Re: A pleasant surprise at Maplins
I still quite often buy from Maplin as they're just down the road from me (less than 15 minutes walk, and near quality comestibles purveyors like Farmfoods and Aldi). But the range keeps shrinking. E.g. their last "upgrade" (you know, the website goes down for 2 days and comes back up in an even less helpful form) meant the end of most KK .1 inch connectors and so far as I can tell they've got rid of most cable except hook up wire.
Other main problem is that most components are in literal 1s and 2s. I have a bit of a running gag with them of saying, "damn it, I'll buy your whole stock!".
It's a pity because it's so handy to have a shop that you can just walk into and buy a CMOS IC, or a few diodes. But there probably isn't much money in that for them compared to little helicopters.
My main orders usually go to Farnell these days.
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