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

[Cerebus]

... and not really focused on a particular market, it has a bit of DIY, home furnishings, garden stuff etc, none of it particularly well represented.

I don't know that that is unfocused, it may just be pure cunning. I'm sure that that many an unsuspecting bloke has nipped out for a bit of two-bi'-four, the wife's tagged along, and he's come home with some new scatter cushions, a set of patio furniture and two boxes of bedding plants - which madam would like to please see planted before teatime.

[tggzzz]

... and not really focused on a particular market, it has a bit of DIY, home furnishings, garden stuff etc, none of it particularly well represented.

I don't know that that is unfocused, it may just be pure cunning. I'm sure that that many an unsuspecting bloke has nipped out for a bit of two-bi'-four, the wife's tagged along, and he's come home with some new scatter cushions, a set of patio furniture and two boxes of bedding plants - which madam would like to please see planted before teatime.

I've seen newspaper reports that Bunnings/Homebase was abandoning or minimising the stuff attractive to SWMBOs - and that was part of their problem. I haven't been in a Homebase for at least a decade, maybe two, so I can't comment.

[Howardlong]

Homebase to my mind has always played second fiddle to B&Q, but even then B&Q is dire when compared to the likes on Home Depot in the US, where the sheer quantity of different products makes B&Q look like a second rate corner shop bazaar.

I have the same feelings on PC World/Currys/Dixons compared to the likes of Best Buy and Frys in the US who stock far more selection. I still have no idea how PC World et al survive with such a limited and weak product portfolio (their key displays are often stocked with old products for example) when compared to online. Add to that their appalling reputation for before and after sales customer service, which they totally deserve, it’s a wonder how they’re still about.

[bob225]

Well no company in its right mind will carry millions of $$$ in stock especially electronics what has a high model turnover, just for it to sit on the shelf

To much choice just confuses the average consumer, A lot of items are also a considered purchase


Days of pile it high, sell it cheap has long gone

[tggzzz]

I still have no idea how PC World et al survive with such a limited and weak product portfolio (their key displays are often stocked with old products for example) when compared to online. Add to that their appalling reputation for before and after sales customer service, which they totally deserve, it’s a wonder how they’re still about.

Ignorant and easily bamboozled customers.

[bd139]

Aka most of my family.

Can you fix my piece of shit £260 netbook I bought in PC World? No, fuck off.

And that’s most retail these days.

[AndyC_772]

I still have no idea how PC World et al survive with such a limited and weak product portfolio (their key displays are often stocked with old products for example) when compared to online. Add to that their appalling reputation for before and after sales customer service, which they totally deserve, it’s a wonder how they’re still about.

Ignorant and easily bamboozled customers.

A few weeks ago I needed a spare PC that I could take EMC testing, and leave at the lab. It needed to:

a) send and receive commands to and from a piece of kit we were testing, and
b) not contain anything that I wouldn't be happy leaving unattended for a few days.

An hour later I had a new laptop on my desk, perfectly fit for the task at hand, and for the cost of just a couple of hours' lab time. Job done.

Shortly afterwards, my wife wanted a new laptop for herself - but she wanted to actually see, and try out, some different models before buying, and you simply can't do that online. We found one she liked, did a quick search online to check the price and spec. It was up to date and competitively priced, so we bought that one too.

Yes, both times I was asked if I'd like to pay extra for software setup or warranty; I said 'no' and that was that. No pressure at all.

Granted, pre-sales "advice" was just as you might expect, but if you know what you want then that's irrelevant.

[tggzzz]

I still have no idea how PC World et al survive with such a limited and weak product portfolio (their key displays are often stocked with old products for example) when compared to online. Add to that their appalling reputation for before and after sales customer service, which they totally deserve, it’s a wonder how they’re still about.

Ignorant and easily bamboozled customers.

A few weeks ago I needed a spare PC that I could take EMC testing, and leave at the lab. It needed to:

a) send and receive commands to and from a piece of kit we were testing, and
b) not contain anything that I wouldn't be happy leaving unattended for a few days.

An hour later I had a new laptop on my desk, perfectly fit for the task at hand, and for the cost of just a couple of hours' lab time. Job done.

Shortly afterwards, my wife wanted a new laptop for herself - but she wanted to actually see, and try out, some different models before buying, and you simply can't do that online. We found one she liked, did a quick search online to check the price and spec. It was up to date and competitively priced, so we bought that one too.

Yes, both times I was asked if I'd like to pay extra for software setup or warranty; I said 'no' and that was that. No pressure at all.

Granted, pre-sales "advice" was just as you might expect, but if you know what you want then that's irrelevant.

Of course. But clearly you don't fall into the ignorant customer category!

Last time I was there,  looking for a camera with my daughter, the salesdroid claimed  - and repeated when challenged - that every time you looked at a JPEG file its quality was degraded.

[Towger]

I'm sure that that many an unsuspecting bloke has nipped out for a bit of two-bi'-four, the wife's tagged along, and he's come home with some new scatter cushions, a set of patio furniture and two boxes of bedding plants - which madam would like to please see planted before teatime.

A man of experience.   

But you would go bankrupt buying your 2by4 there.  But this is how they make their money.   For example I saw a man looking at double sockets,  in a state of shock.  He was asking a member of staff if the price was correct, think they were about €15 each.  I told him they were a couple of euro in an electrical wholesaler.   His reply was, I know, but I need get 6 now.  It was a Saturday. 

[Cerebus]

I'm sure that that many an unsuspecting bloke has nipped out for a bit of two-bi'-four, the wife's tagged along, and he's come home with some new scatter cushions, a set of patio furniture and two boxes of bedding plants - which madam would like to please see planted before teatime.

A man of experience.   

Fortunately acquired second-hand.

But you would go bankrupt buying your 2by4 there.  But this is how they make their money.   For example I saw a man looking at double sockets,  in a state of shock.  He was asking a member of staff if the price was correct, think they were about €15 each.  I told him they were a couple of euro in an electrical wholesaler.   His reply was, I know, but I need get 6 now.  It was a Saturday.

All the big Bodge-It-Yourself style outlets are overpriced, some things more so, some things less. The worst mark-ups are often on the most prosaic things - a pack of 10 or 20 machine screws in B&Q costs more than a whole box full from a trade outlet.

[Ian.M]

Fortunately DIY is of interest to a large part of the population, (for varying values of D and Y), and there's another sucker born every minute  or B&Q, Homebase et al would be going out of business the same way as Maplin are and most Tandy UK stores did back in '87-'88 when InterTAN had their great 'Slash & Burn' to prepare for selling off their UK assets.   I think the contempt for the infamous Tandy £1 resistor (IIRC a nasty over-sized and under-specced 10% 1/4W carbon composition jobbie in a two pack card for £1.99, mid 80's which is about £5.80 GBP, €6.60 EUR, $8 USD or $10.60 AUD for the two in today's money!) proved that the electronics hobby just doesn't have enough suckers relative to the population as a whole to support the over-priced DIY store sales model, and then it was a race to the bottom first for Tandy thirty-five years ago and then for Maplin in the last decade as they shed the more useful and less overpriced parts in favour of tat that has a higher markup and a much better return on time spent answering the questions of the mouth-breathing idiots it attracted.

Currently I hear that Maplin store managers are competing to put the most useless gadgets right next to the tills for impulse purchases.  e.g. combined USB powerbank and luggage scale - twice the size and weight and half the capacity of an equivalent pair bought as separate devices and more expensive to boot.   Another goodie that anyone sane would avoid was a micro-USB fan on a rigid stalk with a ball joint to angle it at the fan end + a lightning adaptor to give it half an inch more leverage to really screw the Apple 'FanBois' -  Already troubled by glued in under-specced and over-stressed batteries, this gadget is perfect for effectively bricking your device by FUBARing your battery and lightning port unless you use it sparingly and baby all your gadgets with the care you would treat Fabergé eggs.   Android users are probably in a slightly better place battery wise (and for brains to avoid it except on cheap 'burner' phones), but its still just waiting to pop your USB micro-AB socket and its pads off the PCB the first time someone jostles you while you are using it.  Fortunately for the administrators the recent heatwave made them irresistible to fanbois, so I'm not going to get the chance to egg a manager into seeing if four of them can lift 2x 18650 cells! 

[trys]

The Maplin website is now closed.

[AndyC_772]

Last time I was there,  looking for a camera with my daughter, the salesdroid claimed  - and repeated when challenged - that every time you looked at a JPEG file its quality was degraded.

Oh, dear 

Every time I talk to someone like that, I'm sure I come away a little dumber myself.

[Ian.M]

The Maplin website is now closed.

I doubt the administrators had much choice.   Allegedly the Maplin web team were let go very early on in the administration but hearsay was that someone(s) had enough fore-knowledge to leave some very nasty surprises for the administrators' IT people, some of which might be best described as gifts that keep on giving.     Prior to the purging of the components section a couple of weeks back it was highly unstable to the point that pages frequently hung while loading, 'Check store stock' had been crippled as had 'Click and Collect' so it was very difficult to reserve more than one of anything.   Also, I understand there may have been some highly questionable scripts running.

If anyone picks up any ex-store, data-center,  warehouse or  HQ IT hardware from the Maplin bancruptcy they'd be well advised to nuke the hard drives from orbit with DBAN on read only media (e.g. burn it to CDR, nor CDRW and finalise it) before they do *ANYTHING* else with them.

[stj]

the reason the webshite wasnt working well is because every damned page you clicked was waiting for several indexing/profiling sites to ack the request.
i noticed in in my logs.

now they killed the site they are complete idiots because i cant check branch addresses,hours or phone numbers.
no way i'm spending money on petrol or public transport to go to a shuttered or empty shop!!

[trys]

Just search Maplin on Google Maps. It will give you the hours, telephone number, address, and if it's been permanently shut a helpful 'Local Guide' will mark it as such.

I agree though, a basic website should be set up giving those details.

[Astrodev]

The problem with Google is that is usually way out of date, so as they start actually closing stores that info probably won't be there until a few weeks later.

But on the plus side at least Maplin's will still live on for a few years in Google searches to really confuse those who are oblivious to the demise.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Rumoured to be on display outside a branch :

[tggzzz]

Currently some of the shops still have small Hammond ali enclosures in stock, at a better discount than stated on the shelves, i.e. usefully more than 50%, probably 70%.

They were sufficiently cheap that I stocked up on a range, since I never have small cheap metal enclosures when I want them.

[trys]

Rumoured to be on display outside a branch :

Yes, as reported by BBC Midlands no less:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-england-birmingham-43925875?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_midlands_today&ns_linkname=english_regions&ns_fee=0#post_5ae6e9da2bf832066771e20f

(The Shrewsbury store)

[trys]

Yikes! They really are selling off the fittings!

I went into a Maplin today , and they're now selling off the shop fittings themselves!

Incredibly cheap are little acrylic stands (the type you put leaflets in, or other types where you could put a book on display) are going for something like 10p each. A whole 6 foot storage locker for £20, parts bins, hooks, label tags that clip on - down to even the chairs they are sat on.

We just picked up some table-height steel mesh 'dump bins' (a fiver each), some of the acrylic display things, all for for my wife's business. The chaps were really helpful, helping us carry them to the car. My wife is well chuffed - she's finally found something she likes at Maplin!

I overheard one of them saying that it looks like the matter of a few weeks now before they shut - there again there is a 'staged closedown' of the stores apparently.

Trys

[Avacee]

Was in the Crewe store a few days ago and that's scheduled to close at the end of May but the staff didn't have a firm date as it depends on how well the sale goes.
If you need a USB desk-fan then Maplin is the place to go - Crewe has pallets of them at £5/ea :p
FWIW most of the fittings already have "sold" stickers on them :p

Stoke-on-Trent closes this weekend, whereupon "some" left-over stock will be redistributed around other local stores.
I guess the rest is either heading back to suppliers or to a bankrupt-stock specialist.
Might have to pop in Saturday to see if the prices have been knocked down enough .. Crewe still wanted £15 for a 1m HDMI cable 

+1 on the suggestion they should have kept some store info on the website - eg final closing date.

[CJay]

They were selling shop fittings when I went in to Telford a few weeks ago...

[stj]

i wonder if they wouls sell the monitor from a pos terminal?

[MosherIV]

Just picked up these 2 flight cases.
£15 for the small one
£21 for the large one



Not extremely cheap but ok.