Maplin stores

[linescan87]

Sadly it looks like the end for this one in Dublin city....

John Joe.

[IanBland]

I don't agree with them shifting online. They simply do not have any merit in that regard; there are the Farnells and RS for serious purchasing from a gigantic range. There's ebay for bargains of all kinds. Maplin's one selling point was having a shop. They needed to make that work.

There were never that many people experimenting with wireless sets or audio electronics or the other electronics parts shop drivers, but there were enough. My guess is that the market for the latest iteration- arduino, Pi, IoT stuff, etc, is bigger than those previous hobbyist markets. What Maplin failed to do was become a go-to source for those purchases. It would have taken some imaginative management to grab that position but it could have been at least theoretically done.

If you're messing with microcontrollers you need all the paraphernalia from resistors to soldering stations. But you need more than a couple of outdated 8 bit PICs in your range to pull that market in. And they didn't do that.

The focus of electronics has always been a moving target. Maplin really didn't even try to catch the next wave, it seems. It's sad for me. I'm enough of a regular in my local shop to be known by the staff. I'm going to miss it.

But it's not like this is surprising, given the problems we've discussed already.

[Grubhead]

The last Maplins I went to was the one at Drakehouse Retail Park Sheffield. The staff were on me as soon as I went in, like they were in fear of shoplifters. No chance of just looking around for something, which is how a shop gets most of it's trade. If you went into a Supermarket and a staff member straight away came up and ask you want you want. I you said a loaf of bread, they would then take you to the bread isle and then checkout, they would soon loose money. For they know that you go in for a loaf and come out with 5 more items. That's why they move them around.
I would agree on the store locations. That one was in a retail park, so required car drivers. That will reduce them amount of young people "traffic" to the store. So fewer kids wanting bits for the phone or playstation!
A better location would have been inside Crystal Peaks. Getting car, bus and tram users.

Last time I used Maplin was on-line. I am sorry to say this, but unless you can't deliver it, then having a shop is a waste of time.
The only shops that will do well are "meat" "clothes" and "diy". None of which are good on-line. There are probably others. But most of the electronic trade can be done on-line.
Maplin I will say had a good website and an easy payment system, plus fast delivery.

[G8UWM-MildMartin]

I had a look at their website earlier and noticed some bargains in switched pots. and 500-VA autotransformers and 47uF 450V capacitors (axial and radial), but the website is still awful for searching for them, though, once found, it does show stock of 2 of each except the autotransformer in my local one.
But why they have, for the past few years, only stocked linear switched pots and lin & log unswitched, alll with PCB legs is a mystery. But at current prices it is worth getting a linear switched and log unswitched and swapping the tracks over.
Their rather nice Lorlin rotary switches are at £1.14, though the range is more limited than a few years ago. There are 3 types that can be adapted to fit DAC90As by pruning the unused tags.

[PsychMan]

My local is closing and chap working there just now told me they are ALL going now, that’s it.

[PsychMan]

50% off cable and project boxes, grab while you can. Though not certain to be cheaper than RS even with that !

[Damo666]

There are some quite significant discounts being offered on the Maplin eBay store now, too, including the venerable & praised MT-2017 Multimeter which are being offered at 30% off the usual price.

I've just bought myself another 2.

[MrBungle]

If anyone pops in one can you please see what the sale price of the Hakko FX 888D irons are.

[Outrun_uk]

In there today, Hakko is £120, which seems the normal price everywhere else. Picked up a couple of breadboards and some component mixed bags.

[MrBungle]

Thanks for the report. Will pass on one unless it goes right down.

[IanBland]

I still have my Maplin "Precision Gold" M-5050E analogue multimeter I bought in 1984, and it's still working fine.

[emeritus]

In my local store today it was 30% off everything, the reduction being made at the till rather than re-ticketting everything. Every aisle had several copies of a table showing the ticket prices and the prices you would actually be charged.

On the door was a notice on an A4 sheet giving notice that it was the administrators who were trading, that all goods on sale were being sold on an "as seen" basis, and that no liability was accepted for anything that had been sold by the (Old ) Maplin before (I think) 28th Feb.

[reelguy]

Eastbourne Maplins had a big closing down poster on the window today.
I had a quick browse but didn't see any bargains even with 10% or 20% off.
I've always thought they were expensive and only bought a few things from them over the years.
Best bargain I had was a Funia video recorder some years ago.
Will have to buy online more in the future.
Peter W....Reelguy

[hamid_1]

Originally Posted by Heatercathodeshort

I bet a lot of unsold stock ends up in a skip. They will have to vacate premises in a given time and any extensions to clear stock will be very expensive. J.

Keep an eye on your local car boot sale.

As I mentioned previously, there are a number of traders who have been selling ex-Maplin stock at car boot sales around London. I've seen it at Denham, Taplow, Hounslow West and Epsom car boot sales. This has been going on for about a decade. Over the years I've had quite a few bargains. Typically they sell Maplin items for 5% to 20% of their original price. Sadly, once Maplin has been liquidated, such bargains will be no more.

I suspect the source of this stuff is Wellers Auctions (used to be in Chertsey but now appear to be in Guildford). I occasionally found Wellers lot number stickers on some items. So I reckon any unsold stock will be gathered up and auctioned off by the administrators.

It's a sad end.

Back in the 1980s I was quite excited when Maplin opened a shop in Bristol where I lived then. It's hard to imagine now, but the big component suppliers like RS, CPC etc were TRADE ONLY and wouldn't sell to ordinary people like me. Maplin seemed amazing - a vast choice of components available right away with no trade account needed.

Of course, the world has moved on. Demand from hobbyists wanting components just isn't enough to keep hundreds of expensive High Street shops going. Like Tandy before them, Maplin moved on into toys and gadgets, successfully at first, but then people started realising they could buy online from other suppliers more cheaply. And they lost their previous component-buying customers too. I wonder if Maplin could have survived by becoming like Screwfix or Toolstation with a few, large warehouse type outlets, fully stocked, rather than having hundreds of small shops with small amounts of stock. But it's too late now.

It seems like the end of an era. No more High Street electronics shops, apart from a few independents. RIP Maplin.

[Terry_VK5TM]

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/...io-1984-03.pdf

Pages 68-70 - a bit of Maplin history.

[dseymo1]

Originally Posted by hamid_1

Keep an eye on your local car boot sale.

As I mentioned previously, there are a number of traders who have been selling ex-Maplin stock at car boot sales around London. I've seen it at Denham, Taplow, Hounslow West and Epsom car boot sales. This has been going on for about a decade. Over the years I've had quite a few bargains. Typically they sell Maplin items for 5% to 20% of their original price. Sadly, once Maplin has been liquidated, such bargains will be no more.

I suspect the source of this stuff is Wellers Auctions (used to be in Chertsey but now appear to be in Guildford). I occasionally found Wellers lot number stickers on some items. So I reckon any unsold stock will be gathered up and auctioned off by the administrators.

I myself have in the past bought what were evidently Maplin customer returns at a local auction (now defunct) which specialised in trade surplus. Seems that they had more than one channel for disposal.

[whiskas]

For me, Maplins used to be amazing in the 80's - 90's for building amplifiers and for components but in more recent times, their way too high pricing for components, and poor stock in store in recent years have meant I never bothered with them any more. Whilst I understand demand may have dropped, a more careful approach might have worked -i.e. keeping better stock of parts that people need often rather than too often being out of stock. I once asked for 2x 100uf 63v caps and they couldn't do it.. they had only one - that's a bit of a joke for a company of that size. This is how you lose customers real fast.

It seems they opened too many stores and filled them with crap at high prices, neglecting the original idea of supplying electronic components so much that they more or less lost their identity as a components supplier.

I miss the old Maplins of the 80's and 90's but the recent Maplins I won't really miss at all.. as they lost me years ago.

[Mooly]

Just had a mooch around the Blackpool store this morning, similar scenario to how emeritus found things a few posts back.

There were probably around 8 or 9 browsing (the most I have ever seen in the store) and the usual contingent of store staff following customers around.

I suppose we on here know how much stuff should cost which makes the Maplin prices seem even more outrageous, £2.99 for a coax plug, £4.99 for a gold one, £12.99 for some variety of HDMI lead....... the list goes on.

I have probably spent under £20 in the last five years in store at Maplin, and zero online with them.

[electronicskip]

I did say I wasn't going to go into Maplins but in my defence I really did need some connectors today for a little project I was doing.
Has closing down all over the doors and up to 50% off.
Still quite a bit of the more expensive stock around but I did end up buying most of their remaining CB acc stock, including a mobile aerial, a dummy load an swr meter and a pl259.

[cheerfulcharlie]

I think another reason for the continuing demise of these traditional high street stores is their enthusiasm for data gathering- they have a store to run and you have to get on your way- so why when you have the cash and they have the product do you have to spend time giving your Email address,postcode etc etc- surely they must have realized that this data gathering is not working and stores are still closing left right and centre. This is one reason why I go to Wickes rather than Screwfix.
I can understand it if you buy a television receiver related product but not on a box of screws.
As for Maplin..some of their sales boffins should have spent a day in Cricklewood Electronics to see how to survive decades of change.