EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
General => General Technical Chat => Topic started by: trys on November 26, 2017, 11:15:24 pm
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For those outside of the UK, there is a company called Maplin Electronics who are by now our only highstreet choice for electronic components when we are caught short and just need that extra bit that we have forgotten about. It's usually for me, a connector of some kind, or an enclosure to put the thing in once I've eaten all the Altoids mints I can stomach.
Yes, they're expensive compared to online stores, but they do need to pay the ridiculous tax rates that local authorities demand, along with the charges that the retail parks impose too.
Even though I'd want them to improve in some ways (like get rid of those really *stupid* component drawers in their "stores of the future", instead of having them on display), and bring back the Sci-Fi catalogues with component datasheets) I don't want them to go.
**ANYHOW**
I read the headline "Insurers cast doubt over future of Maplin", with the article in the Daily Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/11/25/insurers-cast-doubt-future-maplin/) where (quote) "It means some suppliers could struggle to insure their debts with Maplin to enable them to continue supplying it with goods.". The article describes the losses they have been running at, and that's really worrying.
It's worrying as the "Maker/Hacker" scene is probably stronger that it has been for a long long time, driven by things like the Raspberry Pi, Arduino (and possibly by the Micro Bit). The reason I imagine that they have a bit of a problem is that you might read about the "£30 computer, the Raspberry Pi" and find they are charging a relative fortune for it.
It would be good to give them feedback as to why we are not buying from them I suppose. I don't know.
Would you be bothered if Maplin wasn't around?
Trys
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Not really much of a loss, they have not been a sane option for anything much for the last 20 years.
Maplin are basically the latter day UK take on rat shack (Yes I know that was officially Tandy, but Maplin have ended up playing in much the same space).
Time was Maplin were actually useful, but you are pretty much looking pre internet, and these days all the full service component vendors will deal with private individuals on reasonable terms (I well remember RS refusing to play because I did not have a VAT number, you don't get that bullshit any more).
Regards, Dan.
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We in Australia lost Dick Smith Electronics after nearly 50 years. We've seen it all before. We still have Jaycar though and Altronics in limited numbers in capital cities. So we haven't had to go cold turkey.
Jaycar and Altronics have been better than Dick Smith for parts for at least 30 of those 50 years.
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I'm surprised Maplin has lasted so long.
Years ago they went away from components and into boxed-goods so were directly competing with PC-World, Curry's, Dixons, Argos, (Insert umpteen retailers names here who no longer exist), who often had larger stores with a greater range of products. The merged PC-World/Curry's/Dixons/CarphoneWarehouse has pretty much won the bricks+mortar battle.
In the Internet age you can go direct the manufacturers/distributors website or find it cheaper on Amazon, or even cheaper on eBay where the chinese have won the component market battle.
Only reason to go into a Maplin now would be if they became a DigiKey/Mouser/Farnell's/RS/etc outlet store :)
Been in once this year and that was to buy replacement wire and connectors after I forgot to take the aerial off before a car wash and it was ripped out :palm:
So should Maplin close it will be sad, and I hope it doesn't happen, but it won't be missed.
Edit: Having said that if there was a closing down sale I'd be straight over there :)
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It seems that the wait time between ordering something from China and receiving it has fallen a great deal. Just a few years ago when I ordered things from Asian suppliers it would consistently take a month or more to get here, but now it seems many things inexplicably arrive in just a few days. Often when the date they are supposed to arrive is still a month or several weeks away. Some Asian suppliers now seem to be using Amazon to deliver stuff too. Which means its really fast, because if it comes from China it must have been sent air freight.
This likely sets up a difficult situation for retail stores, with rent, employee wage costs, heating and electricity costs.
Only the very largest electronics stores like Frys in the Bay Area can compete with the online vendors on price and variety.
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I'm surprised they still have the component drawers in the back, and so much hobbyist electronics stuff - on the occasions I've been in a branch I've never seen anyone even browsing, let alone buying in those sections. It seems to mostly be toys/drones, AV accessories and disco gear.
I don't recall ever having been so desperate to have to pay their prices for parts - they occasionally have a few neat tools.
I heard from someone that supplies them that they've always been terrible late payers.
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Would you be bothered if Maplin wasn't around?
Sorry... but it wouldn't worry me too much. Maplin is very expensive for components so I haven't been shopping there for a long time. I think it has become home of the techno pro-consumer nerd and I'm too much a cheapskate to buy my techno junk from a bricks and mortar store.
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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.
But it's true that they have changed a lot. I have looked at their website at times, but I haven't ordered from them in ages.
A pity anyway. In the 80's and 90's Maplin, Jameco and JDR were really useful for me!
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I investigated buying a (wireless) Velleman oscilloscope from them recently, but they wouldn't sell it to people in the US.
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The Maplin catalogue was the best way to find the best stuff. That huge document had all the datasheets that nobody had access to without it back in the '80s. For some reason RS had a holier than thow attitude and refused to deal with little pieces of shit like me in 1985. Maplin had the shops and the magazines too.
It's absurd that Maplin will go the way of Dick Smith, when we now have a renewed interest in "Makers", surely Maplin knows their core market? Ok they have to sell cheap shit from China, but they can add some value?
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Maplin published several good books on musical electronics and guitar effects etc. by R A Penfold and these are still good books. I wonder if the publishing house will still be around even if the retail shops are not? Even though a few of the parts in Penfold's books are obsolete and hard to source he really explained the circuits and are good for people interested in audio circuits.
So even though there are no store here in USA, Maplin still has an influence.
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I guess they never really recovered from setting up business at Maplin Sands, and then the third London airport being sited at Stanstead. :)
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The US has had lots of chains that used to be quite popular back in the 70s and 80s and then most of them died after CB and home audio sort of became computer madness.. :) Some stores managed to adapt (Radio Shack) and toughed it out until just recently, fading away only a few months ago, but Lafayette never sold anything digital except maybe the embryonic Pong games.
Arrow is still around and they just sell parts. Frys seems to only open stores in areas they are very sure have a large potential clientle.
Micro Center is another chain that focuses on computers, not so much electronics.
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Retail brick-and-mortar stores are failing and going belly-up all over the world.
It doesn't matter if it's clothing, consumer electronics, a geek shack, kitchenware etc.
The retail chains are constantly bought and sold as investor cash cows, ending up so poorly managed, with no stock, old stock, and outrageous markups that people are going online instead.
Stores start losing money, blame the cost of staff and rent- then panic and restructure/reorganize/refinance and change their product lines and continue the death spiral.
Too bad they forget to return to the basics and what made them great in the first place.
Dick Smith had 131 months worth of AAA batteries (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3775569/Australian-electronics-retailer-Dick-Smith-stockpiled-twelve-years-AA-batteries-collapse.html) and 141 months worth of AA batteries in stock?! I can still buy them here in Canada :palm:
I'm not sure what Maplin is doing wrong, they've been bought and sold a few times it seems so they are probably clueless.
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I visited a one or two Maplin stores while in the UK last year, saddened me to see how Jaycar (and Dick Smith)-like they were.
Trying to scrounge money from profits on cheap China imports, I hope it isn't, but it seems like a spiral to the bottom. :-//
Here, Altronics seems to be the best of B&M stores. It's always handy to have a 'run-to' store around for an immediate fix when you're in a pickle.
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IMOP Maplin went downhill years ago when they stopped doing components and concentrated on toys.
The website has long since been deleted from my bookmarks.
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I think one of the advantages Altronics has is they don't try to be everywhere. I agree it is handy to have a go-to store nearby. You can't hold back the tide unfortunately and seriously would anyone want to go back to the pre-Internet shopping days. My last internet purchase was a pair of TI MSP430 devboards. $10 delivered all the way from the USA. How good is that.
That's pretty good. How long did it take?
Being based in Perth, I have 2 Altronics stores (and the main warehouse) within a 10 minute drive. So I can place an internet order and pick it up next time I'm out and about. RS gives free next day on anything they have in stock (which is usually enough), and then the non-urgent stuff can come from anywhere. I have resorted to Jaycar a couple of times, but each time I go in there I walk out vowing never to return.
It is a _massive_ advantage though being able to jump in the car and get stuff 7 days a week when something comes up and I didn't plan ahead, or I let the smoke out of something. I don't think Altronics is going anywhere anytime soon. I've never been in an empty store. There's always someone there buying random stuff.
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I think Maplin has had its day, and I wouldn't miss them if they closed.
I'm surprised they've been able to open so many new stores. Also, when talking about online competition, we must remember that Maplin started out as mail order.
Several years ago, I wanted something either Arduino-like or Pi-like (I forget), and I thought Maplin must have this stuff, even if its at higher prices (given that its more consumery than components). I checked the website for stock and prices, and it said 'Web only' :palm:.
On a side note, my local-ish independent component shop, Bardwells, closed down this summer after many decades.
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Maplins went south with the dawn of the internet. Back in the 70 and 80's with mail order (snail mail) They were just about the only supplier for hobbyists, well after RS got all shirty and would only supply trade.
If they go they go and I for one will not shed any tears on their departure.
Much much worse would be if the internet stopped working overnight.
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I used to go drinking with some of the staff & managers at Maplin in Leeds in the early 90's. It was in-decline back then.
I haven't been into a Maplin's near me for maybe 3 years, and the last thing I bought from them online was that WFS210 Velleman scope for £20.
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Not really much of a loss, they have not been a sane option for anything much for the last 20 years.
I've been pleasantly surprised by Maplin recently, they're selling components (albeit a fairly small range) at reasonably sensible prices, 4N25 optocouplers at 49p each is one example...
Sadly they've removed the component counter in a lot of stores but I have used them a *lot* more when I've come up with some crackpot idea in the early hours.
Sadly I think it's probably too little too late (component sales are never going to shore up their business unless they pump a huge amount of money into publicity and some huge mail order operation) and they're dead but just haven't quite stopped kicking.
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Problem might be loosing track of where the market is going and not following. They are forgetting the "4 P's" of marketing.
There is a strong market in the UK for components, its just that Maplin's stock is not as wide/good as others. Their only advantage is if I want a component today I can drive down and get it. With Farnell, I order today and have it tomorrow.
There are also several people on Ebay selling parts from Farnell at 100% markup and they are doing quite well, strange how people prefer to buy from ebay and not direct.
Ken
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It seems that the wait time between ordering something from China and receiving it has fallen a great deal. Just a few years ago when I ordered things from Asian suppliers it would consistently take a month or more to get here, but now it seems many things inexplicably arrive in just a few days. Often when the date they are supposed to arrive is still a month or several weeks away. Some Asian suppliers now seem to be using Amazon to deliver stuff too. Which means its really fast, because if it comes from China it must have been sent air freight.
This likely sets up a difficult situation for retail stores, with rent, employee wage costs, heating and electricity costs.
It would appear that a great number of Chinese Ebay stores are operating in a way to bypass import duties, and actually have warehouses within the UK (or EU) to reduce the shipping times.
Have you ever had to pay import duty on any item you're bought from China? I don't think I ever have.
On the other hand, any item I've bought from Australia or the US has always attracted a very healthy import duty, along with a ParcelForce administration charge for the privilege of charging me.
So it would seem that Ebay sellers who purport to be in China are unfairly competing with not only other Ebay sellers, put they are practically using a nail gun firing in the nails into Maplin's coffin.
As much as I don't enjoy paying tax, I'd rather pay it if it means that it keeps our island afloat economically.
Trys
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There is no point to use Maplin for pretty much anything more than in situations where you happen be desperate for some sata cable and shop is close by and do not mind paying 3 times the price.
Mapling is dying has been for last 15 years when will investors stop sinking money to it i do not know.
Most Maplins are tiny have horrible stock of over priced old stock that is not moving.
Only thing they move i think is drones and some other toys.
Also it is systematic when you enter in one to be approached by 4-5 "sales assistants" Asking "can i help you" what i find rather annoying... and makes me feel are they thinking i am trying to nick something maybe one of those drones :scared:
Mapling has had option to move with the times it has not.
Any business that do not do so.. will eventually run out of money.
I seen them try do so.. but it is always half hearted .. They do try expand to all kinds of electronics areas but end up being insufficient in all of them... you have to some extend concentrate into some area or you just end up with shop with all sorts in limited quantity without expertise in any.
Not to add the horrible web experience... finding components from even the tiny stock (where you cannot find components by capacitance nor voltage ratings.. etc in fact by no standard but price...) and even then you end paying rather heavy delivery change...
Or you can go to RS components buy components for 2 pounds... Free next day delivery.. it is amazing value
I would like Maplin other such companies survive... but there just is no real need for them nor do they produce good enough service.... if they did i would shop in them even if i had to pay some premium.
No Maplin sadly just is... well useless to me.
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@Bashstreet,
I have to agree with pretty much all you said there, I have three stores in a ten mile radius of my home and I can rarely if ever pick anything up from stock so I just don't bother, I've had bare CMOS 4000 series chips pushed across a worktop at me by some genius in one store, he was amazed I refused the part, but, if I can find a part on their website that's in stock at a local store and I want to test some theory or design out right away, then they're handy.
RSWWW are my preferred option, superb value and service, and I spend a *lot* of my hobby budget with Chinese sellers when there's no rush.
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Not really much of a loss, they have not been a sane option for anything much for the last 20 years.
Maplin are basically the latter day UK take on rat shack (Yes I know that was officially Tandy, but Maplin have ended up playing in much the same space).
Time was Maplin were actually useful, but you are pretty much looking pre internet, and these days all the full service component vendors will deal with private individuals on reasonable terms (I well remember RS refusing to play because I did not have a VAT number, you don't get that bullshit any more).
Regards, Dan.
Exactly what I was going to say. Maplin have essentially two business, what they call "Comp" (components) and what I call "overpriced shite".
When I was a student (thirty years ago :wtf: :'() Maplin pretty much only sold "comp".
Radio Shack played in the "overpriced shite" market, with a little bit of "comp" on the side. Radio Shack went bust.
Since Radio Shack exited stage left, Maplin have steadily sought to follow in their footsteps. It is pretty clear that there is not a big enough market for "comp" to support all the Maplin high street stores. It should also be clear that following in Radio Shack's footsteps isn't a good idea.
Yes, I'll miss Maplin. Their demise is inevitable if they don't change. Sadly I can't tell them how to be successful in that sector.
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The Maplin catalogue was the best way to find the best stuff. That huge document had all the datasheets that nobody had access to without it back in the '80s. For some reason RS had a holier than thow attitude and refused to deal with little pieces of shit like me in 1985. Maplin had the shops and the magazines too.
It's absurd that Maplin will go the way of Dick Smith, when we now have a renewed interest in "Makers", surely Maplin knows their core market? Ok they have to sell cheap shit from China, but they can add some value?
In the intervening years, RS have relaxed a lot -- their Electromail retail wing was rolled into the main RS, and they'll happily take orders on the website from the "great unwashed masses".
I note with some interest Farnell seem to be going the other way -- I just logged onto their website only to get a popup saying that I had to shop on their "Maker" store (which has a much smaller product range) unless I had a registered company, credit line and VAT number. This is a huge change - I've been ordering from them for a good dozen or so years.
That said, it's not even the slightest bit surprising now they've been taken over by Avnet. (they took over another of my suppliers and suddenly four years of "yep, fine, card with order" turned into "we want company registration papers - or shove off, son" -- just like the RS of old)
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Maplin published several good books on musical electronics and guitar effects etc. by R A Penfold and these are still good books. I wonder if the publishing house will still be around even if the retail shops are not? Even though a few of the parts in Penfold's books are obsolete and hard to source he really explained the circuits and are good for people interested in audio circuits.
So even though there are no store here in USA, Maplin still has an influence.
I've got a nearly complete set of their "Electronics" magazines up to about 2000 (when it changed owner to Kanda and promptly went kaphut). I'd love to finish the set off.
I also have a basically complete Elektor archive from No. 1 to the mid-2010s, when that got a bit "meh".
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Close them down, they're worse than useless. :)
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I've got a nearly complete set of their "Electronics" magazines up to about 2000 (when it changed owner to Kanda and promptly went kaphut). I'd love to finish the set off.
I also have a basically complete Elektor archive from No. 1 to the mid-2010s, when that got a bit "meh".
Hmm... would that Elektor archive include many magazines with cover prices in Rupees and classified ads for firms in Bombay? I think I have the same... ;)
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Those Electronics magazines were really good, I don't remember why I didn't buy them more often.
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Isn't this exactly the same scenario and outcome as Radio Shack here in the US?
For 10~15 years we had a local storefront shop that sold computer components (CPUs, motherboards, graphics cards, cases, drives, etc. etc.) Their prices weren't as low as the online sources, but they weren't up at "full retail", either. And they would assemble a machine from the components of your choice for $20 with a limited warranty. But they couldn't compete with the online vendors (even/especially Amazon) and just closed their doors a month ago. Now, the only option for brick-and-mortar computer components is Frys which is 25 miles away.
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Isn't this exactly the same scenario and outcome as Radio Shack here in the US?
We also used to have Radio Shack, but they were called by the other name, which was Tandy, over here in the UK.
They closed, many, many years ago. For similar reasons, but it happened a lot earlier, at around 2001.
Basically the Electronic's Hobbyist market, had mostly petered out, they tried to sell other things (Gadgets and stuff), but it just did not pay enough, so they had to close, eventually.
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They strated out as a mail order company in the early 70's and I think their first caalogue had a plain blue cover. They used to advertise in PW and EE back then. They stocked some really good stuff back in the 80's and 90's, still got a Blackfin dev board I bought from one of the shops and I might still have a Shark dev board somewhere. The component stock seems to have diminished over the years, they're OK the odd switch, pot, connector even a bit of cable or the occasional Hammond box. Last time I looked they still had a few overpriced arduinos and one raspberry pi. You would think they would have concentrated a little more on the arduino and RPi stuff together with robotics given the popularity. Looks as if they are going the same way as Tandy sadly.
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I've got a nearly complete set of their "Electronics" magazines up to about 2000 (when it changed owner to Kanda and promptly went kaphut). I'd love to finish the set off.
I also have a basically complete Elektor archive from No. 1 to the mid-2010s, when that got a bit "meh".
Hmm... would that Elektor archive include many magazines with cover prices in Rupees and classified ads for firms in Bombay? I think I have the same... ;)
Actually all of mine are priced in pounds - they're the UK editions
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I've got a nearly complete set of their "Electronics" magazines up to about 2000 (when it changed owner to Kanda and promptly went kaphut). I'd love to finish the set off.
I also have a basically complete Elektor archive from No. 1 to the mid-2010s, when that got a bit "meh".
Hmm... would that Elektor archive include many magazines with cover prices in Rupees and classified ads for firms in Bombay? I think I have the same... ;)
Actually all of mine are priced in pounds - they're the UK editions
As are all of mine, I think I have almost all up to 2012 and a few from more recent years. They gave me a free subscription a couple of years ago so I have a complete year of Elektor and Circuit Cellar Ink as well as a complete set of PDFs, all in English though CC is in American.
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I have a Maplin advert here on the back of a magazine (from 1977) with a coupon which reads:
Please rush me a copy of your 216 page catalogue by return of post.
I enclose 60p, but understand that if I am not completely satisfied I may
return the catalogue to you within 14 days and have my 60p refunded
immediately.
I wonder if anyone ever did return the catalogue and get their 60p back. These days, a catalogue does seem like an odd thing to return for a refund.
A slightly newer magazine (1979), advertises:
A range of highly attractive knobs is described in
our catalogue. Our prices are very attractive too!
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We have 5 stores in Ireland, l always try to go in if I'm passing. They are expensive though, but great if you can't wait for online shopping & I like discovering new interesting items on the shelves. I miss the catalogues too!
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In the last few weeks I've bought off them:
Three banana plugs.
A pair of leads (with banana plugs on each end).
A solder sucker (the one I was using wasn't sucking well half way through a build).
A SPDT switch
An enclosure for a PSU.
A PP3 lead.
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We have 5 stores in Ireland,
Have you compared the Irish to UK prices. Last time I looked (a few years ago) they charge us on average 30% more, taking the exchange rate onto account. I gave out to the manager in Jurves over this years ago. He started on about how it cost more to deliver here etc. I pointed out that we are closer to their distribution centre than the branches in Northern Ireland and they pay the UK catalogue prices. That shut him up.
In the 80s, I did most of my buying mail order from them and had a subscription to their mag. The only other choices were RS (Radionics), McKeevers, Peats.... Only RS remains. In those days Irish and UK P&P was the same and we could deduct the UK 15% VAT. Don't think I was ever charged Irish on import back then.
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I've got a nearly complete set of their "Electronics" magazines up to about 2000 (when it changed owner to Kanda and promptly went kaphut). I'd love to finish the set off.
I also have a basically complete Elektor archive from No. 1 to the mid-2010s, when that got a bit "meh".
Hmm... would that Elektor archive include many magazines with cover prices in Rupees and classified ads for firms in Bombay? I think I have the same... ;)
Actually all of mine are priced in pounds - they're the UK editions
Oh wow. I did have that free 3 month sub to Elektor a year ago but their archives didn't go back far enough to the mags I bought as a kid in the 80's. Perhaps they found an archive and reclaimed all the missing stuff?
I found a torrent for all the old 70's/80's stuff (one Indian guys own personal mags) and he was getting them air-mailed to India until 1984 when Elektor finally had their own Indian edition. It would be interesting to compare and contrast, even though I'm guessing the only differences are the adverts.
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Maplins went south with the dawn of the internet. Back in the 70 and 80's with mail order (snail mail) They were just about the only supplier for hobbyists, well after RS got all shirty and would only supply trade.
If they go they go and I for one will not shed any tears on their departure.
Much much worse would be if the internet stopped working overnight.
Does anybody remember Cirkit Electronics, they tended to be one of the best for components and other surplus items.
I got looking at a old copy of Everyday Electronics the other day and the rear cover was covered with a large advert for Cricklewood Electronics - still going. Nice to see they are still around.
https://www.cricklewoodelectronics.com/ (https://www.cricklewoodelectronics.com/)
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Meh, I mentioned this when the RadioShack thing was happening.
Even though I'd want them to improve in some ways (like get rid of those really *stupid* component drawers in their "stores of the future", instead of having them on display)
I had to go in there for the first time in a fair while the other day for a minijack to phono adaptor for an emergency sound system bodge for a house party later that day. Spent AGES in there trying to find one in the audio cable section without any luck and in the end I found the drawers. I like them! Much better than the not many varieties of connector spread across a small section of wall. The best bit was that they actually had one! Bloody hell!
I've gone there previously needing four 1N4001s (or anything really) whilst at a friends house in London (so had nothing to hand like I do at home) and they had three of one flavour and not much else. A single IRF540N? Nope. But, they had plenty of "recreated" Spectrum ZXs for nearly £100, and loads of iPod karaoke home disco flashy things that you always see at the top of the pile at the tip, with the speaker grille kicked in.
Speaking of which, these cheap and nasty home spin-and-puke fire hazards remind me of a cross between Dave's white van scam video and the "Christmas Is Killing Us" episode of Family Guy.
Speaking of reminding me of things. Maplin reminds me a bit of the Ben Heck show. Especially when I visit the shop. I think that quite accurately sums up how I feel about it! :-DD
The "technical expert" bollocks that they try and ram down your throat winds me up, just like the Currys "knowhow" :bullshit:
PS - Look at the price of this!
https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/maplin-metal-twist-on-ct100-f-plug-fu04e (https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/maplin-metal-twist-on-ct100-f-plug-fu04e)
They are that price for TEN in Screwfix and even that is expensive.
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Also it is systematic when you enter in one to be approached by 4-5 "sales assistants" Asking "can i help you" what i find rather annoying... and makes me feel are they thinking i am trying to nick something maybe one of those drones :scared:
Exactly.
"Can I help you?"
"Probably not."
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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.
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Does anybody remember Cirkit Electronics, they tended to be one of the best for components and other surplus items.
Absolutely, their catalogues were also excellent and I wish I still the ones I bought as a kid.
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Also it is systematic when you enter in one to be approached by 4-5 "sales assistants" Asking "can i help you" what i find rather annoying... and makes me feel are they thinking i am trying to nick something maybe one of those drones :scared:
Exactly.
"Can I help you?"
"Probably not."
Exactly the same "customer service model" as at Radio Shack here in the Colonies.
The sales-droids fluttered around the door waiting to pounce on the occasional customer.
They were particularly attentive to attractive females shopping for a new cell phone.
When they would ask me if they could help me, I typically said "no, I know where it is".
Because typically, if I told them I wanted a panel-mount TRS jack they wouldn't have a clue.
Sometimes, I felt like saying, "Yes, you can be helpful by going over and standing behind the cash register."
So that when I had my goods, I didn't have to try to coax one of away from the pretty cell-phone browser.
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Also it is systematic when you enter in one to be approached by 4-5 "sales assistants" Asking "can i help you" what i find rather annoying... and makes me feel are they thinking i am trying to nick something maybe one of those drones :scared:
Exactly.
"Can I help you?"
"Probably not."
Exactly the same "customer service model" as at Radio Shack here in the Colonies.
The sales-droids fluttered around the door waiting to pounce on the occasional customer.
They were particularly attentive to attractive females shopping for a new cell phone.
When they would ask me if they could help me, I typically said "no, I know where it is".
Because typically, if I told them I wanted a panel-mount TRS jack they wouldn't have a clue.
Sometimes, I felt like saying, "Yes, you can be helpful by going over and standing behind the cash register."
So that when I had my goods, I didn't have to try to coax one of away from the pretty cell-phone browser.
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). I’ve still got a huge box full of various Arduino shields that I regularly give away to beginners here on the forum. Plus I’ve got enough protoboards, fuses, lamps, LEDs, toggle switches, push buttons, project cases and power resistors to last a lifetime! (During the final closeout sale, I cleaned out the “Parts Drawers” from 3 separate stores. I couldn’t resist bags of fuses for 10cents each...)
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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 (http://www.squirestools.com/home.htm)
Bonex still do most of the RF components
http://bec.co.uk/ (http://bec.co.uk/)
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Also it is systematic when you enter in one to be approached by 4-5 "sales assistants" Asking "can i help you" what i find rather annoying... and makes me feel are they thinking i am trying to nick something maybe one of those drones :scared:
Exactly.
"Can I help you?"
"Probably not."
Actually the thing I hate is that sales "assistants" not only pester when I'm just browsing but unerringly seem to be able to detect when I do want to make a purchase and disappear!
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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 (http://www.squirestools.com/home.htm)
Bonex still do most of the RF components
http://bec.co.uk/ (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
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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)
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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".
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 (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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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/
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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.
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Exactly. Only an idiot would rescue it. Just let it go. That's 215 odd stores which can serve coffee instead :)
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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 :(
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Welcome to the technological progression of society, driven by us engineers and software monkeys.
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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.
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If they sold coffee or kebabs it might work.
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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
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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!
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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 :palm:
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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)
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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? :-DD
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.
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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.
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No one is going to war with China... China is slowly disowning NK over it because they know it...
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.
Don't ever say there won't be war. The nuclear clock is now 2 minutes to midnight, thanks mainly to the rogue nuclear nations of China, USA, Russia and North Korea.
The Sumitomo electronics plastics plant fire was a single source (almost) for electronics component plastics. It burned down in the late 90's, causing global chaos (esp. DRAM chips). More than one source means competition, too. Competition is healthy, as has been demonstrated time and time again. And the cheapest source is not necessarily good - cheapest could mean slavery, no work safety, oppression of workers, environmental vandalism and crap quality.
We should be supporting our local vendors and in particular our local manufacturers wherever possible, else you may just be part of the problem. Not just for electronics either. Pay a little more, get much better quality and service. A big tax hike on imports will help our local manufacturers.
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I call bollocks on the first point. Doomsday clock is just a big PR stunt.
The DRAM shortage lasted about 3 months while new supply chains were established. I was in the middle of this as I was selling custom built PC kit then. It didn't drive the prices up that much either, perhaps 10% and there was literally zero trouble getting RAM anywhere in Europe. Also even if you were multi-sourcing, that sort of volume has a lead time. Look at how hard it is for Apple to shift hardware. They have to multi-source from more than just China for example. It's not end of world.
A big tax hike on imports in countries with developing service economies and manufacturing skills gaps like Aus and UK will just end up with a massive facepalm, unemployment and further degradation of society into a mire of stupid.
The problem is everything is a race to the bottom. Competition actually drives prices down which is what has happened to Maplin. They can't compete with anyone. And before that they had a high street monopoly on overpriced, low quality electronic components. If I was to pop into Maplin a project BOM would be 1.5x the nearest competitor at the very least and they have no stock. This has never changed either; going back 20 years they had fuck all in stock. Even Tandy (our local Radio Shack) was better.
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If they sold coffee or kebabs it might work.
"Quad NAND kebab please Squire. Wiv all d' trimmings, generous with d' angry pixie sauce."
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I have waited 8 years for this and am now pleased. Sorry for the staff but the company is a con. I never really had any use for their crap and told them that I welcomed the ultimate demise of them and their business model when I bought a dodgy digital caliper off them that cost me more to return in multiple attempts than the thing cost in the first place. It was marked down from 30 pounds to 15 and never even worked. the one I have came from lidl, works fine and cost 8 pounds........ Maplin makes ebay look like jesus christs own table sale at the summer fete........
Good ridance
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Maplin makes ebay look like jesus christs own table sale at the summer fete........
Now you've brought that up.
It would be wonderful to meet Jesus Christ in person, wouldn't it? One day we will.
He doesn't need calipers.
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Maplin makes ebay look like jesus christs own table sale at the summer fete........
Now you've brought that up.
It would be wonderful to meet Jesus Christ in person, wouldn't it? One day we will.
He doesn't need calipers.
The very quickest way to get banned on here is to spout one's religion in a way that seems evangelistic or promotional.
Anyway, we all know that it's Maat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maat) you'll meet someday, and if you heart weighs more than her feather you'll be given to Ammut (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammit) as a light snack. Who needs calipers when you've got a feather and a crocodile...
Spout religion on here, however, and you're likely to meet Osiris fate at the hands of Set (lets just say it doesn't end well, with Osiris in 14 pieces and his willy inside a fish).
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That's why I started my response with 'Now that you've brought that up'.
Each to his or her own.
Live long and prosper etc.
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Maplin makes ebay look like jesus christs own table sale at the summer fete........
Now you've brought that up.
It would be wonderful to meet Jesus Christ in person, wouldn't it? One day we will.
He doesn't need calipers.
The very quickest way to get banned on here is to spout one's religion in a way that seems evangelistic or promotional.
Anyway, we all know that it's Maat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maat) you'll meet someday, and if you heart weighs more than her feather you'll be given to Ammut (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammit) as a light snack. Who needs calipers when you've got a feather and a crocodile...
Spout religion on here, however, and you're likely to meet Osiris fate at the hands of Set (lets just say it doesn't end well, with Osiris in 14 pieces and his willy inside a fish).
Which all still seems more logical than the contents of your average bible..
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I was in Office Outlet this morning (formerly Staples I think). It struck me that Maplin's target is (or should be) closer to customers going there than trying for the Toys R Us type customers (toy ride-on cars etc) that they seem to have gone for in recent years.
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There just isn't the volume to support a highstreet electronics component store. If you shed about 3/4 of the locations, and reimagined it as a specialist arts, craft and maker store it *MIGHT* be viable to retain and even expand the components, module, tools and T&M side of the business. As is - its just another seller of gadget tat with the remains of a component business tacked onto it.
I'll be sad to see it go as its loss will make electronics as a hobby much less accessible to children - its difficult to order parts online if you are underage or don't have a credit or debit card, and not everyone is lucky enough to have parents of above average intelligence committed to supporting their child's hobbies.
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I think if Hobbycraft started selling Arduino crap they'd destroy them overnight though.
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as has been said before, given the huge variety of parts and requirements no high street retailer can cope. Hec I had to order a uCurrent part directly from TI as even the big distributors don't carry it.
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as has been said before, given the huge variety of parts and requirements no high street retailer can cope.
Just curious about UK market, how much do you think the salary that is "reasonable" for a guy that works at the shop, that has decent knowledge on the store's stuffs and inventory, and also able to communicate and maintain good relationship with the walk in customers ? Realistically.
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I couldn't put a figure on that salary but I can say that the figure would be higher than any retailer would be prepared to pay.
Retail pays next to nothing, I'd imagine that the guy who sweeps our road every few weeks gets paid more than any non-managerial retail staff.
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Just curious about UK market, how much do you think the salary that is "reasonable" for a guy that works at the shop, that has decent knowledge on the store's stuffs and inventory, and also able to communicate and maintain good relationship with the walk in customers ? Realistically.
Maplin is just another generic retail shop with generic retail staff. The knowledge of inventory is inherent to the job, just like people working at Asda or Screwfix end up knowing the inventory because they take stock checks and restock the shelves. Salary-wise, well, those are all pretty much minimum wage jobs.
If I ever go to Screwfix asking for something and I find that it's out of stock, I'll ask whether they have anything similar. They end up looking through the catalogue, which is pretty much what you'd expect. Maplin is just the same - the staff just refer you to the catalogue or go through it themselves, hoping to find something.
Someone who knows a bit about electronics is over-qualified and should find a better job than working at Maplin.
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Maplin makes ebay look like jesus christs own table sale at the summer fete........
You have never seen the markup they have on Irish prices vs those in the UK, a good ~30% taking exchange rates and VAT into account. I have also complained over this and their excuse is that it costs more to ship items over to Ireland. :blah: I in turn pointed out that their shops in Northern Ireland have standard UK prices and it costs more to ship from their Manchester (?) warehouse up there. At one stage they did their own deliveries, the van probably came Manchester -> Hollyhead -> Dublin -> Belfast and back again. |O
I'll up your Jesus with an American dressed like a Leprechaun opening a Scientology Base in Dublin >:D https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=104985811&postcount=59 (https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=104985811&postcount=59)
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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? :-DD
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.
Those 19 year old workers will be entitled to the state pension via there NI contributions. Also the NEST pension is available now, but the employee can opt out of that. Also I suspect the contracts are not Zero Hour but temporary casual labour contracts which are mainly driven by statutory law than the employer. The law says they are allowed so much break time for every hour they work, so much holiday pay for every hour they work, so much pay (Minimum wage) per hour and have the right to refuse work and tell the employer to 'Get Lost' and walk if they are asked to do something which they do not agree with. Many companies have gone down this route in recent years, take or leave it employment.
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Retail pays next to nothing, I'd imagine that the guy who sweeps our road every few weeks gets paid more than any non-managerial retail staff.
Ans he would have a better pension to.
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Retail pays next to nothing, I'd imagine that the guy who sweeps our road every few weeks gets paid more than any non-managerial retail staff.
Ans he would have a better pension to.
Tesco "sales assistant" - about £7.60/hr
Binman - about £8.50/hr
Not much in it.
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Ans he would have a better pension to.
Tesco "sales assistant" - about £7.60/hr
Binman - about £8.50/hr
Not much in it.
[/quote]
Are the bins still collected by the council or have they all been privatised? I am sure a traditional council bin man (if they still exist) would have all sorts of additional shift rates and allowances.
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Retail pays next to nothing, I'd imagine that the guy who sweeps our road every few weeks gets paid more than any non-managerial retail staff.
Ans he would have a better pension to.
Tesco "sales assistant" - about £7.60/hr
Binman - about £8.50/hr
Not much in it.
10.6% less or 11.8% more depending on the way around that you work it or, if you prefer, £33.75 more a week - enough for a night in the pub and a decent curry afterwards, worth having. Either way, it demonstrates that retail really is at the bottom rung of the ladder, as we suspected.
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Most Binmen in the UK are on job and finish, so are paid a fixed wage regardless of how quick they walk or run. Most of them run. If it wan't for a fixed rate, they'd amble, which all sane folk would do.
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Same reason I always charge by the hour. :-DD
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They run to get the shift finished quicker, according to a neighbouring binman. They work in teams, and if they muck in together, start early, work quick, they can be done by about 2 o'clock in the afternoon. He also only does a four day week.
I've not asked him about his views on Maplin.
Incidentally, I reckon they just have too many stores. I've got four stores that I can get to within about 20 minutes or so. They also always seem to have as many staff as customers.
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That might explain why they just drive past without stopping to pick up the things they should be collecting. |O
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Bin collectors here start the shift at 3AM, and have a run that they do. If they hustle, and do not have to go off half way to empty the truck ( got too full and plate compactor will not compact it any more, and the bags at the back will not stay on any more) they finish shift at 9AM and are off till the next morning. Council employees, with benefits and such that the general worker can only dream of, and increases pretty much every year, paid for out of rates. That house of cards will eventually come tumbling down though.
Does mean that bin stuck in back will go into the compactor, and so what if the truck is on fire, we will put it out with garbage....
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I've updated the topic title. :)
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Bin collectors here start the shift at 3AM, and have a run that they do. If they hustle, and do not have to go off half way to empty the truck ( got too full and plate compactor will not compact it any more, and the bags at the back will not stay on any more) they finish shift at 9AM and are off till the next morning. Council employees, with benefits and such that the general worker can only dream of, and increases pretty much every year, paid for out of rates. That house of cards will eventually come tumbling down though.
Does mean that bin stuck in back will go into the compactor, and so what if the truck is on fire, we will put it out with garbage....
Lots of councils in the UK have outsourced bin collection to private contractors, in the hope to end that. The downside is private companies have to make a profit, so I'm sceptical about whether it actually saves any money.
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https://news.sky.com/story/maplin-in-48-hour-race-to-secure-rescue-deal-with-jaeger-owner-11268634
Looks like things were worse than first thought.
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It doesn't look good.
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No, it doesn't. Doubly so if the current owner of Jaeger takes over - they ruined Jaeger. I used to have a Jaeger jumper that my Father bought while on leave during the 2nd World War. It was still in good nick when I managed to lose it during a house move back in 2005. You'd be lucky if a jumper bought from post take-over Jaeger lasted over 60 weeks, let alone 60 years.
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It"s great that jumper lasted so long, and even more so that it was your Dad's to remind you of him.
I was left a pair of Marks & Spencer's Y-Fronts from my dad, still going strong. No, I'm kidding.
Shops like Primark appear to do well selling stuff that is fashionable, but doesn't last. Perhaps the Jaeger philosophy changed to keep them in profit. Not good news for new jumpers though.
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Stuff from primark lasts as long as expensive stuff I’ve found. It’s all shit, all made by slave labour in factories thousands of miles away and that’s the state of affairs on the high street. There is nothing on it that isn’t shit. Shiny shop, shiny price tag. That store front cost a lot of money so you’re paying to shop in it. It’s a race to the bottom so the quality will suffer before the margin does.
On the subject of clothes, the only thing that has a reasonable price vs wear factor these days is outdoors and camping clothes. This is why everyone I know seems to wear some craghopper trousers and a fleece from regatta or berghaus. These came from TK Maxx or a sale when it was out of season for about £20 a pop. Also you can dry them overnight. Might as well buy shit from the lowest bidder (Tesco) really.
A proper quality jumper will cost you about £300 (no joke that’s the going rate for quality). Compare that to what you’re buying.
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What? At £300 a jumper, it's not only the sheep being fleeced.
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Stuff from primark lasts as long as expensive stuff I’ve found. It’s all shit, all made by slave labour in factories thousands of miles away and that’s the state of affairs on the high street. There is nothing on it that isn’t shit. Shiny shop, shiny price tag. That store front cost a lot of money so you’re paying to shop in it. It’s a race to the bottom so the quality will suffer before the margin does.
That's exactly the problem I was alluding to. Edinburgh Woollen Mills (now an investment vehicle, once a purveyor of overpriced woollen tat to tourists) bought up Jaeger, gutted the quality and kept the prices. How they could do the former to Maplin eludes me, but that'll be their plan.
On the subject of clothes, the only thing that has a reasonable price vs wear factor these days is outdoors and camping clothes. This is why everyone I know seems to wear some craghopper trousers and a fleece from regatta or berghaus. These came from TK Maxx or a sale when it was out of season for about £20 a pop. Also you can dry them overnight. Might as well buy shit from the lowest bidder (Tesco) really.
I figured that out at the beginning of the '80s, when I started climbing and hillwalking, and thereafter stuck to the same functional ethic until the rest of the world caught up with me. TK Maxx is indeed a goldmine, provided you know how to spot quality and differentiate it from end-of-line 'fashion' brands. So you buy the heavily marked down (1/10th original ticket) Daks jacket, not the half price Armani one.
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trys - please don't change the topic title to something about jumpers..
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trys - please don't change the topic title to something about jumpers..
Especially not "woolly jumpers", we'll be flooded with the 'special interest' antipodeans. :)
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The lack of direction on this topic unfortunately mirrors the Maplin management I fear. Let's hope it starts pulling in the right direction. The management, that is.
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We are saving up our few bob for the big sell off...
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Sadly I don't think I would miss Maplin on the high street, I went through my mourning phase years ago.
When I was a teenager going to Maplin was a special experience. Being inside was like walking through a components catalogue. A place where everyone understood that Ohms and Volts language I was learning. They always had the component I needed.
Years later I noticed a Maplin had opened in the town where I lived but inside everything had changed. I did well to even find the dark corner proper Maplin had been hidden in.
Since then I've forgotten about them. When I need components theres online companies queuing up for my business. It must be hard for Maplin (and other types of business) to compete with the Internet. Sad though.
PS sorry for lack of bin related comment
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PS sorry for lack of bin related comment
The way the weather is, jumpers are more important.
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Most Binmen in the UK are on job and finish, so are paid a fixed wage regardless of how quick they walk or run. Most of them run. If it wan't for a fixed rate, they'd amble, which all sane folk would do.
That might explain the formal printed letter I had attached to my wheelie bin the other week. For many years I've been leaving my bin at the end of my driveway with the handle pointing towards the road. I assumed this was correct.
But I got a formal advisory letter from someone at the council that said my bin should be left EXACTLY where the binmen parked it (now empty) and in the same orientation. So now they want me to block the narrow public footpath with my bin and place it such that they can load it quicker onto the vehicle. I guess those saved seconds add up but it does mean that my bin blocks the path for about 8 hours one day a week. Anyone with a wide pushchair or wheelchair will have to use the road if we all place our bins the same way outside the houses.
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They come and get mine from the garden and put it back.
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They come and get mine from the garden and put it back.
That's nice of them.....
....but would open a whole can of worms should any injury occur while they are on your property.
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They come and get mine from the garden and put it back.
That's nice of them.....
....but would open a whole can of worms should any injury occur while they are on your property.
Would it really?
Same issue as if the post man trips up while delivering mail
I'm sure they have standard employers liability insurance
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Never underestimate the benefits of finding a solicitor which goes to the same masonic lodge as the local magistrates and police...
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They come and get mine from the garden and put it back.
That's nice of them.....
....but would open a whole can of worms should any injury occur while they are on your property.
Would it really?
Same issue as if the post man trips up while delivering mail
I'm sure they have standard employers liability insurance
Home owners can be liable - eg https://www.simpsonmillar.co.uk/news/property-owners-liable-for-postmans-injury-1037 (https://www.simpsonmillar.co.uk/news/property-owners-liable-for-postmans-injury-1037), but not necessarily able to pay the claim.
which is why some countries don't have mail delivery to your door but to a postbox on the edge of your property.
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But, you know, postmen. Any excuse.
From Viz:
(https://i.imgur.com/UjsgyCx.jpg)
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:-DD Love Viz
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I for one won't really miss Maplin when it goes. When it was just a handful of stores (Bristol or Birmingham were the closest) it was great and did things like valve transformers and chokes. Their kits were amazing and all the way from the "battery and bulb brigade " to advanced shortwave recievers and well designed test equipment.
Our local store in Rugby is hopeless. The staff didn't understand the difference between a pot and an electrolytic capacitor when I asked for some components. I always had to check everything handed to me from the component draws because it was often hopelessly wrong.
They don't understand why I refuse to buy a naked CMOS logic gate dropped into a plastic self seal bag. They must have destroyed hundreds of them this way. Wouldn't have taken much to sell them in individual ESD bags like any sane supplier would.
What made me mad was the crap miniature toggle switches I bought and tried to use. They were so flimsy that the solder lugs moved when soldering making the switch useless. On returning them for a refund I was told I didn't know how to solder :-// even though I explained I was using a Weller TCP iron with multi core solder and have had soldering experience going back over 20 years from valve chassis to through hole production and SMD work. I have never bought another switch from there again!!
And no I don't want flashy disco lights either!!
Christopher Capener
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Similar to the one in Staines. I asked for a cast aluminium enclosure and I got a look back akin to a cow chewing grass. No words came out of the guy.
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Looks like Maplin and Toys R Us will close down, plus other retailers at risk. It's part of a continuing trend in retail sector. I worked briefly in the retail sector, for most of the week the shop was virtually empty, I always wondered how they made any profit at all. Obviously the answer was a high markup, but that makes them very vulnerable to competition. It doesn't take much in the way of competition from internet sales to destroy the profit margin of High Street retailers.
In the UK people just buy the cheapest junk they can find, they don't care about quality or source. However, companies that don't adapt business models are bound to fail. I guess you can blame the management, but shutting down all the shops and converting to an internet retailer like Amazon would be a pretty bold move.
My first introduction to electronics was via Maplin and mail order "please wait 21 days for delivery...". There were other specialist suppliers like Electrovalue, but Maplin was quite accessible. I can't say I would be sorry to see it go, clearly the current Maplin is about reselling consumer tat, it's a long way from it's roots.
About the only thing I regularly buy from Maplin is a particular component box branded "Proskit", Storage Box with Removable Inserts (https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/maplin-20-compartment-component-storage-box-with-removable-inserts-sf05f), I haven't found another source with similar size and quality (and cheaper of course :)).
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They don't understand why I refuse to buy a naked CMOS logic gate dropped into a plastic self seal bag. They must have destroyed hundreds of them this way. Wouldn't have taken much to sell them in individual ESD bags like any sane supplier would.
Yep, they did that to me as well .
Its got to the point that I'm just waiting for the liquidation sale :(
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Its got to the point that I'm just waiting for the liquidation sale :(
It'll still be cheaper to buy the stuff from Tayda, which is better quality anyway and you'll just end up with a load of shit you don't need.
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Its got to the point that I'm just waiting for the liquidation sale :(
It'll still be cheaper to buy the stuff from Tayda, which is better quality anyway and you'll just end up with a load of shit you don't need.
Yes but that wouldn't give me the same sense of satisfaction >:D
One or two items in the tools section might be worth buying if the discount gets deep enough.
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They only seem to sell Chinesium crap tools. I have enough problems with bin space with my collection being every two weeks already :)
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They don't understand why I refuse to buy a naked CMOS logic gate dropped into a plastic self seal bag. They must have destroyed hundreds of them this way. Wouldn't have taken much to sell them in individual ESD bags like any sane supplier would.
Yep, they did that to me as well .
Its got to the point that I'm just waiting for the liquidation sale :(
Me too, though under the circumstances it wasn't worth my time and effort to argue. Life is just too short.
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They only seem to sell Chinesium crap tools. I have enough problems with bin space with my collection being every two weeks already :)
Yep! I bought a crimp tool from them a few years ago. Total crap, it simply didn't squeeze the connector tight enough to retain the wire.
I took it back and we went through every unit on display trying to find a 'good' one. No luck.
I bought one from a motor factor round the corner instead, apparently identical but with blue handles instead of red, similar price, and branded "Laser". No doubt it's just another Chinese copy of a copy of a copy of some 'original' tool, but it works perfectly.
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I have been buying quality tools recently, particularly lots of Wera stuff. In the last decade I haven't had to replace a single item. Seems to be paying off. I must have got through 50 quids worth of cheap screwdrivers in the 5 years before that.
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.. and there goes Toy'R'Us into Administration .... time to get down there and pick up some bargains :)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43225248 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43225248)
Mustn't spend too much so I can hoover up components at Maplin's later :)
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Boom!... Maplin enters administration .. 200 stores, 2500 jobs.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43223175 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43223175)
Now to put on one's mercenary hat and wait for "The Sale"
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When private equity get involved the prognoses is always bad.
They simply did not understand the business. Maplin was primarily a Catalogue & on-line operation, their core customers being hobbyists and those with an interest in technology and gadgets. They had a handful of small shops in low rent areas in large cities for convenience where people didn't want to wait for delivery.
Rutland Partners made the mistake of seeing a small profitable business and thinking that it would scale into a big business. The idea of having 200 stores was never going to work, anyone with any clue about the business could have seen it. This is the problem with running a business on a spreadsheet.
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They simply did not understand the business. Maplin was primarily a Catalogue & on-line operation, their core customers being hobbyists and those with an interest in technology and gadgets. They had a handful of small shops in low rent areas in large cities for convenience where people didn't want to wait for delivery.
Excellent summation. I can't think of a better way of putting it.
I still feel it's a shame as I used to know the staff in Leeds well and pop in a couple of times a week (in the early-mid 90's). I've been into a my local Maplin probably twice in the last 10 years, just shows how relevant they became to me.
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Time was Maplin were actually useful, but you are pretty much looking pre internet, and these days all the full service component vendors will deal with private individuals on reasonable terms (I well remember RS refusing to play because I did not have a VAT number, you don't get that bullshit any more).
Regards, Dan.
I remember contacting RS for an account when I was the technical services manager at an Acorn dealership "Orion Computers". The rep came round and it felt like a bloody interview! We spent a fortune there including my Fluke 100MHz digital storage scope costing £2500 in 1991/2 I still use them for some stuff as their choice is better and their site is good but their prices are on another planet! I wanted 3 4mm banana sockets to replace the sockets on my PM2525 and had to buy each of the three in pairs (so 6 sockets in total). It was £14 in total which would have bought about 200 from China :-)
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When private equity get involved the prognoses is always bad.
Correct, at least a lot of the time anyway! PE is often just a technical veneer for VC.
PE modus operandi is to see a small but reasonably successful operation, then expand the operation with the expectation of reaping the profit from re-selling perhaps 3 to 5 years later. In order to expand rapidly, they throw in tons of debt. In addition to the debt, landlords have been exceptionally greedy in the past three years or so.
There is a very close correlation with the restaurant industry, covered pretty well IMHO in this article from last week. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/feb/22/casual-dining-crunch-jamies-italian-strada-byron-struggling (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/feb/22/casual-dining-crunch-jamies-italian-strada-byron-struggling)
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.. and there goes Toy'R'Us into Administration .... time to get down there and pick up some bargains :)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43225248 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43225248)
Mustn't spend too much so I can hoover up components at Maplin's later :)
"The business faced the slump in the pound after the Brexit vote, weak consumer confidence and a withdrawal of credit insurance."
"Like many other retailers, Maplin has been hit hard by a slowdown in consumer spending and more expensive imports as the pound has weakened,"
"High Street chains have been badly affected by lower consumer spending, higher inflation and competition from online rivals."
Meanwhile the gov. keep saying we have (more than)full employment, a strong economy and never had it so good. In some parts of the UK businesses are falling like a pack of of cards, in fact some of them are cards/balloons shops!
Edit: Bye bye Maplins and Toys'R'Us. (is there all that much difference between them :))
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"The business faced the slump in the pound after the Brexit vote, weak consumer confidence and a withdrawal of credit insurance."
"Like many other retailers, Maplin has been hit hard by a slowdown in consumer spending and more expensive imports as the pound has weakened,"
"High Street chains have been badly affected by lower consumer spending, higher inflation and competition from online rivals."
Typical clueless journalist fluff that doesn't address the real issues.
Rutland partners loaded the company with debt and expanded the business way beyond what the customer base could support.
Business Rates and rent for retail space in the UK is excessive, landlords are better leaving a unit empty and then claiming there is insufficient interest to support an application for change of use into residential for much greater profits.
Maplin were in recent years selling mostly cheap Chinese toys, the same items could be found on-line for half the price from UK sellers or if you were prepared to wait for the slow boat from China you could get them for a quarter of the price.
If your business survival is dependent on a 2% change in currency exchange rate then your business model is broken in the first place.
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This Maplin closed during the summer.
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/maplin-'insurers-cast-doubt-over-future-of-maplin'/?action=dlattach;attach=399753;imag)e
https://www.mercuryvapour.co.uk/2017/05/21/goodbye-maplin-teesside-park-i-hardly-knew-ye/ (https://www.mercuryvapour.co.uk/2017/05/21/goodbye-maplin-teesside-park-i-hardly-knew-ye/)
I am can't think of any bargains in the sale, apart from component cabinets etc. Even at 70% off they are expensive for parts. I have no interest in Disco Dave tat, cheap CCTV systems and remote control cars. Maybe best to wait until stuff is being dumped...
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Time was Maplin were actually useful, but you are pretty much looking pre internet, and these days all the full service component vendors will deal with private individuals on reasonable terms (I well remember RS refusing to play because I did not have a VAT number, you don't get that bullshit any more).
Regards, Dan.
I remember contacting RS for an account when I was the technical services manager at an Acorn dealership "Orion Computers". The rep came round and it felt like a bloody interview! We spent a fortune there including my Fluke 100MHz digital storage scope costing £2500 in 1991/2 I still use them for some stuff as their choice is better and their site is good but their prices are on another planet! I wanted 3 4mm banana sockets to replace the sockets on my PM2525 and had to buy each of the three in pairs (so 6 sockets in total). It was £14 in total which would have bought about 200 from China :-)
RS, long ago when they were Radiospares, were basically a specialist distributor servicing the retail radio & radio/TV repair shop trade. They weren't going to queer their pitch by selling direct to their customers' customers.
Those days are long gone, of course.
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Rutland Partners made the mistake of seeing a small profitable business and thinking that it would scale into a big business. The idea of having 200 stores was never going to work, anyone with any clue about the business could have seen it. This is the problem with running a business on a spreadsheet.
No, Rutland Partners only got involved in June 2014, when the branch network was already pretty much what it is today, give or take a handful of stores.
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No, Rutland Partners only got involved in June 2014, when the branch network was already pretty much what it is today, give or take a handful of stores.
Quite right it was the the previous lot Montagu Private Equity who took over in 2004 that drove the expansion. But same thing they loaded it with debt and due to a complete lack of understanding of the business tried to expand it in the hopes of huge returns.
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It's just a shit sandwich. Needs to go in the bin!
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Boom!... Maplin enters administration .. 200 stores, 2500 jobs.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43223175 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43223175)
Now to put on one's mercenary hat and wait for "The Sale"
You may be waiting a long time. Maplin had a plan for a "pre-pack" administration in place, although I've heard nothing of it for a week or so. That means that there is , or was, someone already lined up to buy the assets of Maplin as they stand from the administrator, but without buying the actual company. The usual way pre-pack administrations work is that a new company picks up where the old one left off, but - as a completely new entity - isn't saddled with any of the debts, etc, etc, that went with the old company. Many people regard this as sailing close to the wind, but in the new shiny world of Finance Capitalism it has become an acceptable business practice.
There's no mention of it in the current news which either means that the reporting is crap because they don't understand the idea of a pre-pack administration or the reporting is crap because the pre-pack administration fell through and they are failing to report that.
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There's no mention of it in the current news which either means that the reporting is crap because they don't understand the idea of a pre-pack administration or the reporting is crap because the pre-pack administration fell through and they are failing to report that.
I highly suspect that those interested have run the numbers and realised that taking on 200 stores is just not going to work in today's climate. The way I see this going is that leases will be rejected apart from a small number of well placed locations, then a new package will be sold that is essentially the on-line business and a handful of stores that are profitable. The trouble is Maplin is not a consumer electronics brand like Currys.
The problem is the brand is squarely associated with hobbyists, a general retailer is not going to see much value in a brand that does not have mass appeal. In fact this is the heart of their failure, they thought they could attract a much wider customer base than they actually could.
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The problem is the brand is squarely associated with hobbyists, a general retailer is not going to see much value in a brand that does not have mass appeal. In fact this is the heart of their failure, they thought they could attract a much wider customer base than they actually could.
Our local Maplin store doesn't have any hobbyist appeal at all. It seems to focus entirely on computer bits and pieces, and security systems.
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WTF CEO blames the pound? :palm:
'Graham Harris, CEO of Maplin, has blamed the slump in the pound since the EU referendum, saying:
“I can confirm this morning that it has not been possible to secure a solvent sale of the business and as a result we now have no alternative but to enter into an administration process. During this process Maplin will continue to trade and remains open for business.
The business has worked hard over recent months to mitigate a combination of impacts from sterling devaluation post Brexit, a weak consumer environment and the withdrawal of credit insurance. This necessitated an intensive search for new capital that in current market conditions has proved impossible to raise. These macro factors have been the principal challenge not the Maplin brand or its market differentiation.
We believe passionately that Maplin has a place on the high street, and that our trust, credibility and expertise meets a customer need that is not supported elsewhere.
We will now work tirelessly alongside Zelf Hussain, Toby Underwood and Ian Green, from PWC, who have been appointed as the as Joint Administrators of Maplin Electronics Limited, to achieve the best possible outcome for all of our colleagues and stakeholders.”
from Guardian business news
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He's just a waffling failure like so many of these overpaid people desperatly looking around for something/one to blame other than himself! Bet he got lot's of nice fat pension contributions etc while draining the company :)
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Bankruptcy is the preferred "business plan". You can terminate lease agreements, ditch employee pensions, write off debt with creditors.
With retailer Sears going bankrupt, the executives still get their bonuses:
“It’s so they can finish the job. They need the incentive to stay and not find other jobs”. $9.2 million in retention bonuses to 43 executives and senior managers and 116 store general managers.
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WTF CEO blames the pound? :palm:
Well, the pound has been floating around at about 88% of its value prior to the Brexit referendum. If everything you're selling is imported (it is in Maplin's case) that represents a 12-13% increase in your purchasing costs. So, of course, that's a significant factor in the downfall of Maplin. I don't think that it's unrelated that over the same period they want from making an operating profit (ERBITA basis) of a few million (about 1-2% of a turnover of £235.8m) to a loss, also about 1-2% of turnover.
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The administration notice is now up on their website:
Zelf Hussain, Toby Scott Underwood and Ian David Green have been appointed as joint administrators of Maplin Electronics Limited to manage its affairs, business and property as its agents and act without personal liability. All are licensed in the United Kingdom to act as insolvency practitioners by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. The joint administrators are bound by the Insolvency Code of Ethics which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/insolvency-practitioner-code-of-ethics. (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/insolvency-practitioner-code-of-ethics.)
The joint administrators are Data Controllers of personal data as defined by the Data Protection Act 1998. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP will act as Data Processor on their instructions. Personal data will be kept secure and processed only for matters relating to the administration.
My experience of them (Maplin) was not particularly good, but I did use them on a vary rare number of occasions (which I can count on one hand) when I needed something urgently. They moved to a bigger store about a couple of years ago. I never really felt welcome in the old store. Things were a little better in the new one which I guess was down to a change of staff. I found their "sales" generally to be nothing more than a reduction of prices to the current 'street price' for a short while although I did once pick up and end of the line bargain. Unfortunately, the online experience was not that good either, with the site being slow and searches returning a lot of irrelevant results. Sad to see another UK high street store go, but since I used them so rarely, I cannot say that it will make much difference to me.
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WTF CEO blames the pound? :palm:
Well, the pound has been floating around at about 88% of its value prior to the Brexit referendum. If everything you're selling is imported (it is in Maplin's case) that represents a 12-13% increase in your purchasing costs. So, of course, that's a significant factor in the downfall of Maplin. I don't think that it's unrelated that over the same period they want from making an operating profit (ERBITA basis) of a few million (about 1-2% of a turnover of £235.8m) to a loss, also about 1-2% of turnover.
That’s assuming they built in zero margin and had no other outgoings such as rent, business rates or staff wages. Staff wages have been stagnant in relative terms for some years. Business rates and high street rents in key positions such as those Maplin have however have been going up far more than the weakening of the pound against the Yuan, about 12% as you say. While the Brexit effect will have had some negative effect, there are plenty of other things to contend with, as I’ve mentioned, as well as, of course, the over valuation during the last couple of buyouts.
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WTF CEO blames the pound? :palm:
Well, the pound has been floating around at about 88% of its value prior to the Brexit referendum. If everything you're selling is imported (it is in Maplin's case) that represents a 12-13% increase in your purchasing costs. So, of course, that's a significant factor in the downfall of Maplin. I don't think that it's unrelated that over the same period they want from making an operating profit (ERBITA basis) of a few million (about 1-2% of a turnover of £235.8m) to a loss, also about 1-2% of turnover.
That’s assuming they built in zero margin and had no other outgoings such as rent, business rates or staff wages. Staff wages have been stagnant in relative terms for some years. Business rates and high street rents in key positions such as those Maplin have however have been going up far more than the weakening of the pound against the Yuan, about 12% as you say. While the Brexit effect will have had some negative effect, there are plenty of other things to contend with, as I’ve mentioned, as well as, of course, the over valuation during the last couple of buyouts.
Well I did say that devaluation was a "significant factor", not the sole reason. The principal reason for their downfall will be, as always, crap management - it always is.
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The currency has dipped before.
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I hope it goes up again. I want to go shopping on Elecraft.
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Quite right it was the the previous lot Montagu Private Equity who took over in 2004 that drove the expansion. But same thing they loaded it with debt and due to a complete lack of understanding of the business tried to expand it in the hopes of huge returns.
I remember having a conversation with a colleague circa 2004. He worked for Maplin Electronics in the mid 1990's and mentioned the changes started to happen when Saltire group bought the company from I think was the original families who owned the company.
Saltire started to invest in the shops. He was invited to visit one shop which had been nominated to be expanded into a new superstore, he found a little shop staffed by a a mixture of people who were very friendly and was impressed. After the new store was finished he got chance to visit and said the new superstore was possibly ten times bigger than the small local shop (Leeds from what I recall) and he admitted when he visited the store that he was very uneasy with the idea of a shop which pushed the core side of the business at that stage to one side and the main shopping space in the middle shop being devoted to various toys, security systems and so on.
The staff in the small shop was mainly from a background of electronics hobbyist, amateur radio and modelling enthusiast twho gradually left Maplin and were replaced by staff who seemed to have little understanding of the items they were selling. He decided to leave Maplin Electronics and went to University to study electronics and admitted he never really bothered with Maplin after leaving them.
My present employer the warning shots have been made, the first waning was the MD made it known that he wanted to export as much of the companies core work to India and China in bid to cut costs (Cheap Labour) and maximise profits. A second warning shot came via colleague who got talking to the MD one day and he mentioned the MD had told him that he was in private talks with the management of two other companies and a investor. All I can say I have come across this before and decided it was time to walk. This happens often in many companies when the owners want to sell or expand the company and they get investors on board who decide to take the business down a new route and I suspect the same happened in Maplin in 1995 when the owners sold the business to Saltire.
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Well it looks like it's finally happening. Maplin stores have started closing down.
I've been to three of them in the North West today, with my long-suffering wife. Poor gal.
Many items are 50% off, with lower reductions depending on the item types.
A local store assistant told me that the sales today was like a pre-Christmas Saturday, where he himself had seen about £4k turnover today rather than the usual £1.4k or so.
They are not sure at the moment if they will be able to get redundancy payment or not, or whether they will be eligible to claim redundancy off the government or not.
One lad in another branch told me that he didn't know the store was closing until this morning when he walked in to start his day.
One chap who had worked there for over ten years said he was going to stay until the very end as he's spent so much of his life there he may as well.
It's a sad day for the employees, and for people like me that prefer looking at over-priced electronic parts rather than looking at curtains in Dunelm on a shopping trip.
Farewell Maplin, and thanks for the projects that you helped me complete.
Trys
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The workers are entitled to statutory redundancy and pay in lieu of notice but the amounts aren't huge.
Redundancy is 1 weeks pay for each year worked between the age of 22 and 41, a week and a half for any period of work when you were older than 41 (half a week under 22).
Length of service is capped at 20 years, weekly pay at £489 and total payout at £14,670; at least it's tax free.
Notice - one week if employed more than a month and less than 2 years, a week per year of employment if you have worked there for more than 2 years. Weekly pay capped at £489 and length of notice capped at 12 weeks.
I went into my local store but nothing I wanted even at the discounted prices - discounts aren't huge (10 or 20%) on anything remotely worth buying.
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WTF CEO blames the pound? :palm:
Brexit probably isn't helping but retail is difficult nowadays with online shops providing a much better and easier way to buy everyday stuff like clothes, cooking equipment, household items, electronics. The only stuff I buy in a shop is food but I'm thinking about ordering that online too because it takes me a lot of time.
In the NL over 40 retail chains collapsed in the past 5 years. Many of these have been around for decades.
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In the NL over 40 retail chains collapsed in the past 5 years. Many of these have been around for decades.
I wonder how that figure compares with other 5 year periods in the past? Retail has never been the most stable of business areas, even for large chains.
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I've stocked up with 16 x 2 OLED screens. The green OLEDS are selling for £7.49, white at £8, yellow at £9.99.
https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/oled-2x16-green-character-display-n04qq (https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/oled-2x16-green-character-display-n04qq)
A search for part number MCOB21605G1V-EYP online shows typical prices with VAT elsewhere at about £24 (Farnell) and even on eBay when I checked yesterday the cheapest delivered price was £21.
Incidentally, as the datasheets show, these OLEDS will operate happily at 3.3v or 5v. The protocol is compatible with the Hitachi chip of comparable LCD screens so software libraries are compatible too ( Raspberry Pi, Arduino).
The stock inventory control on their website does not appear to be very quick to update right now so if you are after anything specific, keep that in mind.
Other things I found good value was 'Peel n Press', PCB transfer paper, copper clad board. The 'lucky bags' are down to about £2 (in case you feel lucky).
The solderless breadboards are good, my favourite is this with a backplate and binding posts.
https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/rh-21b-silver-plated-plugblock-type-yu79l (https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/rh-21b-silver-plated-plugblock-type-yu79l)
Their ICs are working out as cheap or cheaper than CPC or Farnell. The now obsolete LM380 is available there at 50p a pop, it might be our last chance to get one before the fake ones are the only ones available.
Trys
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I've stocked up with 16 x 2 OLED screens. The green OLEDS are selling for £7.49, white at £8, yellow at £9.99.
https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/oled-2x16-green-character-display-n04qq (https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/oled-2x16-green-character-display-n04qq)
Tempting but ultimately just buying more stuff I don't need because it's cheap, it's a habit I need to get out of.
Helped by the fact that there aren't any in stock locally (though work on Mondays takes me within a couple of miles of another store which did have a couple left).
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Discounts in-store seem to be pretty low at the moment - browsed at 2 locations -a few bins of stuff at up to 50% like random part-reels of cut-to-length cable, but mostly 20-30% and no obvious discounts on higher-ticket items - I suspect they'll clear out small stuff, and the bigger stuff that's worth collecting up and cataloguing will end up on their site or ebay.
Probably worth finding out when they are planning to close your local place and going on thw last day ( and maybe dumpster diving the day after!)
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Tempting but ultimately just buying more stuff I don't need because it's cheap, it's a habit I need to get out of.
Indeed. It's not cheap if you don't use it (he says looking at the 500-odd bags of transistors in the cupboard)
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Any word on the sell of stock online or other wheres?
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Tempting but ultimately just buying more stuff I don't need because it's cheap, it's a habit I need to get out of.
Very true indeed, I need to shake off that habit too.
I've been meaning to get an OLED 16 x 2 ever since I started messing about with a Raspberry Pi Internet Radio project, a little automated audio recording system, and a PI Cluster. I really couldn't justifying spending thirty quid on just one. So, buying four green OLEDs at Maplin is like buying one at CPC (http://cpc.farnell.com/midas/mcoc1602awmye/oled-2x16-yellow-green-on-black/dp/SC12729) ( £28.73 ).
The thing I can't justify buying is buying five bags of 'lucky dip' foil capacitors, the lucky dip LED/LCD displays, and the very junky lucky dip variable resistors!! Yikes.
One thing worth remembering now is that you cannot get a refund if you change your mind.
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Just buy one of the full dot matrix high res LCD oLED screens for £3 on ebay or £1.20 from China.
^^^^ this is why Maplin failed.
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Just buy one of the full dot matrix high res LCD oLED screens for £3 on ebay or £1.20 from China.
^^^^ this is why Maplin failed.
You can't buy 5mm 16 X 2 OLED (not LCD !) screens for £3 off eBay. Just search 16 X 2 OLED on eBay and see for yourself.
Edited to add: Oh, and any Winstar ones aren't specced to work down to 3.3v.
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Not sure why people want the OLED ones. They only last a couple of years before they go wonky. Oh and the blue and white LCD ones are awful too.
I’m buying full whack price standard 16x2 puke coloured backlit LCDs off RS for £7 a pop. Excellent contrast. Arrive next day. No waiting for the slow boat or for Royal Mail to cram them through the letter box. Meh to maplin again.
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Yes, LCD screens are pretty good, my favourites are the blue on black.
The reason people want the OLED ones is the 2000:1 contrast ratio (no backlight to bleed through), the 160 degree viewing angle (both left-right, up-down). The life of them is rated at 100,000 hours.
On an automated recording system I built, it's the viewing angle that really helps with OLED. The recording box is beneath the mixing desk in the 19" rack. The person operating the desk is perched right over the mixer most of the time, and an LCD just doesn't cut it for when they want to glance down at the screen.
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That use case makes perfect sense.
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The back lit LCDs look like something that fell out of the 1980s. At least the blue on black oLED displays look like they came out of this decade. I have both types. But the 16x2 are very limited.
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I'm using 16x1 large characters for most of my projects. Plenty of room:
(https://i.imgur.com/HWsdrh5.jpg)
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That looks great - £3.50 at Maplin at the mo.
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£5 from UK or £3 from China
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wveJYLRP0uc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wveJYLRP0uc)
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With power comes complexity, time and slavery. I include my entire 16x1 LCD handling library below, which is AVR-GCC and depends only on the AVR-libc stuff.
#define LCD_EN 0x20
#define LCD_RS 0x10
void lcd_reset()
{
PORTC = 0xFF;
PORTC = 0x03 | LCD_EN;
PORTC = 0x03;
_delay_ms(30);
}
void lcd_cmd(char c)
{
// high nibble
PORTC = ((c >> 4) & 0x0F) | LCD_EN;
PORTC = ((c >> 4) & 0x0F);
_delay_us(2000);
// low nibble
PORTC = (c & 0x0F) | LCD_EN;
PORTC = (c & 0x0F);
_delay_us(2000);
}
void lcd_clear()
{
lcd_cmd(0x01);
}
void lcd_home()
{
lcd_cmd(0x80);
}
void lcd_init()
{
DDRC = 0xFF;
lcd_reset();
lcd_cmd(0x02); // 4 bits
lcd_cmd(0x0c); // config
lcd_clear();
lcd_home();
}
void lcd_data(unsigned char dat)
{
// high nibble
PORTC = ((dat >> 4) & 0x0F) | LCD_RS | LCD_EN;
PORTC = ((dat >> 4) & 0x0F) | LCD_RS;
_delay_us(50);
// low nibble
PORTC = (dat & 0x0F) | LCD_RS | LCD_EN;
PORTC = (dat & 0x0F) | LCD_RS;
_delay_us(50);
}
void lcd_printbuf(char *c)
{
lcd_home();
int i = 0;
for (i = 0; *c; c++, i++)
{
if (i == 8)
lcd_cmd(0xc0);
lcd_data(*c);
}
}
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£5 from UK or £3 from China
Yes, I've got two of them. Good little units. Incredibly tiny. Another quid to buy a magnifying glass. :)
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I went in to give my local Maplins a fond farewell. Kinda sad. I bought an E12 resistor pack, not because I needed it, but I always thought it bizarre that I could buy a resistor on High Street Kensington, one of the highest retail rent streets London has to offer.
Also in the bag were a couple of USB 2.0 PCB sockets, a cheap USB 2.0 hub, a pack of E3 ceramic caps and a pack of E3 electrolytic caps. I bought those exact same packs a few years ago, and I still use the contents of the old ones, mostly for breadboarding parts.
Not much on deep discount, a few disco/DJ gadgets and a sign board, that was it.
Stock is starting to dwindle, with noticeably more racks empty than usual. No returns either as they're in administration.
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High Street Kensington, one of the highest retail rent streets London has to offer
Why on earth have a Maplin on Kensington High Street when just a short walk further up the same road is the original Hammersmith branch? - that has been there since the '80s.
No wonder they went under.
PS. I do remember a Tandy ("Radio Shack") up on High St. Ken. back in the '80s - opposite Barkers on the corner with Church Street. It was a total rip off and never had anything even back then.
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High Street Kensington, one of the highest retail rent streets London has to offer
Why on earth have a Maplin on Kensington High Street when just a short walk further up the same road is the original Hammersmith branch? - that has been there since the '80s.
Cos it was handy for Wholefoods?
We were oversupplied in Manchester, we had three, possibly four, Regents Park, Cheetham Hill and Oxford Road (the first), and there was another but I'm not sure it didn't close for the Cheetham Hill 'superstore' all under three miles apart.
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High Street Kensington, one of the highest retail rent streets London has to offer
Why on earth have a Maplin on Kensington High Street when just a short walk further up the same road is the original Hammersmith branch? - that has been there since the '80s.
No wonder they went under.
PS. I do remember a Tandy ("Radio Shack") up on High St. Ken. back in the '80s - opposite Barkers on the corner with Church Street. It was a total rip off and never had anything even back then.
Hammersmith is a bit more than a short walk, it's a good couple of miles West. It did move about five years ago a few doors down.
I was pretty surprised when the one on High St Ken opened perhaps ten years ago, in a new build development. It's right next door to PC World if you're looking for a truly bad customer experience, although I have bumped into Brian May a couple of times in there.
Very occasionally I have been known to do a Maplin crawl to get all the parts I needed for a project, there are eight within a three mile radius of me. The problem is that London traffic makes three miles equivalent to about ten anywhere else, so it could take a couple of hours when they only hold two of a part and you need eight.
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Cos it was handy for Wholefoods?
I was tempted ;-) but resisted. The larder is well stocked with quinoa and kale at the moment.
We were oversupplied in Manchester, we had three, possibly four, Regents Park, Cheetham Hill and Oxford Road (the first), and there was another but I'm not sure it didn't close for the Cheetham Hill 'superstore' all under three miles apart.
Oxford Road is the only one I remember from when I lived in Manchester from '83 to '91, I think it opened about 1986 or so, it was quite a thing for a nerd.
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Just remembered another fallen company: Cirkit distribution (Broxbourne). I favored them over Maplin for many years even though Maplin was closer.
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Cos it was handy for Wholefoods?
I was tempted ;-) but resisted. The larder is well stocked with quinoa and kale at the moment.
There is always a reason for Wholefoods Kensington, the cheese room.
Oxford Road is the only one I remember from when I lived in Manchester from '83 to '91, I think it opened about 1986 or so, it was quite a thing for a nerd.
I must have been in there around the same time as you then, I was there most Saturdays.
The staff at Oxford Road were an excellent resource and keen hobbyists but sadly, they all moved on, I think one or two for the very reasons we all came to loath the management of Maplin.
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Just remembered another fallen company: Cirkit distribution (Broxbourne). I favored them over Maplin for many years even though Maplin was closer.
Cirkit were excellent, both Maplin and Cirkit catalogues were great fun reading (yeah, I know, much nerd?) but the Cirkit one was a superb source of RF components and data as well as the many project kits, of the two, I'd have rather Cirkit had continued..
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I lived for the catalogues too. RF components were great from there - they sold some coil formers which I bought a few of to make FM bugs with. Shame they're not around still. I could do with a place like that these days. Spectrum communications are as close as we've got now.
Just been going through my junk boxes as I've got the day off today and found a couple of Maplin items. I have an ISA PC relay card I bought circa 1995 to build a PC based PLC after I skip dived a rack mounted 386. Typical unfinished project. Also found a Maplin parallel port PIC programmer! Good times building those kits.
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Oh yes, Cirkit were great. I still use my Larsholt based FM tuner.
P.S. IIRC they were Ambit before they renamed to Cirkit, weren't they?
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Cos it was handy for Wholefoods?
I was tempted ;-) but resisted. The larder is well stocked with quinoa and kale at the moment.
There is always a reason for Wholefoods Kensington, the cheese room.
Strangely enough, that's exactly where I would have been heading. It can make for a very expensive diversion if that's what floats your boat, it does mine.
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P.S. IIRC they were Ambit before they renamed to Cirkit, weren't they?
Yes, it was started by Bill Poel, who I knew in the 90s from his involvement with the LINX. I hadn't linked the two until just now, when I did a quick search to check your remembrances - the likelihood of it being two different Bill Poels is vanishingly small.
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Is the the same Bill Poel of USP Networks? If so, very small world.
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Just 20% off in my local store on the test leads + tools, still expensive.
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Some stuff is ok, just scored an instrument case for around £6
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Is the the same Bill Poel of USP Networks? If so, very small world.
I think that's now, I can't remember what outfit he was with back when I knew him but I don't think a single ISP that existed back then has the same name now (apart from BT and Colt). It's over 10 years since I stopped having anything to do with the LINX. I'm assuming that the Ambit Bill Poel is the same one I knew, simply because the name is so unusual that it must verge on World unique.
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Yeah it struck me as a one off name as well. Then again I thought my oldest daughter’s name was unique and turned up at a new job and there was a woman there with the same name :palm: . Would be interesting if it is the same guy as he’s certainly had an interesting and eventful life if it is.
Demon are the only one I know that is still going. I sued them once hahaha :)
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Demon are the only one I know that is still going. I sued them once hahaha :)
In name only as a wholly owned subsidiary of Vodafone; more a zombie existence to be honest.
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Ah that doesn't surprise me. Bunch off asshats anyway.
Back on topic, from The Register: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/03/14/maplin_prices_still_higher_in_closing_down_sale/ (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/03/14/maplin_prices_still_higher_in_closing_down_sale/)
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Arsehats they were, I **nearly** sued them, billing cockup that was remarkably hard to fix.
We will gloss over the seeming inability to run a NNTP server that actually worked properly....
Regards, Dan.
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That sounds about right. Our problem was an SDSL line that they hard blocked outbound SMTP from and told us "tough shit" and then refused to cancel under the terms of the contract to supply a service which supported that :palm:
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Arsehats they were, I **nearly** sued them, billing cockup that was remarkably hard to fix.
We will gloss over the seeming inability to run a NNTP server that actually worked properly....
Regards, Dan.
Hey, nobody could afford to run an NNTP server properly. I was *so* glad the day that I could drop NNTP from the list of things that we *had* to support. NNTP ate bandwidth, disk and support time, especially when it came to policing it. I'm a pretty liberal guy, but some of the pure filth I had to scrub out of images groups beggars belief.
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That sounds about right. Our problem was an SDSL line that they hard blocked outbound SMTP from and told us "tough shit" and then refused to cancel under the terms of the contract to supply a service which supported that :palm:
That just demonstrates a lack of technical nous, as it's quite easy to support arbitrary filters on a line-by-line basis. That surprises me, as I knew the senior technical bods at Demon/Scottish Telecom/Thus and they were not short on ability.
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Hey, nobody could afford to run an NNTP server properly. I was *so* glad the day that I could drop NNTP from the list of things that we *had* to support. NNTP ate bandwidth, disk and support time, especially when it came to policing it. I'm a pretty liberal guy, but some of the pure filth I had to scrub out of images groups beggars belief.
Back in the day I did take a newsfeed (over a Telebit "trailblazer" modem, no less) and run a local server we didn't take anything but pure text groups - as you say too little bandwidth, too little disk space and too little appetite for decontamination.
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That sounds about right. Our problem was an SDSL line that they hard blocked outbound SMTP from and told us "tough shit" and then refused to cancel under the terms of the contract to supply a service which supported that :palm:
That just demonstrates a lack of technical nous, as it's quite easy to support arbitrary filters on a line-by-line basis. That surprises me, as I knew the senior technical bods at Demon/Scottish Telecom/Thus and they were not short on ability.
It wasn't a lack of nous. They were trying to defend themselves from being RBL'ed at the time I think so the policy was basically introduced to block outbound SMTP. Unfortunately back in 2004 it was quite standard for people to run Exchange Internet facing on the end of your SDSL line.
Had to stick a relay box in a colo and forward it via that eventually. The Exchange box moved up there shortly after.
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I went to the local Maplin for a look at lunchtime...
I'm in the market for some powerline adapters.... even with the markdown they are more expensive than Amazon
I saw a flux pen in the soldering section (mine is very old so a spare might be useful)... it was £13.99 - 20% for the sale... checked price on Farnell... £8+VAT
No wonder they got into trouble.
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Yeah it struck me as a one off name as well. Then again I thought my oldest daughter’s name was unique and turned up at a new job and there was a woman there with the same name
I had a call to deal with a new laptop for a young woman who's parents had had a *really* good time in the 70s if her name was anything to go by.
Her email address was moonflower.robinson6@xxxxxx.net (name changed to protect confidentiality)
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A couple of years below me in school there were a pair of twins named "Rainbow" and "Sunshine", fairly sure there was murder done in that family once they hit teenage.
Also fairly sure the judge would have ruled it justifiable homicide.
Regards, Dan.
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Under the wife’s direction, one of mine has a middle name of rainbow. This was chosen by one of the other ones. I suggest you never give children a position of important decision making. Also some mothers are fucking mental. We have our own celebrity numpties in the playground who named their children stupid names. It’s so uniquely shit that I am not going to post it but it runs rings around rainbow and sunshine.
I was disappointed when that couple from Canada didn’t call their daughter Megatron.
Anyway back in topic my 85 year old mother, who incidentally is no technophobe and a bit handy with the old soldering iron, went in one today and came out with a big ass yuasa 12v battery. Not sure why yet. She does this occasionally. It’ll sit there for three months and I’ll dispose of it for her.
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Under the wife’s direction, one of mine has a middle name of rainbow.
I'm afraid my kids are going to not like my wife because of their middle names. I just made sure they got spelled right though.
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Anyway back in topic my 85 year old mother, who incidentally is no technophobe and a bit handy with the old soldering iron, went in one today and came out with a big ass yuasa 12v battery. Not sure why yet.
Oh, she's probably planning on balancing it above on the door for when you visit her next. That will teach ya! :)
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Anyway back in topic my 85 year old mother, who incidentally is no technophobe and a bit handy with the old soldering iron, went in one today and came out with a big ass yuasa 12v battery. Not sure why yet. She does this occasionally.
https://youtu.be/xNkrHJYzV0o?t=176
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Hahaha yes exactly that :-DD
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Does anyone know when's the final close date? Or does it depend on location/store?
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No, nobody knows in the stores, but the administrators probably have a timetable of of the shutdown.
Maplins are still offering free delivery (orders over £10), so I would gather that they are confident on fulfilling those orders.
They have removed some items off the website that are only available in store it seems (I was searching for a particular Hammond cast aluminium box).
There will probably be deeper discounts as we see them shutting.
Trys
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Once a company is under administration the Administrators become liable for any debts under their watch. So it 'should be' safer to order online from them now than a couple of weeks ago. Assuming PWC are good for a few bob.
Fixed Typo
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Once a company is under administration the Administrators become liable for any debts under their watch.
First time I've ever heard that. I have heard that debts newly entered into during administration become priority debts, payable out of any remaining fund if and when a company is liquidated, but those are still company liabilities not liabilities of the administrators. Do you have anything you can point to that supports your assertion?
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Once a company is under administration the Administrators become liable for any debts under their watch. So it 'should be' safer to order online from them now than a couple of weeks ago. Assuming PWC are good for a few bob.
Fixed Typo
Administrators do not take on the liability. This text is on the website and should be displayed at all of the stores.
'Zelf Hussain, Toby Scott Underwood and Ian David Green have been appointed as joint administrators of Maplin Electronics Limited to manage its affairs, business and property as its agents and act without personal liability.'
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There was a bit in today's local paper about Maplin. They showed a photo of our local store with the 'CLOSING DOWN' signs. The paper asked Maplin if/when the store was closing, and they said the 'CLOSING DOWN' signs are just a marketing ploy.
???
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I came across this recently and found it quite interesting and well written: http://www.coppolacomment.com/2018/03/the-sad-story-of-maplin-electronics.html (http://www.coppolacomment.com/2018/03/the-sad-story-of-maplin-electronics.html)
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I came across this recently and found it quite interesting and well written: http://www.coppolacomment.com/2018/03/the-sad-story-of-maplin-electronics.html (http://www.coppolacomment.com/2018/03/the-sad-story-of-maplin-electronics.html)
Yes, I posted the same link in the `Maplin "in talks to sell the business" ' thread - basically blaming the venture capitalists, particularly Montagu for saddling the company with unserviceable debt.
There was a bit in today's local paper about Maplin. They showed a photo of our local store with the 'CLOSING DOWN' signs. The paper asked Maplin if/when the store was closing, and they said the 'CLOSING DOWN' signs are just a marketing ploy.
The staff or the paper said this? - seems a bit bizarre or naïve
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I came across this recently and found it quite interesting and well written: http://www.coppolacomment.com/2018/03/the-sad-story-of-maplin-electronics.html (http://www.coppolacomment.com/2018/03/the-sad-story-of-maplin-electronics.html)
A long read, but worth it. If you don't understand how and why Finance Capitalism is quietly destroying the world you will have a fair inkling after reading that. It describes how successive owners of Maplin have bought it using financial shenanigans and then run it with only concern for how things look (more financial shenanigans) and no concern for the actual underlying functional business that it represents.
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I came across this recently and found it quite interesting and well written: http://www.coppolacomment.com/2018/03/the-sad-story-of-maplin-electronics.html (http://www.coppolacomment.com/2018/03/the-sad-story-of-maplin-electronics.html)
A long read, but worth it. If you don't understand how and why Finance Capitalism is quietly destroying the world you will have a fair inkling after reading that. It describes how successive owners of Maplin have bought it using financial shenanigans and then run it with only concern for how things look (more financial shenanigans) and no concern for the actual underlying functional business that it represents.
Yep. To them it is purely a financial instrument. If they can sell it with a higher value than they bought it, the will do it. Completely and utterly regardless of it's actual value. In fact, they can buy it while it's struggling, legally tweak the books a bit, sell it for more, then wait till it struggles again and buy it back. Rinse repeat.
The financial owners often have absolutely zero interest in the value of the company based on it's purpose or functionality only on how the price can be manipulated or used to manipulate other holdings for profit.
I believe, going back quite a while, this is why in the states corporations were only allowed to exist for government projects and were disbanded on completion. Companies were not allowed to own other companies or assets not directly related to their business. This is important for proper competitive capitalism to function as it should. When companies start buying other companies it creates unfair cooperation in the market and allows companies to grow excessively large and powerful giving them too much influence to override the democratic nature of capitalism.
Of course, the corruption ripe in governments, such as the USA and money men getting into all corners of government these regulations were removed and cooperation given the same rights as individuals.
I'm not entirely sure how it works in the UK, but it gets even more complex when you introduce the "Crown Cooperation" et. al. Which, in the letter of the law owns pretty much the whole of the UK, including the citizens and a lot of their assets.
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I'm not entirely sure how it works in the UK, but it gets even more complex when you introduce the "Crown Cooperation" et. al. Which, in the letter of the law owns pretty much the whole of the UK, including the citizens and a lot of their assets.
Yes it's dodgy as fuck. Crown corporations are normal companies that have more than 50% state ownership, nothing more. They are mainly land holding and local authorities rather than capital or profit focused organisations. However there is the Corporation of London or whatever they renamed it to. That's one fucked up nightmare hellbunny you want to read into. Fundamentally city of London police are responsible for handling economic crime as well, but are owned by the corporation of London who is a lobbied organisation by "city leadership" (fund operators, bankers, investors and some hooky foreigners, probably Russian looking at current press). The police have jurisdiction over financial crimes but purposely hire inexperienced and inappropriate people to do the investigations intentionally. They put a lot of pressure on the government for the FSA to disband into the FCA/PRA so that various people could be injected into senior positions (look at FCA/PRA management history). This means that the private sector has full legislation control and investigation oversight.
Fundamentally this means who is in control decides the outcome of the financial services and retail sectors almost independently and at whim. It wouldn't surprise me if they target and kill organisations which are against interests through VC channels. Maplin might have been getting a bit too close to someone else's territory (Dixons Carphone anyone?)
Glad I walked away from the city years ago. Corrupt as fuck.
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I came across this recently and found it quite interesting and well written: http://www.coppolacomment.com/2018/03/the-sad-story-of-maplin-electronics.html (http://www.coppolacomment.com/2018/03/the-sad-story-of-maplin-electronics.html)
Yes, I posted the same link in the `Maplin "in talks to sell the business" ' thread - basically blaming the venture capitalists, particularly Montagu for saddling the company with unserviceable debt.
Sorry mate - I did try to find your original post but couldn't find it.
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Sorry mate - I did try to find your original post but couldn't find it.
No worries
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I came across this recently and found it quite interesting and well written: http://www.coppolacomment.com/2018/03/the-sad-story-of-maplin-electronics.html (http://www.coppolacomment.com/2018/03/the-sad-story-of-maplin-electronics.html)
Yes, I posted the same link in the `Maplin "in talks to sell the business" ' thread - basically blaming the venture capitalists, particularly Montagu for saddling the company with unserviceable debt.
That is usually done to get the profits to a low tax country.
Anyway, you can blame venture capitalists all you want but at some point some companies just need to be taken apart and rebuild from scratch because they don't work efficient. IMHO the French state owned train company (SNCF) is a good example of how bad things can get if nobody steps in. SNCF has a 46 billion euro debt and it can never be profitable the way it is. It will take cutting a lot of jobs and reducing worker's benefits but once sanitised it hopefully will be future proof. The alternative is to have the company collapse.
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I went into my local Maplin this evening and bought some enamelled copper wire. The shop is looking very spartan and run down with many empty shelves and all of the tools gone with almost no components in the drawers. Looks like they have already pulled the plug from the IT system as they were using a duplicator book for the receipts and the aincient mechanical copier for card transactions!! Hadn't seen one in use for many years!
Still wanted silly money for various items such as rolls of standard looking speaker cable (£90 a reel)
I cannot see this branch lasting more than a week or so as they are still fully staffed.
Christopher Capener
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The discount is now down to 70% on components.
It looks like the toroidal transformers have all been snapped up across the country.
Project boxes, many are less than a quid each.
Chips like the opamp NE5532AN going for 15p
Off to get some small bits and pieces today.
Trys
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Now you're talking. I just ordered some 74 series (spares for arcade repair) to Pay In Store.
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Good luck if you get there and they actually have them!
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Good luck if you get there and they actually have them!
I did wonder that. But it said I could order online to collect and pay in store and the inventory has now gone down online. It's not a big deal anyway it's a short bus ride for me and gets me out of the office. :)
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So today in Maplin I bought:
2 off, NE5552 Op Amp at 18p each. (compared to 73p at CPC)
2 off, 4024 Logic chip 7 Stage Ripple-Carry Binary Counter, 15p each. (most of the logic chips are 15p by the look of it) (compared to 59p at CPC)
1off, 10 segment LED bargraph display at 30p. (compared to over £3 at CPC)
(and a control knob and a rocker switch).
They were adding stock to the shelves from the warehouse, but it looks like their stock control is a bit all over the place (like showing stock on the system, but none physically there). It's probably not a new problem as it's always been a bit big and miss.
Trys
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Post when you have used them all :-DD ;)
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Five components. Reel you neck in! :blah:
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You can get a bundle of things for less cost than what you'd have to throw in a swear tin in ten minutes.
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Good luck if you get there and they actually have them!
Some of my order could not be fulfilled but now I have a few more ICs I will probably never use but it cost me only a couple of quid all in.
There was a very grumpy customer in the shop who had ordered something online which was not there.
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Maplin saved the day. I needed an old fashioned DIP 74LS86N for my poorly BBC Micro that lost its 6MHz clock and so the Teletext MODE 7 (SAA5050) was kaput.
£0.20p, my local shop had 1 in stock so I got there 5 minutes before closing to bag it. It cured my Beeb :). I now see they are only £0.15p but I would have to drive miles out and this is the only 74LS86N I have ever needed in over 35 years so I think I can live with that 5p loss of bargain :-DD
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That’s the first serendipitous event that occurred in the history of maplin. Congratulations :-+
Mode 7 graphics programming was my teenage years ;)
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That’s the first serendipitous event that occurred in the history of maplin. Congratulations :-+
Mode 7 graphics programming was my teenage years ;)
Oh lord, I forget modern stuff all the time, but somehow I still remembered VDU or CHR$(141) for double height, and the VDU or CHR$(129 - 135) for colours as if by rote. I had to experiment to get the flashing CHR$(136) for some reason I thought it was 137 or 139.
But yes, I totally proved my repair worked for Mode 7 with flashing double height coloured text. ;D (With only 1K of RAM for those that don't know what Teletext mode is!)
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Good work! :D
Very off topic but one of my favourite books ever was the BBC advanced user guide. Peak BBC I had a master turbo. The only computer I regret selling ever :( ... off to eBay :D
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Good work! :D
Very off topic but one of my favourite books ever was the BBC advanced user guide. Peak BBC I had a master turbo. The only computer I regret selling ever :( ... off to eBay :D
The Advanced User Guide (and the Econet Advanced User Guide) where a revelation to me. Peak BBC was my Model B with sideways RAM, Solidisk 1770 (A)DFS, bare 5.25" FDD with DIY enclosure and cables, Demon Zromm Modem (1200/75 and 300 baud). Most of it went to my much younger cousins when I switched to the Amiga and PC. It ended up back in my loft after much abuse including coke spills on the keyboard, etc. I'm only just restoring it back to health.
I think the ultimate Beeb has to be mikeselectricstuff :-+
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la-sGpTpkxE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la-sGpTpkxE)
Keeping things slightly on topic, I'm sure I got those DIY IDC floppy cables from Maplin Hammersmith back in the day & the drive from Tottenham Court Road with my paper round money.
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Nice setup :-+. That mikeselectricstuff one looks awesome too.
I hit Arc stuff after that. Didn’t fancy PCs. Was a toss up between Amiga and the then new A420. No regrets other than in the wallet department. I had a bet with someone once that ARM will eventually run the world. Need to cash that one in.
Maplin in TCR was one of the good ones. My second job was in Holborn so it was a lunch time walk away :)
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Stopped by a local medium-sized branch today - most stuff was only 20% off, the odd bin of crap at a bigger discount
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All stores have the same discount pricing.
Electronic components 70% off.
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Hiya
Stocked up on their range of 7W/10W power resistors - just for the hell of it since it was a good selection on-line and they will last me forever, also a couple of RPi power supplies, standard breadboards, DIL IC heatsinks and 3 off 30cmx20cm single sided pcbs - it was worth it for me as I assume that the resistors at least are legit.
Cheers
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Cut cable 60% off I noticed today, I bought a few m of twin core red/black. I also bought some PS/2 M and F 6 pin mini din connectors for a pound a pop, not massively cheap but that was what I was in a hurry for to fix something. Sometimes, just sometimes, Maplin is/was handy, just not cheap, at least not for a decade plus anyway.
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It turns out one thing Maplin sold and I can't find a cheap source elsewhere is tri-pad board.
(https://i1.adis.ws/i/maplin/A66RL_1?w=730&qlt=80&img404=A66RL_set&v=1&locale=en-gb)
Anyone know of a cheap source?
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https://www.bitsbox.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=238_244&products_id=2843 (https://www.bitsbox.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=238_244&products_id=2843)
Bitsbox are pretty good. If you want mid-range components next day for a low delivery fee they do a damn good job.
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https://www.bitsbox.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=238_244&products_id=2843 (https://www.bitsbox.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=238_244&products_id=2843)
Bitsbox are pretty good. If you want mid-range components next day for a low delivery fee they do a damn good job.
I may be mistaken, but that doesn’t look like tripad.
I’m a fan of it as well.
Edit: you’re right it is tripad.
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It is tripad. I use it on and off although dead bug is quicker so I just use that now.
Best thing about bitsbox is they are cheap arses so will package a small Jiffy bag like a Tetris game so it always goes through your letter box when you’re out. No going down the delivery office to speak to the resident trolls.
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Cross-edit didn’t arrive quick enough. You’re rigt it is tripad.
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Just went into my local Maplin to buy a mono jack socket to discover they are now offering the components, complete with the component racks as a job lot. The cheapest was about £28, but was full of potentiometers. Pretty decent looking racks.
Also the large cable reels (all different cable types) have been sealed up in cellophane and offered at 80% off.
This was just before closing time today.
I only bought the stuff I went in for today though!
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https://www.bitsbox.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=238_244&products_id=2843 (https://www.bitsbox.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=238_244&products_id=2843)
Bitsbox are pretty good. If you want mid-range components next day for a low delivery fee they do a damn good job.
More info on the Euro card sized board. It’s Vero part number 10-3200, Maplin A66RL. Its desciption on the verotl.com website erroneously describes it as 160 x 10 mm rather than 160 x 100 mm.
Unfortunately, it’s bloody expensive when ordered direct.
http://www.verotl.com/en/product/veroboard-tripad-board-160mm-x-10mm-10-3200.-maplin-a66rl (http://www.verotl.com/en/product/veroboard-tripad-board-160mm-x-10mm-10-3200.-maplin-a66rl)
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Problem with these is they're all SRBP. Some random alternatives I've been using:
If you must have a stripboard of some variety, these are pretty good although not tripad: https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/stripboards/5185932/ (https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/stripboards/5185932/) ... I built a UV exposure panel with one of those boards and a few audio filters. Nice to work with and stupidly strong. Example (who said you can't get dense stripboard layouts :D ). 600Hz CW filter...
(https://i.imgur.com/FKqIWq1.jpg)
However I just use matrix board for digital prototypes. A pack of these last forever: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B073ZHVKC1/ (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B073ZHVKC1/) ... all FR4 plated through holes. Work for SMD and TH stuff.
Been hand drawing SMD boards with ink resist as well. They come out pretty good if you can draw squares!
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I guess we all have our habits, I’ve used the tripad board for at least 30 years, although I don’t use it quite as much as I used to now surface mount has become the standard modus operandi, where I use Busboard products nowadays quite extensively, which also offers groundplane options.
The tripad stuff is good for breaking out pigtailed connectors to solderless breadboard, using the board as a mezzanine between the cable and 0.1” header.
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Howard,
You might have luck if you ring up Radio Shack (yes, bizarre, I know) in Lytham St Annes on 01253 714464. They have new old stock form the days of Tandy. 47 St Anne's Rd W, Lytham Saint Annes FY8 1SB
He's got quite a few PCB types there, last time I went in there (a couple of weeks ago).
Trys
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I guess we all have our habits, I’ve used the tripad board for at least 30 years, although I don’t use it quite as much as I used to now surface mount has become the standard modus operandi, where I use Busboard products nowadays quite extensively, which also offers groundplane options.
The tripad stuff is good for breaking out pigtailed connectors to solderless breadboard, using the board as a mezzanine between the cable and 0.1” header.
Wondering slightly off topic:-
Getting PCBs made in China is now so cheap that it can actually be cheaper to buy a custom PCB than a general purpose prototyping board. I've been thinking of running up some designs for prototyping boards, possibly including features that aren't available on commercial prototyping boards, and getting a batch or two made.
By way of example, getting 10 off 100mm x 100mm boards made, and shipped standard airmail comes to $16.36 USD total (100mm x 100mm is a bit of a 'magic' size in Chinese PCB fab pricing). FR4 prototyping boards tend to come in at around the £5 GBP mark each for 100mm x 160mm boards.
If ones personal favourite type of prototyping board either gets difficult to get, gets too pricey, or is just missing that one feature one would love to have, this might be a viable route.
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Yes, that's worth a thought. Tripad with a groundplane on the other side, (with clearance round the holes in the groundplane so a normal component lead or even a turned pin socket doesn't short to ground unless you make a top-side solder blob) would be nice for general purpose use.
Perhaps a topic on getting protoboards fabbed would be a good idea. . . . .
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Wondering slightly off topic:-
Getting PCBs made in China is now so cheap that it can actually be cheaper to buy a custom PCB than a general purpose prototyping board.
My thoughts exactly - I did these a few years ago, and sell enough to others that the ones I use are basically free
http://whitewing.co.uk/protoboard.html (http://whitewing.co.uk/protoboard.html)
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I have thought about this as well actually. JLCPCB are doing 10x 10x10cm boards for $15 which puts it in the right price range for protoboards too.
I was going to do some with a ground plane brought up through vias periodically, pads set up for SOIC+0805 parts, with one edge with 3 edge launched SMA connectors, M3 mounting holes and exposed grounded strips so you can solder shielding on if required (or use as a ground bus)
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Yes, that's worth a thought. Tripad with a groundplane on the other side, (with clearance round the holes in the groundplane so a normal component lead or even a turned pin socket doesn't short to ground unless you make a top-side solder blob) would be nice for general purpose use.
Perhaps a topic on getting protoboards fabbed would be a good idea. . . . .
You might want to check out Dartec then, they offer RF prototyping boards that are similar but single pad, easy enough to deal with though/
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Do the pads lift on them easily? I found that with Roth boards which are similar albeit no ground plane on the other side.
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Nope, single pad is a PITA for through hole work - without PTH they lift off too easily and *EVERY* connection has to be solder/wire bridged to another pad. Tripad hit the sweet spot - you only have to bridge nodes with more than three connections, and its *FAR* easier to keep the pads in place as there's far more surface area holding them and you can solder one end before the other heats up too much
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Nope, single pad is a PITA for through hole work - without PTH they lift off too easily and *EVERY* connection has to be solder/wire bridged to another pad. Tripad hit the sweet spot - you only have to bridge nodes with more than three connections, and its *FAR* easier to keep the pads in place as there's far more surface area holding them and you can solder one end before the other heats up too much
Easier still is manhattan over a solid groundplane - easier floor planning and often better HF performance.
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Yes definitely. I like Manhattan. That works pretty well. I'd like to find an easy way to cut strips of FR4 off though. At the moment I'm score and snap, then cut chunks off as required with some Wiss shears.
One of my crimes (generic 40m DC RX. Big space on the board is where the audio filter lives now)
(https://i.imgur.com/vpaXojl.jpg)
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Yes definitely. I like Manhattan. That works pretty well. I'd like to find an easy way to cut strips of FR4 off though. At the moment I'm score and snap, then cut chunks off as required with some Wiss shears.
Tin snips, e.g. the first google result: https://www.ffx.co.uk/tools/product/Gilbow-Gil2458-0734442188049-G245-Straight-Tinsnip-8In (https://www.ffx.co.uk/tools/product/Gilbow-Gil2458-0734442188049-G245-Straight-Tinsnip-8In)
The board gets a bit bent, but that doesn't matter.
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I’ve got some Wiss straight aviation shears but they make a bit of a mess of long cuts.
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Nope, single pad is a PITA for through hole work - without PTH they lift off too easily and *EVERY* connection has to be solder/wire bridged to another pad. Tripad hit the sweet spot - you only have to bridge nodes with more than three connections, and its *FAR* easier to keep the pads in place as there's far more surface area holding them and you can solder one end before the other heats up too much
Agree it's a pain, my advice was to check them out and see if they offer similar, apologies I wasn't as clear as I could have been.
As for HF stuff, yes, Manhattan/Ugly works really well and is my choice too.
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Nope, single pad is a PITA for through hole work - without PTH they lift off too easily and *EVERY* connection has to be solder/wire bridged to another pad. Tripad hit the sweet spot - you only have to bridge nodes with more than three connections, and its *FAR* easier to keep the pads in place as there's far more surface area holding them and you can solder one end before the other heats up too much
Easier still is manhattan over a solid groundplane - easier floor planning and often better HF performance.
My preference is still ground plane typpe Busboard over Manhattan style.
I would add that I agree aviation sheers are useful for odd small bits of board, plus if you can run to it, a proper guillotine-style PCB shear. I've had my shear for about 15 years, I use it once or twice a month on average for board cutting, not for production, just for odd prototypes, it shows no signs of wear.
I like the idea of doing a run for my own boards, I'll probably add some breakouts too.
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Nope, single pad is a PITA for through hole work - without PTH they lift off too easily and *EVERY* connection has to be solder/wire bridged to another pad. Tripad hit the sweet spot - you only have to bridge nodes with more than three connections, and its *FAR* easier to keep the pads in place as there's far more surface area holding them and you can solder one end before the other heats up too much
Agree it's a pain, my advice was to check them out and see if they offer similar, apologies I wasn't as clear as I could have been.
As for HF stuff, yes, Manhattan/Ugly works really well and is my choice too.
I've never understood the point of single-pad proto boards/areas - the whole point of a PCB is connection.
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I've never understood the point of single-pad proto boards/areas - the whole point of a PCB is connection.
No, nor have I. I'm wondering if I'm missing out on something.
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Main advantage is you can get a pretty tight layout.
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Single pad boards allow you to 'define' your own PCB, you place your components and then wire them point to point, a bit like wirewrap with soldered connections I suppose...
Once you've got it working you can directly translate to PCB but of course it's only useful for 0.1" pitch stuff or a lashk up when you don't want a PCB.
It's largely 'dead' now with cheap PCB services, SMD parts and the availability of CNC machines but I still find it useful to 'brainstorm' before PCB or lash up a quick and dirty project that will be used once...
The RF boards from Dartec work really nicely and lend themselves well to HF radio stuff but I tend to build most things 'ugly' now to prove concept.
Tri-Pad works nicely if you want a more 'traditional' halfway from single to strip...
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Single pad boards allow you to 'define' your own PCB, you place your components and then wire them point to point, a bit like wirewrap with soldered connections I suppose...
But a significant part of prototyping is swapping parts, which is a PTA on a wired single-pad PCB
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I have used them for
a) To make a prototype more permanent than a Breadboard which didn't warrant printing an actual PCB
b) To prototype a circuit that simply doesn't like to be on a breadboard. Such as switch mode regulators, buck/boost.
c) High current stuff which breadboards don't like.
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Howard,
You might have luck if you ring up Radio Shack (yes, bizarre, I know) in Lytham St Annes on 01253 714464. They have new old stock form the days of Tandy. 47 St Anne's Rd W, Lytham Saint Annes FY8 1SB
He's got quite a few PCB types there, last time I went in there (a couple of weeks ago).
Trys
Howard
Here we are - I've found the board I got from RadioShack in Lytham St Annes about six weeks ago. It's part tri-pad, part single contact, and two busses down the middle. Product code is 276-150. If that's of interest, give them a ring.
Modified to add link to main RadioShack site for this board: https://www.radioshack.com/products/multipurpose-pc-board (https://www.radioshack.com/products/multipurpose-pc-board)
Trys
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Those are the ones that if you fart near them the pads blow away.
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An effective fart detector then no less!
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Until I discovered Busboards (with the ground planes and that I know I keep going on about, I rarely did single pad boards, not least because they weren't as widely available as Veroboard which is what I grew up with.
Pretty much overnight I switched to Busboards once I'd used them on a couple of projects. I found Manhattan to be messy and of limited use for surface mount work.
The tripads are particularly good for DIP packages, and was my go-to board for prototypes and one-offs for that stuff. But since we've moved to SMD and things have become faster and over the past 15 years I've moved into mixed signal stuff, I've been looking for an alternative for some time that allows short easy access to ground planes and will readily take SMD parts without adapters.
So single pad works well for me, but only has value if it has a ground plane with easy access.
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Single pad boards allow you to 'define' your own PCB, you place your components and then wire them point to point, a bit like wirewrap with soldered connections I suppose...
But a significant part of prototyping is swapping parts, which is a PTA on a wired single-pad PCB
I suspect it's personal taste and depends what you're building, analogue, HF-RF or very simple microcontroller (I built two 18F4550 dev boards and many chip programming jigs on single pad for instance) designs and lashups, small things like regulator boards etc. are a doddle on single pad and work well, a full blown microcomputer with a pile of peripheral chips or anything with an extensive bus would be a nightmare on single pad (but single pad and wirewrap works well as you can route your own power rails)
I don't find the single pad stuff much or any more difficult for development where parts need to be swapped, if you lay it out and 'wire' it with single strand then you can tack component leads to the 'tracks' you've created, that makes it pretty easy to change components.
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I'd like to find an easy way to cut strips of FR4 off though. At the moment I'm score and snap, then cut chunks off as required with some Wiss shears.
Well, it's by no means the cheapest way but the easiest is with a guillotine.
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I'd like to find an easy way to cut strips of FR4 off though. At the moment I'm score and snap, then cut chunks off as required with some Wiss shears.
Well, it's by no means the cheapest way but the easiest is with a guillotine.
Use an axe
or more realistically, score with a stanley knife and slam it in a drawer
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I just use side cutters. If you hold the part you don't want to split with a pair of pliers it works quite well to just cut down a row of holes.
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FWIW I received five tripad Eurocard sized boards direct from Vero today, their minimum order was for five. The ones I received are grey fibreglass boards, not the brown SRBP boards I used to get from Maplin. They're still tripad though.
A problem for some with fiberglass is that it doesn't "snap" cut like SRBP, you pretty much have to use a shear in my experience.
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Tile cutters, the electric rotary ones with a diamond blade work too, make sure there's water in the reservoir to keep the blade cool and the dust down.
I have scored and snapped fibreglass boards as well, you can clean up the edges with a bit of wet and dry and some water.
If you don't mind saying, what did you pay for the tri-pad boards from Vero?
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I have not really looked for these boards as I got about 500 eurocard size prot boards of different types all made by Vero from a clearance place back in the mid 80's and I still have 40 or so left, I must admit going back to the idea of the square pad boards the ones I got in this lot are quite useful as there a power rails at the edge of the boards and the topside has a ground plane which is also a benefit.
Back onto topic I am planning on popping into a Maplins tomorrow to see if they have anything useful at the right price, but somehow I doubt they will.
One thing I was told by one of the staff about a week after the closing down sale started was that the administrators had given instructions to put the base prices back up to full retail in order to maximise the return on the discounted pricing, how true this is I am not sure but it could lull some people in to thinking they were getting a bargain even when the were not.
Any way it is a shame they are going as I have used them ever since they started back in Essex and still have some of the publications they did in the earlier years and even the odd early catalogue with all the useful data they put in them.
There is also another name from the past that I thought had gone but was surprised recently when I saw they still appeared to be going and that was Henry's Electronics, I have fond memories of their old catalogues which were an odd size compared to the rest and also they resisted the use of colour in their production.
Ahh the good old days when you really had to think about designing with the components you had to hand.
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There is also another name from the past that I thought had gone but was surprised recently when I saw they still appeared to be going and that was Henry's Electronics, I have fond memories of their old catalogues which were an odd size compared to the rest and also they resisted the use of colour in their production.
Ahh the good old days when you really had to think about designing with the components you had to hand.
Henry's are still going but seem to be concentrating on CCTV and other finished goods, fairly sure they're no longer in the component business or if they are it was well hidden
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Ahh the good old days when you really had to think about designing with the components you had to hand.
That actually jogs a fond memory. Back in the early 90s I had no car. That left me with a few options at the time to complete projects. Go to the local Tandy franchise which was also the local post office and get mugged, jump on an expensive train to Broxbourne and go to Cirkit or make do. Nearest Maplins to me were too far. A lot of the time I nipped up the road to the local industrial estate. The fly tippers were pretty active there resulting in lots of 70s-80s consumer electronics being dumped off. I’d disassemble it there and stuff the good bits in my head bag and head home.
We’re pretty spoiled now but sometimes I miss digging through a box of junk finding a 2k-ish resistor to desolder.
Edit: also we “pipped” all the dumped CRTs which was fun. My friend smoked like a chimney so you light a cigarette, knock the degassing “pip” off and stuff a cigarette on it. One smoking TV!
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I didn't know that Tandy shops were franchises. Learnt something new.
The latest Maplin development is that they have crippled their own website by removing the components, enclosures and the like.
It looks like this happened over the last couple of days if I'm not mistaken.
So now it's not only impossible to check stock, but it's not even possible to see what kind of things they do sell.
The stuff that is left on their website is almost a reminder of where they unfortunately went wrong some fifteenth years ago or so.
I bought a miniature plastic Hammond box yesterday for 93p. It was put straight into service to house a passive stereo mixer for my wife's computer and internet radio.
Trys
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Not all Tandy stores were franchises. Just the ones in redneck country like my town at the time :)
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Ah, right. So that would explain the "RadioShack" that's still going in Lytham St Annes - I'm guessing then that they would have been a Tandy franchise back in the day.
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The Tandy story is weirder than that. Tandy started out as a leather supply company catering largely for the home craft market. The move into electronics by the acquisition of RadioShack was part of the same craft/do-it-yourself ethos. The leather business continued alongside it and is still trading to this day.
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A different company ("The Leather Factory") bought the leather business from Tandy Corporation in 2000 when Tandy shed their roots in the leather business to concentrate on Radio Shack and the electronics business, changing their name to Radio Shack Corp.
The Leather Factory changed their name to Tandy Leather Factory to exploit the apparently continuing name-brand recognition in the leather community. They apparently still have >100 retail shops across the US, and in Europe, and Australia. The map shows a shop in Manchester, and another in Northampton.
https://www.tandyleather.com (https://www.tandyleather.com)
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I just noticed that they no longer list any electronic components.
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RIP.
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Went into branch yesterday - still only 30% discount on bigger stuff, up to 60% on parts, plus a few clearout bins.
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Went into the local store a few days ago and bought a Hakko solder iron with 30% discount. It was still £10 more expensive than I could have got it from the UK hakko importer.
The only reason to use Maplin was convenience when I needed something in a hurry.
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They have been having a push over the weekend by having a special higher discount, but it looks like they have not altered the discounts at all, if anything the have reduced some of the higher discounts that were in place just over a week ago.
Looks like they are trying to sucker people into the stores to shift more stock as few customers are now going into my local stores, got this from some of the staff which are also getting thinner on the ground.
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Not relevant to them closing stores, but does the Maplin catalogue still have the category called 'Rodent Accessories'? It used to years ago and I used to find it quite humorous.
8)
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Not relevant to them closing stores, but does the Maplin catalogue still have the category called 'Rodent Accessories'? It used to years ago and I used to find it quite humorous.
8)
Ah that's when maplins did proper electronics, I used to like cirkit back in the day as I could get the book in W.H. Smiths (UK newsagents)
Back on topic some of the discounts are a joke 20-30% is there mark up what you can pick it up for elsewhere, our local one has been well picked over
edit. Mouser still do the 4" thick book of electronic prawn
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50% of that "mark up" is probably business rates.
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An announcement today from Maplin:
Our Website is Closing
As on Monday 30th April, our website will no longer be accessible.
It's a shame that they can't keep a static copy of their website showing all the products they had, but remove stock level information and pricing. They could even do a website showing all that catalogue sci-fi artwork over those decades ago.
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https://web.archive.org/web/*/www.maplin.co.uk
(https://web.archive.org/web/*/www.maplin.co.uk)
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An announcement today from Maplin:
Our Website is Closing
As on Monday 30th April, our website will no longer be accessible.
Sounds like the end is quite close now.
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So are we going to turn up to the funeral and pay our respects or wait until they're covered over and piss on the grave? :-DD
I'm verging on the latter since about 1995.
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That seems a bit harsh, I have some fond memories of Maplin back when I was just getting into electronics as a hobby.
Went into my local store yesterday and found the components desk at the back was actually roped off. The parts themselves were being sold in job lots, together with the storage bins they'd been kept in, with absolutely ridiculous comedy price tags.
(Top tip: a job lot of unrelated random parts is not worth 50% of the previously marked-up retail price of each one individually!!)
The only items I even contemplated for a moment were the partial reels of cable at "80% off", but they were still more than I'd pay on impulse for something I don't really need right now. There was some odd stuff there too, like a big pile of gooseneck / bore scope cameras with 30% off.
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Me too, but when the "hobby electronics" industry declined in the 1990s and the Internet took over they turned into a crap shifter. While the brand has some fond memories for me too they are mainly responsible for totally abusive pricing, selling crap that isn't fit for purpose and not giving up on the disco lights industry. I don't think they deserve any respect now.
The fact that the pricing is still abysmal when heavily discounted tells the real story.
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You are at least being consistent.
I think it's best to remember the life of a person in their prime, rather than in their throws of pain in their decline before their death. Just my take anyhow.
I can't exactly compare Mapin as being a living person, but for many of us we have certainly been shaped by them to some extent in our own lives, in the hobbies and careers that we took up.
So I'm mourning their loss as I saw them at around year 2000 and earlier. I'm also very sorry to see their staff go too.
Edited: I can't spell propr today
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I'd like to hope that people will remember me as a smart, sophisticated, fit and handsome young man, and not a dribbling old fart who mumbles nonsense and can't even manage to wipe his own arse.
They won't, of course.
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I hope that people will remember I was a miserable bastard but correct :-DD
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I've buried four uncles in three months. Luckily they were already dead.
I do remember them as they used to be rather than in their suffering. Good job really - they were brilliant.
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Time for one of Uncle Cerebus' homilies and life lessons:
I've buried a few friends and relatives now. Some I've seen dead, some I haven't. Many of you will have the opportunity to see your friends and loved ones after they have died. My advice is to think carefully before you do this, you cannot un-see what you have seen, and I can promise you that the image of a dead friend or loved one is something you will always carry around with you. It doesn't mean that it will erase or necessarily override the living image you have of them, but it will add another unforgettable image. So, make a careful choice before viewing a corpse; I know people who regret allowing themselves to do so when it was better that they did not.
Here endeth the lesson, we now return you to the light entertainment stylings of "The Death Throes of Maplin" ...
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Time for one of Uncle Cerebus' homilies and life lessons:
I've buried a few friends and relatives now. Some I've seen dead, some I haven't. Many of you will have the opportunity to see your friends and loved ones after they have died. My advice is to think carefully before you do this, you cannot un-see what you have seen, and I can promise you that the image of a dead friend or loved one is something you will always carry around with you. It doesn't mean that it will erase or necessarily override the living image you have of them, but it will add another unforgettable image. So, make a careful choice before viewing a corpse; I know people who regret allowing themselves to do so when it was better that they did not.
Here endeth the lesson, we now return you to the light entertainment stylings of "The Death Throes of Maplin" ...
So, true. That's why I only attend funerals of people I don't like.
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The staff at our local Maplins have secured new jobs at Homebase, Sainsbury's and Argos
I have been using Maplins since 91-92 and seen a major decline in quality and a rise in price in the last 15 years, typical business practices the ones in there ivory towers have run it into the ground, stripped the assets and gone
I wonder how much is owed to its landlords, tax man and in business rates - let alone the poor average staff member
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Homebase? Out of the frying pan and into the fire!
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Time for one of Uncle Cerebus' homilies and life lessons:
Many of you will have the opportunity to see your friends and loved ones after they have died. My advice is to think carefully before you do this, you cannot un-see what you have seen
I second this. I never look at dead people. I very much prefer to have a last memory of when they where still alive.
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Homebase? Out of the frying pan and into the fire!
Homebase is now owned by Bunnings, so we can now buy ozzie hardware locally.
Actually the have changed a large number of suppliers in the last few months.
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Homebase? Out of the frying pan and into the fire!
Homebase is now owned by Bunnings, so we can now buy ozzie hardware locally.
Actually the have changed a large number of suppliers in the last few months.
I've not been in one in ages, do they now stock something other than chintzy cushions and overpriced tat?
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Over priced tools and other hardware. There appears to be slightly less tat now, from my limited experience of Bunnings in Oz they do not go into tat.
The Homebase tat was largely the same as Argos's as they were the same company, so an easy way to fill up floor space. Which in turn came from Green Shield Stamps.... When I was a lad...
Back on topic, I eventually called into in a Maplin on Thursday. 100m detour on the way home from work! Their Irish sale mirrors the UK. Nothing worth buying at 40~60% off, need to wait until the final clearing of the shop. The had 5 shrink wrapped component cabinets with random assortment at €80 each!
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Heh. That's an insult. Apparently some UK branches have got authorisation to sell off cabinets at £30 empty or at the (IIRC) 70% clearance discount value of the parts in them. I hear that smart managers are stuffing cabinets with populated draws to get the ticket price in the £25 to £30 ballpark, and allegedly, there's a fair bit of interest. I also hear there's somewhat of a competition between shops to get the longest itemised sales receipt! :popcorn:
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Homebase is now owned by Bunnings, so we can now buy ozzie hardware locally.
Homebase is a damaged brand, it has a reputation for being overpriced 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. The trouble is your average person has no idea that Homebase has started to change significantly under Bunnings ownership, so still have the out-of-date idea of what Homebase is. Bunnings would be better off getting rid of the Homebase name ASAP and using their own brand. People who would never think of going to Homebase would then go to a Bunnings store to see what it was like.
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Homebase is now owned by Bunnings, so we can now buy ozzie hardware locally.
Homebase is a damaged brand, it has a reputation for being overpriced 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. The trouble is your average person has no idea that Homebase has started to change significantly under Bunnings ownership, so still have the out-of-date idea of what Homebase is. Bunnings would be better off getting rid of the Homebase name ASAP and using their own brand. People who would never think of going to Homebase would then go to a Bunnings store to see what it was like.
One local branch has rebranded as bunnings Warehouse. My local place hasn't, but the exterior is looking pretty shabby so overdue for a makeover. I've not noticed any difference inside since the changeover
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I haven't been in a Homebase for years but I always get an uneasy feeling being in there. Ir's almost like I can feel the financial struggle.
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... 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.
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... 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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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! :popcorn:
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The Maplin website is now closed.
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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.
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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. >:D 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.
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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!!
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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.
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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.
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Rumoured to be on display outside a branch :
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Db4b0aCXcAE2GJg.jpg)
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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.
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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 (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)
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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
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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 :palm:
+1 on the suggestion they should have kept some store info on the website - eg final closing date.
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They were selling shop fittings when I went in to Telford a few weeks ago...
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i wonder if they wouls sell the monitor from a pos terminal?
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Just picked up these 2 flight cases.
£15 for the small one
£21 for the large one
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/maplin-_insurers-cast-doubt-over-future-of-maplin_/?action=dlattach;attach=424597;image)
Not extremely cheap but ok.
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I went into an Irish Maplin store today hoping to find one of the Manson bench power supplies or any other bargains, I left with nothing.
The store was fully stocked with signs saying more stock arriving soon.
The components section was closed. All of the components were moved up near the tills and bubble wrapped, with the component drawers for €30.
Overheard some other customers comparing prices, saying no wonder the store was closing.
I assume there will be a clearance sell off / auction at some point?
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Dublin (Jervis) store appears to have had more stock arrive. Lots of own brand stuff. The prices are missing from approx 50% of stock. 60% a Maplin price can still be expensive.
The component cabinets are still there and have been joined by a pile of Fluke Socket testers. No price of course. I informed them of the recall, will see what happens to them.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180516/d60438954090ee97220639ad69209e97.jpg)
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So now that Maplin has gone, everything it sold is valuable right?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Maplin-Electronics-Catalogue-2013/282963224113?hash=item41e1ec2631:g:zcsAAOSwNOVa91YK (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Maplin-Electronics-Catalogue-2013/282963224113?hash=item41e1ec2631:g:zcsAAOSwNOVa91YK)
Somehow I don't thinks that's going to sell.
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If that sells I’m going to start buying canned goods and digging a bunker in my garden.
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https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Maplin-Electronics-Catalogue-2013/282963224113?hash=item41e1ec2631:g:zcsAAOSwNOVa91YK (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Maplin-Electronics-Catalogue-2013/282963224113?hash=item41e1ec2631:g:zcsAAOSwNOVa91YK)
Condition: “Never used.” :) QED
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So now that Maplin has gone, everything it sold is valuable right?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Maplin-Electronics-Catalogue-2013/282963224113?hash=item41e1ec2631:g:zcsAAOSwNOVa91YK (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Maplin-Electronics-Catalogue-2013/282963224113?hash=item41e1ec2631:g:zcsAAOSwNOVa91YK)
Somehow I don't thinks that's going to sell.
The fact that it has pictures of people on the front and not electronics rather puts me off.
Now I wonder how much I can get for my 2004 Maplin catalogue :).
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So now that Maplin has gone, everything it sold is valuable right?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Maplin-Electronics-Catalogue-2013/282963224113?hash=item41e1ec2631:g:zcsAAOSwNOVa91YK (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Maplin-Electronics-Catalogue-2013/282963224113?hash=item41e1ec2631:g:zcsAAOSwNOVa91YK)
Somehow I don't thinks that's going to sell.
The fact that it has pictures of people on the front and not electronics rather puts me off.
Now I wonder how much I can get for my 2004 Maplin catalogue :).
On the basis that what's on the catalogue should be representative of what's available for sale......
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They never sold giant space ships in the 80s. I wish they did.
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but they did know the stripes on the resistors wherent just for style back then!!
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So now that Maplin has gone, everything it sold is valuable right?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Maplin-Electronics-Catalogue-2013/282963224113?hash=item41e1ec2631:g:zcsAAOSwNOVa91YK (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Maplin-Electronics-Catalogue-2013/282963224113?hash=item41e1ec2631:g:zcsAAOSwNOVa91YK)
Somehow I don't thinks that's going to sell.
The fact that it has pictures of people on the front and not electronics rather puts me off.
Now I wonder how much I can get for my 2004 Maplin catalogue :).
On the basis that what's on the catalogue should be representative of what's available for sale......
By that standard, back in the day a lot of suppliers to the motor and mechanical engineering trades would have been in trouble. There was no way you could actually order a bikini clad dolly-bird from them, and if you could, I think the laws about human trafficking might have caused them some problems. The same applies to the people selling carded packets of peanuts in pubs.
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By that standard, back in the day a lot of suppliers to the motor and mechanical engineering trades would have been in trouble. There was no way you could actually order a bikini clad dolly-bird from them, and if you could, I think the laws about human trafficking might have caused them some problems. The same applies to the people selling carded packets of peanuts in pubs.
In pubs the bikini clad, or unclad, girl only appeared after the sale of peanuts was complete, so that example doesn't count.
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So now that Maplin has gone, everything it sold is valuable right?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Maplin-Electronics-Catalogue-2013/282963224113?hash=item41e1ec2631:g:zcsAAOSwNOVa91YK (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Maplin-Electronics-Catalogue-2013/282963224113?hash=item41e1ec2631:g:zcsAAOSwNOVa91YK)
Somehow I don't thinks that's going to sell.
The fact that it has pictures of people on the front and not electronics rather puts me off.
Now I wonder how much I can get for my 2004 Maplin catalogue :).
On the basis that what's on the catalogue should be representative of what's available for sale......
They're selling the staff off as well now?
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I’ll give you a fiver for the spotty one. I need a PFY.
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Just passed Strand branch in Central London. Minimum 50% off everything, some as much as 80% but not much left. Some bargains in cable reels. Place a bit of a mess so hard to tell what some discounts were
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So now that Maplin has gone, everything it sold is valuable right?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Maplin-Electronics-Catalogue-2013/282963224113?hash=item41e1ec2631:g:zcsAAOSwNOVa91YK (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Maplin-Electronics-Catalogue-2013/282963224113?hash=item41e1ec2631:g:zcsAAOSwNOVa91YK)
Somehow I don't thinks that's going to sell.
The fact that it has pictures of people on the front and not electronics rather puts me off.
Now I wonder how much I can get for my 2004 Maplin catalogue :).
On the basis that what's on the catalogue should be representative of what's available for sale......
They're selling the staff off as well now?
Close to the knuckle in 2001: it went round HP like wildfire. Still valid now. http://www.satirewire.com/news/0105/loyal.shtml (http://www.satirewire.com/news/0105/loyal.shtml)
LOYAL EMPLOYEES A VALUABLE ASSET,
SO NOW IS A GOOD TIME TO SELL THEM
Companies Can Get Top Dollar for Their Most Faithful Workers
Palo Alto, Cal. (SatireWire.com) — In an age when employees are labeled 'human capital' and workplace longevity is measured in months, some companies have finally begun to realize that a truly loyal employee is a rare and valuable asset that should be recognized, nurtured, and, ideally, sold to the highest bidder...........
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I was in Canary Wharf and the Maplin there now has the Component Racks including components reduced again. Was quite tempted with one for £20 that had a few ICs and transistors... but do I really need 29 NE555s in DIP? Probably not.
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Probably only £5 of parts from Tayda as well...
I’ve stopped ordering from them because it’s quite hard to hit the $5 min order sometimes.
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I was in Canary Wharf and the Maplin there now has the Component Racks including components reduced again. Was quite tempted with one for £20 that had a few ICs and transistors... but do I really need 29 NE555s in DIP? Probably not.
There was a Maplin at Canary Warf? :o
I doubt they had enough turnover to pay the rent!
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There was a Maplin at Canary Warf? :o
Still is. [Not for long] Selling drones to bankers. :)
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£20 isn't a bad price for one o f their component racks though, even if it's empty.
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Yeah they drawers are worth a bit on their own, once you've cleaned the maplin employee slime off 'em ;)
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Jetwash...
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went again today,
the "discount" prices now look like everybody elses normal prices!!
i overheard some staff talking, it sounds like the liquidators want to screw the staff out of some of their wages!!!
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Homebase is a damaged brand, it has a reputation for being overpriced and not really focused on a particular market.
Bunnings would be better off getting rid of the Homebase name ASAP and using their own brand.
Looks like Bunnings have jettisoned Homebase for £1. Taking a hit for 1 billion of those polymer Ozzie Dollars.
Australian retail conglomerate Wesfarmers is selling UK home improvement chain Homebase for a nominal £1 just two years after buying it.
The sale ends an embarrassing offshore adventure that cost Wesfarmers $1 billion and sows doubts about its future investments.
https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2018/0525/965902-homebase-sale/ (https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2018/0525/965902-homebase-sale/)
Excuse: They don't understand winter! :palm:
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Fucking muppets :palm:
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Been in to a local branch today - shop fittings are now for sale - its been well picked over, mix bags of components there asking way to much for even with 70% off, 50 pack of resistors £1
ex shop fitting figure of 8 mains leads - 2 :-X quid each, what a joke
I did pick up some 2.5mm heatshrink 5M for £1.20 not too sad and its reasonable quality
The ones in Kent are going in the first 2 week in June
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Oh for pity's sake, I'd just started to standardise on the storage boxes they have for all my bits n pieces, I bloody hope they keep selling them or I can find them elsewhere.
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A few years ago I started getting the odd storage case I went for the slightly dearer Raaco boxes, Farnell, rapid and RS all stock Raaco luckily
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Yep only buy stuff you can get more than one place if you plan on buying it again.
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I was in Maplin's today and was talking to the manager who had apparently got a new job lined up with Homebase - so I would imagine he is not feeling too good this evening.
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I was in Maplin's today and was talking to the manager who had apparently got a new job lined up with Homebase - so I would imagine he is not feeling too good this evening.
... Someone with his hand on the pulse of things.
Is there a name for a person that is an anti-pattern?
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I was in Maplin's today and was talking to the manager who had apparently got a new job lined up with Homebase - so I would imagine he is not feeling too good this evening.
... Someone with his hand on the pulse of things.
Is there a name for a person that is an anti-pattern?
Usual Trevor, Nigel, Damien or Zac, depending on generation. :)
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu_Yamaguchi
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Yesterday I was near Liverpool Street station in Londinium and passed a Maplin on the way home... there was a sign saying 9 days left and a guy on a loudspeaker pushing the "bargains"...
I bought 10x button cells for £2 in various sizes... I thought that was OK and a roll of labels for my Brother Label printer was lying around on the £1 shelf but at the checkout they sold it to be for 10p
They said various stock was coming back from other closed branches but to be honest there wasn't much worth having however if I find myself passing in another week I'll probably pop in for a look.
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Yesterday I was near Liverpool Street station in Londinium
Ships that pass in the night... I am working on a job at Broadgate at the moment, and commute into Liverpool Street most days as a result.
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And I shall be there tomorrow. Small world.
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Indeed. I am there on Monday. Business meeting. Why the hell cant people just use Skype. Going to drive in and get shafted for NCP and congestion charge. Did too many years of tube.
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Indeed. I am there on Monday. Business meeting. Why the hell cant people just use Skype. Going to drive in and get shafted for NCP and congestion charge. Did too many years of tube.
Skype stops you extending the meeting into Dirty Dicks
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Actually we’re in the compliance industry so that ain’t gonna happen ;)
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Indeed. I am there on Monday. Business meeting. Why the hell cant people just use Skype. Going to drive in and get shafted for NCP and congestion charge. Did too many years of tube.
Skype stops you extending the meeting into Dirty Dicks
Can someone explain to me the lure of Dirty Dick’s? I only ever go in that place when someone from out of town feels the need to dictate somewhere to meet. There are so many other much nicer pub options, for example Wetherspoon’s Hamilton Hall is a far nicer venue and even closer to the station, physically next door in fact. If you don’t mind a five minute walk, there are some really awesome proper unique pubs nearby, like the Swan or the Lamb in Leadenhall Market, or the Jamiaca Wine House (Jampot) or the Old Tea Warehouse to name but a few.
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Not a fan of any of the pubs down there. Depends on context but we aren’t allowed to frequent such watering holes as someone got in trouble down there. Gives the wrong impression.
Honest Burgers is nice near Bank though. Worth the walk.
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Indeed. I am there on Monday. Business meeting. Why the hell cant people just use Skype. Going to drive in and get shafted for NCP and congestion charge. Did too many years of tube.
Skype stops you extending the meeting into Dirty Dicks
Can someone explain to me the lure of Dirty Dick’s? I only ever go in that place when someone from out of town feels the need to dictate somewhere to meet. There are so many other much nicer pub options, for example Wetherspoon’s Hamilton Hall is a far nicer venue and even closer to the station, physically next door in fact. If you don’t mind a five minute walk, there are some really awesome proper unique pubs nearby, like the Swan or the Lamb in Leadenhall Market, or the Jamiaca Wine House (Jampot) or the Old Tea Warehouse to name but a few.
It's become somewhat gentrified recently, but five or ten years back it was about the only place in the area that didn't mind a group of blokes getting properly drunk.
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Not a fan of any of the pubs down there. Depends on context but we aren’t allowed to frequent such watering holes as someone got in trouble down there. Gives the wrong impression.
Honest Burgers is nice near Bank though. Worth the walk.
Back when I started work in the City, the drinking culture was rather different than it is today. Particularly when the US banks moved in in the mid 90s and took over, the lunchtime drinking thing pretty much disappeared, although it still pervades to some degree in the insurance markets around Leadenhall Market. Insurance, by the very nature of the need to spread risk, fundamentally remains a personal networking thing.
The City pubs used to close at 8:30pm when I started working there, I guess that gave enough time to sober up for the next morning, although typically for those of us working in the boiler room with a thirst on and not let out until 6pm, we headed into the West End after that. I can't do that now on a regular basis as I did in my 20s, I'm far too old and far too aware of my own mortality!
In the investment banks, it turned into a permanent case of watching your own back, everyone afraid to leave their desks for fear of missing a call from across the pond and you weren't there.
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It's become somewhat gentrified recently, but five or ten years back it was about the only place in the area that didn't mind a group of blokes getting properly drunk.
Oh, I don't know about that ;-)
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It has just gone a bit Nathan Barley. In Hoxton I saw someone smoking a crack pipe pushing a double Quinny buggy around with two kids in it.
Not a fan of any of the pubs down there. Depends on context but we aren’t allowed to frequent such watering holes as someone got in trouble down there. Gives the wrong impression.
Honest Burgers is nice near Bank though. Worth the walk.
Back when I started work in the City, the drinking culture was rather different than it is today. Particularly when the US banks moved in in the mid 90s and took over, the lunchtime drinking thing pretty much disappeared, although it still pervades to some degree in the insurance markets around Leadenhall Market. Insurance, by the very nature of the need to spread risk, fundamentally remains a personal networking thing.
The City pubs used to close at 8:30pm when I started working there, I guess that gave enough time to sober up for the next morning, although typically for those of us working in the boiler room with a thirst on and not let out until 6pm, we headed into the West End after that. I can't do that now on a regular basis as I did in my 20s, I'm far too old and far too aware of my own mortality!
In the investment banks, it turned into a permanent case of watching your own back, everyone afraid to leave their desks for fear of missing a call from across the pond and you weren't there.
Yep. I was a bit of a later start in that space but the tales of the 80s-90s were hilarious and mostly centred around “well we started drinking here and....”. Then again I did some contract sql work for some currency traders in about 2001 and that was possibly the most mental group of people I’ve ever met. Ended up being woken up by the fuzz in a skip once.
I am a boring sensible suit now.
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Cleared out apart from the till counters. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180615/f33497172cde0f6223fc938675012f5d.jpg)
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Yesterday was the last day for the last few stores.
May the soul of Maplin rest in peace.
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In hell where it belongs :-DD
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they wanted to be just like Tandy - and they managed!
so what happens with unsold stock i wonder.
comercial auction, ebay, skips?
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It’ll probably turn up on a liquidator’s web site in a few weeks. Either that or they’ll sell it and the brand for a quid to a Phoenix company and start an online shite merchant. Like radio shack :)
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so what happens with unsold stock i wonder.
comercial auction, ebay, skips?
At least on a 'private enterprise' basis :) ... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/electronic-components-job-lot-1/302770400636?hash=item467e85ad7c:g:i3YAAOSwE-xbITje (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/electronic-components-job-lot-1/302770400636?hash=item467e85ad7c:g:i3YAAOSwE-xbITje)
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/electronics-components-job-lot-2/302770483441?hash=item467e86f0f1:g:EKcAAOSwjzJbITh7 (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/electronics-components-job-lot-2/302770483441?hash=item467e86f0f1:g:EKcAAOSwjzJbITh7)
EDIT: and on the carpet of your choice... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/electronic-components-job-lot/263752915030?hash=item3d68e61856:g:lUEAAOSwURlbHu7G (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/electronic-components-job-lot/263752915030?hash=item3d68e61856:g:lUEAAOSwURlbHu7G) :-DD
Seriously though, you've got to feel for the staff.
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i would have felt for the staff if they had a fucking clue.
a couple of weeks ago i gave them the order code for an op-amp and they guy came back with a .1" molex connector!!
previously i had an argument with a staff member who insisted the colours on resistors didnt mean anything - because i told him he had given me the wrong value.