Maplin "Insurers cast doubt over future of Maplin" (now CLOSING stores)

[mikeselectricstuff]

Does anybody remember Cirkit Electronics

Crikey, I had completely forgoten about Cirkit, didn't they have a shop is West London in the early 80's, Acton maybe. They did loads of RF stuff, Toko coils Micrometals toroids, did they go bust I don't remember. EDIT: Bonex had a shop in West London early 80's sold lots of RF goodies.

I cannot recall were Cirkit Electronic were based, could have been London. The catalogue was printed in the most cheapest paper possible, but the listing of components was excellent for the time. Oddly I wonder if Squires Tools took the Cirkit Catalogue as a example to follow.
http://www.squirestools.com/home.htm

Bonex still do most of the RF components
http://bec.co.uk/

I have vague, probably confused memories of Ambit (Brentwood) and Cirkit ( Broxbourne) , and Bonex also rings a bell
With some connection between at least two of them ( buyout/renaming or something)
ISTR dropping to Broxbourne once to pick up some Toko inductors I needed urgently

[saike]

I gave up on Maplin years ago when the stores seemed to start stocking things in quantities of two, but now finding RS (here in the UK) to be a problem with constant 'out of stock' items when I am trying to compile an order. Farnell seem to be a bit more reliable.

Edit : I think Cirkit became Ambit, I have vague memories of going there in the early 80's

Edit Edit: wrong way round Ambit became Cirkit (Googled it)

[Fungus]

I used to purchase from them in the 80's. I even kept a catalog as a poor man's databook for digital ICs. And hey had a really huge books department.

Yes, the Maplin catalog was a great source of info. Component porn for the 1980s.

Then they stopped selling components and started selling "electronics".

[fcb]

ISTR dropping to Broxbourne once to pick up some Toko inductors I needed urgently

Cirkit, not a name I've heard in 20 years - I used to buy inductors and those little shielded ferrite tuning coils from them too!

[Zero999]

Before Rat Shack closed here in my area, I was going in a couple times per month and buying up all the parts, kits and Arduino shields they were clearing out ($5 switches for $0.50, $40 Arduino shields for $5, etc). Invariably I would end up actually helping other customers find cables and connectors, or fix a problem on their iPhone. It got to be such a regular thing that the manager started giving me an employee discount on my purchases. (Seriously!)

I must have spend $500 over 6 months, however I got nearly $3000 worth of stuff (at the original sale price).

$3000 worth of stuff at the original RadioShaft price but how much would it have cost at SparkFun? And did you buy things which you're unlikely to used because they were cheap? In other words, how much did you really save?

I remember Tandy selling things at very reduced prices, but they were still often more expensive, than the market rate, even in small quantities.

[bd139]

I've only just seen this thread. I'm slightly laughing inside because Maplin deserves to die. Rip off prices, low stock, shitty service and generally terrible quality stuff. Chuck them under a bus with Tandy and Radio Shack.  Adafruit, Sparkfun over-marketed over-priced junk needs to be next.

Cirkit was the outlier. I lived a drivable distance from there back in the 1990s and they actually did good. Shame they disappeared.

Really the point is that there are some quite ridiculously good companies doing mail order in the UK now which make the time and cost of running to Maplin or any other suppliers quite frankly ridiculous. For example, the other day I ran out of lowly bog standard TH 1K resistors. Popped some in the basket in RS, turned up next day with parcelforce. Total price including delivery: £0.36! Ordered a whole recap of my Tek 2225: £11 on CPC, all Panasonic and Rubycon parts and next day delivery. Both including VAT too.

Plastic ride on electric cars, weird battery tech which my inlaws like to bring me to fix when it fails after a month and which no one has ever heard of, quadcopters that don't work when you buy them, disco lights and 650 varieties of aerial connectors is a dead market.

[timb]

Before Rat Shack closed here in my area, I was going in a couple times per month and buying up all the parts, kits and Arduino shields they were clearing out ($5 switches for $0.50, $40 Arduino shields for $5, etc). Invariably I would end up actually helping other customers find cables and connectors, or fix a problem on their iPhone. It got to be such a regular thing that the manager started giving me an employee discount on my purchases. (Seriously!)

I must have spend $500 over 6 months, however I got nearly $3000 worth of stuff (at the original sale price).

$3000 worth of stuff at the original RadioShaft price but how much would it have cost at SparkFun? And did you buy things which you're unlikely to used because they were cheap? In other words, how much did you really save?

I remember Tandy selling things at very reduced prices, but they were still often more expensive, than the market rate, even in small quantities.

The majority of components I bought during the final few days of the store closing are things I will use. I bought at least 100 packs of fuses (5 fuses to a pack) ranging from 0.25 to 5A in both slow and fast blow, which seem to be the most common values I encounter. I also got a ton of small through hole proto boards and DIP to SMD adapter boards. Also a bunch of switches. And LEDs. And enclosures. Also a lot of 12V transformers in various sizes.

These are all things I use for little projects here and there.

About a year before the stores closed, they were replacing official Arduino stuff with Radio Shack branded shields and in the process clearing the official stuff out at up to an 80% discount. So I got a few motor, ethernet, prototype and other shields to have around and give away. They were also discontinuing Parallax stuff, so I got 5 of the nice 16x2 Serial LCD units for $5 each. Sure, I could have gotten 16x2 LCDs on eBay for like $2 a pop, but I like having LCDs with a serial interface around for when you want to throw a display on something without writing drivers, or pin limited situations. I also got a few Parallax Ping sensors, which I’ve found work a bit more reliably than the off-brand versions (easier to code for as well).

Oh, I forgot about the 3 meter RGB serial LED strips for $2 a pop. Those made nice decorations.

Anyway, all stuff I regularly use for repairs and projects.

[Avacee]

Report here that Maplin are seeking buyers for the business as they seek to avoid going into administration.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43121649

My prediction is they'll close a load of stores, push out some PR rubbish about efficiencies and focusing on online sales, the pension scheme will be pillaged and when Maplin finally goes tits up in a few years the taxpayer will be forced to bail out the pension scheme while the directors retire to the Caribbean.

[bd139]

That's about right.

I'm hoping my local one goes down the swanny so I can empty them of parts when they're shifting them.

[medical-nerd]

Hiya

I will be sad if Maplin shuts down. It is the only electronics shop in the UK now.

I rarely visit the local store but regularly buy off their UK ebay store. Prices are reasonable, postage is cheap and delivery is usually next day. 

Jaycar is a wonderful resource for Australia but not realistic for UK, I envy you!!! - I bought a very nice low noise LNA kit from Australia costing 30 Australian dollars - which was a small envelope sized package. Postage, import and processing fees cost me a further 60...ouch.

But it was still cheaper than buying one in UK.

Cheers

[VK3DRB]

The Maplin story is all too common. I seem to recall using some of their branded connectors some years back. We still have Digikey and a few others main suppliers and there are others in Australia. But it does not matter where distributors are, we have a much bigger issue.

All bets are off if the West goes to war with China when you won't be able to get anything as all. Single sourcing is risky. Now almost EVERYTHING is single sourced to the one dubious country. One big problem is many of the rare earth metals used in electronics are ONLY found in China. We could start with high import taxes on electrical goods made in any communist country, thereby encouraging alternative sources of components and products. Ensuring more than one source is definitely a smart thing to do.

[coppice]

One big problem is many of the rare earth metals used in electronics are ONLY found in China.

Nope. They are only currently mined in China, but they can be found in multiple places around the world. It would take time to restart old mines in the US and elsewhere, but new/renewed sources of rare earth materials is possible.

[bd139]

All bets are off if the West goes to war with China when you won't be able to get anything as all. Single sourcing is risky. Now almost EVERYTHING is single sourced to the one dubious country. One big problem is many of the rare earth metals used in electronics are ONLY found in China. We could start with high import taxes on electrical goods made in any communist country, thereby encouraging alternative sources of components and products. Ensuring more than one source is definitely a smart thing to do.

No one is going to war with China. It's absolutely impossible and a damn stupid idea. China knows that. Europe knows it. Russia knows it. US knows it. China is slowly disowning NK over it because they know it. Everyone has a pretty good relationship with China really and wants to keep it that way. China is actively trying to move its entire society over to a new model which puts it at the centre of everything and you know what, good luck to them. While everyone else has been pissing around, they have gone from backwater bumpkin country to industrial superpower in 1/10th of the time anyone else has. If they keep going at that rate, you're going to be working for them.

Multi-sourcing is stupendously expensive so people won't do it. There is no economic sense in not going for the cheapest source if the probable return is good enough, which it more than is.

Back on the topic of Maplin, these guys are pretty much replacing the "single vendor hobby market" and doing a damn good job of it: https://bitsbox.co.uk/

[grumpydoc]

Back on the topic of Maplin, these guys are pretty much replacing the "single vendor hobby market" and doing a damn good job of it: https://bitsbox.co.uk/

Maplin used to be OK but I think that they lost their focus so its difficult to know now whether they are in the electronics hobby, toy, computing or disco equipment business and they wind up doing all badly.

I'm honestly not sure how I would rescue them though - too much competition in all those market sectors, especially online.

[bd139]

Exactly. Only an idiot would rescue it. Just let it go. That's 215 odd stores which can serve coffee instead

[grumpydoc]

Exactly. Only an idiot would rescue it. Just let it go. That's 215 odd stores which can serve coffee instead

It's going from "I used to have a real job but now I just work in retail" to "I used to work in retail but now I just have this bum zero-hours delivery job" and we'll all have to emigrate to China to find work

[bd139]

Welcome to the technological progression of society, driven by us engineers and software monkeys.

[trys]

 I hope they find a buyer, and turn it into a good resource for hobbyists and professionals alike.

How that can be done is the question, but perhaps with collaboration with other groups such as Raspberry Jams and various Maker Space groups they could emerge like a phoenix from the ashes.

There is room for Maplin on the high street. The trick is what that Maplin offers is the key.

[bd139]

If they sold coffee or kebabs it might work.

[medical-nerd]

Hiya

The shop in Hull is quite good.

Assorted rubbish when you walk through the entrance, but it has a good computer components area and a very good electronic components area at the back of the shop, with the audio/multimedia/radio stuff along a wall.

It is the only such store in Hull - PC World is crap and there aren't any decent junk shops, just a couple of cash converters.

I certainly spend half an hour browsing when I go. But as I have said before, I find their ebay store very good.

Cheers

[NivagSwerdna]

It's going from "I used to have a real job but now I just work in retail" to "I used to work in retail but now I just have this bum zero-hours delivery job" and we'll all have to emigrate to China to find work

At some point there won't be enough tax from the real jobs to support the cheap ones. Boom!

[floobydust]

Exactly. Only an idiot would rescue it. Just let it go. That's 215 odd stores which can serve coffee instead

Letting it go means it's gone forever.
It reminds me of clear-cutting tropical rain forest, you can never grow it back due to wind, erosion, no moisture etc. Once it's cleared, that's it.

Having electronics parts and kits for local sale, I do like that convenience. The whole maker movement has to do Internet ordering and wait for the shipment to come in which sometimes derails a project.

I'd say Maplin would not be able to fix their issues as management is clueless about the business model and only worried about immediately restoring profitability.
As if years of bungled leadership can be turned around in months 

[g.lewarne]

I used to work in a Maplin store, about 10 years ago just after their previous ownership change.

It was awful. 

There were entire stock lines that you just knew were made to the absolute barest minimum legal specs, and could almost gurantee that every one sold would come back faulty.  And it wasn't just a few items, it was a good chunk of everything sold in the stores.  About the only thing I remember we never really had issues with were Freeview TV receivers (remember those?) and external hard drives.  Stuff like that cant help profitability if you are continually having to dish out refunds ALL. THE. DAMN. TIME.

Most of the toys / gadgets were second rate at best and quality was always being pushed lower.

I always loved doing the component sales as at least I had a moderate understating of them if even in just principal.  I would always be generous too.  "you came here for just one resistor?  here, just take it, I cant be bothered putting 15p though the till)

[Macbeth]

My prediction is they'll close a load of stores, push out some PR rubbish about efficiencies and focusing on online sales, the pension scheme will be pillaged and when Maplin finally goes tits up in a few years the taxpayer will be forced to bail out the pension scheme while the directors retire to the Caribbean.

PMSL. The taxpayer bails out the pension scheme, of what, the 16-17 year old schoolgirls who work the counter, or their 18-21 year old shop manager? 

I'm pretty sure minimum wage zero hour contracts don't come with a pension scheme.

But it has to be said it must be a much easier job than customer service at McDonalds or KFC.

[trys]

Maplin have an offer on now where you get a £5 voucher if you order online and collect in store, if you spend more than £10.

That really shows how they are trying to keep liquidity right now.