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Old 16th Mar 2018, 12:30 am   #301
Grubhead
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Default Re: Maplin stores

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I wonder if sometimes the men in suits at the boardroom table lose sight completely of what they are there for.
"To make money" is surely the only answer. When you stop making money you either sell-on the remains to someone more-gullible, or you close the business down. As has happened with Maplin, ToysRUs, Countrywide farmers etc in recent months.

Businesses going-bust proves that the market-economy is working. Evolution demands extinction; let's not grieve over the fate of the dinosaurs.
To make money for themselves, irrespective of the damage it does.
It doesn't prove that the market is working. Since the market doesn't exists.
A free market was eliminated years ago by the Government.
It just proves that the money that was supporting these firms is being used to fund other things.
Evolution doesn't demand extinction, it just adapts to it when it happens. The genes are not "selfish". They work by co-operation.
The dinosaurs are still with us. Now we call them birds.
In any case business is nothing to do with evolution.

Let's grieve over the poor sods that have lost their livelihoods. And if they can't find work who will pay for them? Not the rich people who live in banks and multi-million pound houses.
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Old 16th Mar 2018, 7:25 am   #302
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Default Re: Maplin stores

Businesses going bust would only be evolutionary if it took out the people who made the bad decisions which caused them to fold.

However, we see that all too often this group of people get golden payoffs and are away working their magic on another firm. Unless they're stupid enough to decide to pay tax, the damage they wreak on the ex-employees costs them nothing.

I find it worrying that there are people in control of large operations where they are contractually protected from the downsides of their goofs.These people even get to use words like 'accountability', but only when talking about subordinates

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Old 16th Mar 2018, 8:11 am   #303
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Default Re: Maplin stores

Sinewave, I use mine all the time and have just bought another so I can recommend it.

For a tenner delivered, it's great!
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Old 16th Mar 2018, 9:27 am   #304
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Default Re: Maplin stores

A couple of recent posts are bordering on political. Please remember that political discussions are not allowed here, so let's not go any further along that line of discussion.
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Old 16th Mar 2018, 11:43 am   #305
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Default Re: Maplin stores

Visited my local one last time yesterday out of curiosity. No further reductions, and to be honest the shelves look more or less as full as when I went on Saturday. Plenty of staff and me the only customer. It doesn't look to me like they will shift enough of their stock in the 2 weeks I was told it would likely remain open.

I expect a lot may end up at auction in bulk lots at this rate
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Old 16th Mar 2018, 12:01 pm   #306
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Default Re: Maplin stores

In my local Maplins I overheard staff telling customers that they 'would be open until all the stock was sold, which could take a couple of months'.

How quickly they sell it depends on the discount, which is not very generous at present given that there is no effective warranty. I heard someone trying to barter down the price of something but he didn't succeed, so left saying he would be back next week to try again.
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Old 16th Mar 2018, 12:05 pm   #307
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Default Re: Maplin stores

I think at some point the cost of the staff, premises and clearing them will outweigh the stock value and someone will suddenly pull the plug. I think that the stock is worth precisely nothing and there is no demand which is the problem.
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Old 16th Mar 2018, 12:39 pm   #308
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Default Re: Maplin stores

Another thing to consider is that it's coming up to the end of the financial-year (1st week of April): depending on what the tenancy-agreements are for the stores, the receivers may want to hand them back to the landlords in this current financial year rather than retain the ongoing liability for rent etc to be carried over into the next f.y.
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Old 16th Mar 2018, 1:22 pm   #309
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Default Re: Maplin stores

I've just received the email attached below.

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Old 16th Mar 2018, 1:27 pm   #310
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They offer a twelve month guarantee apparently. Not sure how that works?
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Old 16th Mar 2018, 2:07 pm   #311
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If the administrators want to shift the stock, they could do a lot better than cutting it from 200% of the going rate to 150%....the policies which threw all these people out of jobs are being continued.
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Old 16th Mar 2018, 2:15 pm   #312
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Default Re: Maplin stores

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I think at some point the cost of the staff, premises and clearing them will outweigh the stock value and someone will suddenly pull the plug. I think that the stock is worth precisely nothing and there is no demand which is the problem.
I'd expect many stores have already met that criteria. I think they have little hope of shifting what they have unless they roll the 50% reductions out to everything, and consider even 80% on some items. 20% off £2.99 crocodile clip connectors, oh please!

I have to say staying open a while longer is good for the staff, at least they will receive pay a little longer and have more time to find other employment. From a purely monetary perspective, I'm not sure why small stores like mine are still opening with 4-5 staff
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Old 16th Mar 2018, 3:44 pm   #313
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Default Re: Maplin stores

The administrators probably know as much about retail electronics as Maplin's former management. At this point they should set the branch managers free to do whatever deals they can to empty the shops.
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Old 16th Mar 2018, 4:18 pm   #314
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Default Re: Maplin stores

If they start selling off the shop fittings I wouldn't mind a few component drawers.
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Old 16th Mar 2018, 6:52 pm   #315
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Default Re: Maplin stores

Funny you saying that, but when my local Brantano footwear superstore closed down, they were selling all the fixtures and fittings off for almost nothing, so I bought an Elephant's footstool and a shelf unit.
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Old 16th Mar 2018, 7:36 pm   #316
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Default Re: Maplin stores

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If they start selling off the shop fittings I wouldn't mind a few component drawers.
A local Polish shop was furnished entirely courtesy of Woolworth's.

But do Maplin actually have much in the way of component drawers?

You might get some shelves for your disco lights though.
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Old 16th Mar 2018, 8:39 pm   #317
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Default Re: Maplin stores

In the components area (where you have to ask for what you want) they have a separate drawer for each component... containing two resistors, capacitors or ICs if you are lucky. Well the Bournemouth store does anyway, that's the last one I've been to. I don't know whether they all do or not.
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Old 16th Mar 2018, 8:44 pm   #318
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A local Polish shop was furnished entirely courtesy of Woolworth's.
I was lucky enough to come across an entire shops worth of shelves, at a very affordable price. I have used very nearly all of it, makes a very neat storage solution for my radio collection.

John.
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Old 16th Mar 2018, 10:07 pm   #319
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Default Re: Maplin stores

I got a big stack of 5mm black perspex from BHS's closing down sale. For three quid.
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Old 16th Mar 2018, 10:20 pm   #320
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Default Re: Maplin stores

I just feel saddened at the sell-offs of shops.

Maplin may have had its soul torn out long before the end, but I can't help thinking of it more in terms of when it was a thriving mail order business with an associated magazine.
For some barmy reason they went in the opposite direction to the firms which have survived.

Last year I was sent along to Jabil's plant which was in the process of closing, to look over the remaining equipment to see if anything was worth buying. It was a huge building with an empty echo and a small amount of stuff concentrated in one corner. And, yes, the remaining people were looking for jobs. This was very sad. Their company still exists, but they've shut down plants and moved their centres of operations... all quite deliberate.

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