Re: Maplin stores
 

Being realist: the sort of corner-shop where you could buy an odd screw or a couple of capacitors would - in these days - never generate enough turnover, let alone profit, to pay someone in a brown housecoat to sit behind the counter and dish-out said microvalue-transactional stuff.

Minimum-wage; Business-rates; Employers National Insurance; Employers Pension-contributions; Public-liability insurance; VAT; Heating; Lighting; Rent; Capital-depreciation-on-stock; It goes on and on...

OK, if you'd be prepared to pay £30 for that odd screw or a couple of diodes, to cover those ongoing costs. And I bet you'd com-plain-like-hell if they didn't have four 1970s TMS2708 EPROMs in stock.

Tandy/Maplin tried to handle this by selling higher-value profitable 'tat' to offset the ongoing costs of supporting the small-component stuff, but it was clearly a path-to-bankruptcy.

I'm not worried about the demise of "local shops for local people" - RS/Mouser/Hobbytronics/Farnell/Bitbox/Jabdog/Rapid/Digikey/Cricklewood can get me the obscure parts I need, delivered to my door by 09:00 the next day.

Maplin in business.
 

Maybe it isn't news, but it is to me, to see that Maplin are in business albeit in a much more modest way.

Perhaps they'll make a go of it now that they no longer try to stock thousands of low value low turnover items such as resistors, caps, and other bits and bobs which accounted for much of their inventory but contributed little to their turnover. By trying to stock all the shops as well as their warehouse, they couldn't carry low value low turnover items in large quantities in shop, so the likes of us were forever bleating that we wanted five capacitors and they'd only got two in the shop.

Might be worth a look, if only out of curiosity.

I don't think they've got anything that isn't on offer elsewhere, but they have such things as soldering stations, a few kits and bits, but of course nothing on the scale of yesteryear.

https://www.maplin.co.uk/about

https://www.maplin.co.uk/maker-stem

For info really - not to resurrect the interminable debates that rumbled round like summer thunder when Maplin finally hit the buffers.

For old time's sake I wish them well.

Re: Maplin in business.
 

Had a quick look, interesting to see that most of the solder in their range is lead/tin.

Re: Maplin in business.
 

It isn't actually Maplin though. It's just like Debenhams.com, just the name attached to a totally different business.

Re: Maplin in business.
 

Yes - you can purchase the brand name for a defunct or moribund outfit the same way as any other asset. There is nothing really in common between the original Maplin and the new one. Different business.

As a further example, Creusen used to make superb bench grinders. I have one. But they went bust, alas. It is now called Creusen 2.0 Green Technology. The current owners purchased the assets and reconfigured the business.

Craig

Re: Maplin in business.
 

Where this annoys me most is where the brand buyer clearly has no idea what the brand originally represented, so you get weirdness like Polaroid, originally a well known film and camera brand, being put on TVs and radios.

I've even seen the old 'GPO' name and crest being used on some goods including phones, yes, but other items as well.

At least the stuff on that new 'Maplin' website is a small subset of what 'old Maplin' might have sold. They haven't suddenly branched out into fashion, or DIY.

Re: Maplin in business.
 

The far eastern company that bought the rights to the BUSH trademark from Rank Bush Murphy were well aware of the goodwill that the name attracted. That is why they paid £1.2 million for it.

Re: Maplin in business.
 

Must admit, I doubt I'll be buying anything from them; not when RS have a vastly greater range along with free before-10AM-next-day delivery, or Bitsbox - https://www.bitsbox.co.uk/ - who have an interesting range and only charge a couple of quid postage.

[Similarly, after Tandy folded, an online version reappeared and is still extant: they sell valves! I've used them a couple of times]

Re: Maplin in business.
 

Interesting site. Looks like they sell second hand stuff too.

Aub

Re: Maplin in business.
 

Tandy is a similar example of an old brand resurrected , although i was quite surprised to see they were selling a few valves recently on their website.

Re: Maplin in business.
 

Well yes, but from the off the new company more often than not has zero intentions of following any brand policies or even sticking to the lines that the original company sold, they're just 'capitalising' on the famous brand name that they've bought and legally using. Yes, it's disappointing in a way (time and tide wait for no man), but there's nothing particularly wrong with it, just so long as one isn't daft enough to expect anything else. I think we all understand how it works TBH, it's been going on since 'Ekco' started making hostess trollies - a long way from circular bakelite radios! Mind you, you can now buy an Ekco valve amp - that's a bit closer I suppose!

Re: Maplin stores
 

I have had excellent service from Bitsbox and as has been mentioned postage is very reasonable.

Re: Maplin stores
 

I note that the about page is full of mission statements and harks back to the history of the Maplin brand.

But when it comes to putting you in your place should you want a refund on a real Maplin product they are keen to let you know they are a new company...

"Maplin is a new company trading under Digital-First Retail Ltd. We will not be accepting return requests or issuing refunds and exchanges for goods purchased prior to 1st October 2018 (either in-store or online purchases)."

I still have a Maplin catalogue on my shelf.

Re: Maplin stores
 

Don't we all, the mid-period Maplin catalogues were packed with IC data sheets and application circuits. I think one year they actually removed the TTL / CMOS IC pinout section and there was uproar.

Re: Maplin stores
 

I remember the mid 1990s ones had a lot of useful information at the start of each section.

I'm still still miffed about getting rid of a catalogue from that period, though it was during a parentally enforced clear-out.