I’m not aware that Maplin are in dire straits financially, but they continually have what might be termed ‘fire sales’, destocking items which have either been superseded or aren’t selling well, to make way for new stock. A lot of that stuff is ‘when it’s gone it’s gone’ and is shifted in its parallel e-bay shop run as a separate strand of its mainstream business. That ‘shop’ also sells ‘customer returns and refurbished items. Because items are often bought as gifts for Christmas etc, if the packaging is damaged, customers won’t accept it, so such items find their way to the e-bay store, so we may get a brand new fully warranted item, maybe not in its original packing or in damaged packing, at well below its retail price.
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/maplin-elec...sub=8345230012
That's how they shifted de-stocked ABS and ali project boxes, PCB materials etc, for which there is next to no demand. Makes good business sense.
Components are low value, slow turnover, and just a nuisance to Maplin - I’m surprised they still stock any. By hanging onto the outdated concept of supplying components to hobbyists, stocking a reducing range in only ones and twos, they risk alienating those few customers. It would make more business sense to pull right out of components - transistors, diodes, capacitors, LEDs, pots, ICs, transformers etc as it's such a minuscule part of its turnover. At best, just keep plugs, sockets, cables, leads & adaptors, and focus on their mainstream business - as a box-shifter of fast moving 'state of the art/soon to be obsolete', here today/gone tomorrow, consumer electronics gadgetry.
I don't know when I last visited a Maplin store for components, or for that matter ordered them on line. I can order a much wider range of stuff from RS, CPC-Farnell, post free, or from ESR Electronics or Bowood than I could get from Maplin. It arrives next day and saves the hassle of visiting Maplin's Hull store, (where a chum got a £75.00 parking fine from a the car park enforcement firm employed by Maplin, for straddling a white line into an adjacent space because he was parked next to a large white van). I'm not in the market for a Dalek voice or electronic fly swatter, so it wouldn't be any hardship to me if the branch closed, (assuming that it's still open).
The market that Maplin caters for has changed out of all recognition since it was founded in 1972 by Doug Simmons (who was a BT engineer at the time) and fellow electronics enthusiasts Roger Allen, who jointly set up a mail order business in a very small way working from home. Back then, components were there core business - now, they’re just peripheral, contributing little to the bottom line. In the early 70s, there was a great deal of interest in hobby electronics with many magazine titles that have since ceased to exist, including Maplin’s own magazine.
When Maplin started to open shops – many in expensive High St locations – if they were were to hold stock in any depth they’d have more in the shops than in the warehouse, and for what was primarily a mail order operation back then, it made no sense to have slow turnover items in stock in shops, but run out of stock in the warehouse, thus failing to satisfy the needs of mail order customers. As well as online from the warehouse, it now has 217 shops to service – some are mega-stores on retail parks which stock the full catalogue.
Trying to expand component sales nearly put paid to Maplin in the mid 80s. As the retail Market for components was tailing off they tried to expand their role in the business sector and went up against the likes of Farnell/CPC/RS. They veered away from that ill-fated venture and refocused their marketing strategy to cater for the expanding market for higher value consumer electronics, test gear, computers, audio, electronic novelties, sat-navs, dash-cams, toys, CB, plugs, sockets, connectors, cables, in-car entertainment.
Maplin has had mixed fortunes and has gone through a management buyout and several takeovers. In 2001 there was a £41 million management buy-out, and In 2004 Maplin was sold for £244 million to Montagu Private Equity. In 2014 Montagu sold Maplin to turnaround’ specialist Rutland Partners for just £85 million. (Rutland also owns Pizza Hut UK and Bernard Matthews). Whether Rutland does manage to lick it into shape or it changes hands yet again, is a matter of conjecture.
Much of Maplin’s stock is sourced from the Far East, where they have an HQ in Shenzhen, China.
The Far East operation - set up in 1995 - handles more than 500 suppliers and 5,000 buying items for the parent company. More about that here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maplin_Electronics
Maplin do accept paypal, and orders over £10.00 are post free. They’ve been around for 45 years, and have served us well. In this internet and e-bay age, I hope they don’t suffer the same fate as Radio Shack - I think we’d be saddened were that to happen. I’m sure that few of us can walk past a Maplin store without popping in to browse, but for me, it's never 'destination' for anything I need.