are us cost £7.80 for the two,which came next day
I believe that WH Smith and Boots were (and may still be) owned by Venture Capital companies. They were always easy to deal with from the point of view of suppliers, but when the Venture Capital companies became involved they installed accountancy specialists to go back through several years worth of accounts and claim any rebates or discounts which had been overlooked by issuing (large) debit notes which were deducted from payments to the suppliers. Boots also "streamlined" warehousing and deliveries, wherever possible making the suppliers pay for the deliveries, often direct to their individual stores in order to save on warehousing. They made even Tesco seem benign in some cases, and did nothing to foster good relationships with their suppliers.
Venture Capital companies exist for one reason, which is to make a return on their investment. Sentiment plays little or no part in their MO.
WH Smith have also suffered from the rapid growth in digital publishing, which has slashed their profits from newspaper and magazine sales. They were also one of the country's largest distributors of magazines and papers, and their problem is that having geared up with a massive distribution network they can't reduce that infrastructure quickly enough in the face of the digital threat to avoid haemorrhaging cash.
Walk in to any Boots or WH Smith store and they have an air of a business struggling to keep up. In their day, which was many years ago, they were stalwarts of the High Street. Now they seem a little run down and tired.
Another fixture of the High Street, albeit a more recent one, Prezzo, announced today that they are to close 100 of their restaurants, and slightly higher up the restaurant pecking order, Jamie Oliver is selling off a number of his eateries.
It's becoming even tougher out there.
Last edited by Backward point; 28th February 2018 at 21:57.
Although no trees were harmed during the creation of this post, a large number of electrons were greatly inconvenienced.
I work in electronics, it was only a matter of time before people realised what a rip off Maplin is
What do you think paid for the shop rental/rates and staff salaries?
It's so much cheaper to have vast warehouses and zero hour contract workers.
No! Their component pricing is eye watering, I'm not talking 100% mark up, I'm talking 100 times mark up, and most of the items they have on their website isn't available in stores, these are the two main reasons people go elsewhere
Now that’s a short extension lead!
The way many shops are going these day, internet buying and access to cheap items the shop don’t stand a chance.
And, unfortunately, the likes of Amazon will be reaping the benefits....
They appear to be controlling more and more (latest the Ring brand ) - sad prospects
Only used once so I won’t miss but sorry for those who lost there jobs
Lost their ‘geek’ and technical knowledge a few years ago, mostly tat now. As others have said, the internet has killed them.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
They went down hill since changing their name / take over Tandy's
The sooner the better, in my book. The days of going to a High Street, finding somewhere to park, fighting my way through the crowds, only being able to shop within limited hours, dumbed-down sales assistants with very limited product knowledge, etc, etc, means that almost everything I buy these days is done online.
Carpetright next
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43239036
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
anybody remember TANDY?
I once went to maplin to buy a roll of coax for a tv ariel coudnt believe the price everything else they sold was expensive too, the only problem about the internet is having to take days off work for delivery and the cost of sending things things back if they arnt right.
You cant beat going into a real shop especially for clothes and shoes
They still exist I think, outside of the UK - They certainly did a couple of years ago (although I forget WHERE I went into one after a cable of some sort!)
This is true - Not sure where they'll go, maybe PC World, they could do with some more knowledgeable staff!
Regarding ToysRUs - You can't help think that they must be doing something wrong. A big new Toy shop (Smiths) opened in Farnborough recently, clearly there's money in toys still. My son works in an independent toy shop and they were quite worried about the Smiths, but it didn't really affect business at all after an initial couple of weeks dip, he tells me.
Of course, ToysRUs don't have many (any?) true High Street branches anyway, so this is hardly likely to result in a further down turn in high street shops - The problem there is stupid towns insisting on stupidly high car parking charges and business rates, making it unaffordable to be on the high street! To be fair to them, though, they need to get some cash from somewhere as the government cut, cut and cut again...
M
Last edited by snowman; 1st March 2018 at 13:17.
Toys R Us is a classic case of having a USP and totally ballsing it up. It wasn't helped by being saddled by a PE firm and a ton of debt that was never going to be serviceable. That's before we even get in to the rents for physical space that simply haven't reflected changing trends that is starting to change as more and more mega units are being split use, and so to keep some rental income now asking the indies to come back.
Maplin is really no different - it tried to switch and attract casual shoppers that then, as other said, meant they weren't as relevant to them. Major management / strategy fail.
Theres a name from the past, we used to do all there shop fit outs during the 80s. I always remember refitting the new Bayswater shop where they were moving it across the road, I looked at a stock sheet which gave the prices of all their little transistors etc. They started off in Taiwan with a price of 3p per unit there were 8 columns showing the journey to the shelf where it finished at £3 in the UK, it was less then half for the same unit in the USA. Needless to say Tandys made a lot of money here.
Last edited by hilly10; 1st March 2018 at 16:38.
"Billions of debt all under one roof.."It wasn't helped by being saddled by a PE firm and a ton of debt that was never going to be serviceable
That was the problem, as internet shopping has developed their model just hasn't worked, suddenly the man in the street can buy components at realistic prices and in small quantities from Farnell, RS, Mouser, Digikey, Arrow, Avnet, Anglia etc etc, they must have known this, its not exactly a surprise.
Australia?
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