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G6Tanuki · 12th Aug 2020, 7:24 pm

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.

12th Aug 2020, 7:24 pm	#721
G6Tanuki Dekatron Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Wiltshire, UK. Posts: 13,998	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.