Coin battery

[Mr Pounder]

[Harry Bloomfield]

stuart noble pretended :

..and for £1 you can buy a card filled with a wide range of such cells.

[The Natural Philosopher]

It all depends on how you account for cost of sale.

[polygonum]

Hopefully that will help to kill the "you get what you pay for" crap.

Certainly you rarely get more than you pay for, but all too often you can pay more, or much more, and not get as much.

[PeterC]

Very true. We might pay for what we get sometimes, but if we got what we payed for, SOGA would be unecessary. The cells and batteries from the poundish shops are mostly crap - I've had some that are well below voltage a couple of years within their date. The Kodak (Pro?) seem to be good (Poundland?). Good value, at £1.50 for 10, are Ikea's cells (and PP3s).

[Scott M]

Years ago when there was a (seemingly?) more general widespread interest in building circuits they were very good; they stocked loads of obscure components and resistors were 3p each. About 10-15 years ago they shifted to be more black-box oriented and sell PC bits, RC cars, disco lights, etc (and always, I suspect, at prices higher than more specialist "specialist" suppliers.) In the last few years (when I haven't really been much) the stock of "proper" components has dwindled while the pricing has shot through the roof.

[stuart noble]

People still trust brands, sort of. I trust Ikea and Duracell, but not Kodak (who give the impression they sell their name because that's all they have left).

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Quite. And Maplin will charge you 10x the price of a single one. I'll bet they don't sell many. ;-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Don't care. They could easily sell them in packets of 10 or whatever at the same price and still make a big profit. It's a nonsense to expect every single part like that you sell to be profitable/cover all costs on its own. Self defeating - as it certainly puts me off buying anything from them.

BTW, RS and CPC also run 'shops' in the form of trade counters. But supply goods at the same prices as mail order.

Well, if your idea of how to run a shop is the one used by Maplin it will explain everything when they fold.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

At one time I was happy to go to a Maplin shop. Quite enjoyed it. One I used was not the closest, but had a car park. And in those days they stocked most of the things I was after. And would often make impulse purchases after wandering round the shop. If they didn't stock what I was after, they'd send it by post for free - and quickly. Their prices were reasonably competitive too.

They made a decision to move from stocking components at reasonable competitive prices to selling phones etc. And they're not competitive there either. Their answer to falling profits seems have been to put their prices up and expand. The only way that would work is if they have a monopoly. Which they don't.

[cl]

Yes, my experience too. Maplin *used* to be one of the few companies in the electronics field who sent stuff 'by return' just aboout. They also pioneered on-line ordering with a dial-up text based modem service.

I also used them a lot when I was in the Middle East between 1980 and

1987 and they shipped stuff out there efficiently and promptly.

[Andy Burns]

What happened to Watford Electronics?

[RJH]

It's a peculiar model. They seem to have a limited product range and not especially good prices. Very few people seem to go in, yet a lot of staff - about 5 in my local store, and they seem enthusiastic and knowledgeable. And I see on Wikipedia that they were sold in March to a 'restructuring' outfit.

I do find them useful for some things - needed some solder and heat shrink wrap recently, for example. Expensive, though, but I didn't mind as it was (relatively) buttons.

[Andy Burns]

The answer seems to be they went bust, got bought and moved to Luton

[charles]

they moved to Luton

[JimK]

/Johny B Good

- show quoted text - Why am I not surprised at that interpretation of that particular TLA. I meant, as I'm sure you're well aware, Low Self Discharge (implied when I mentioned High Self Discharge a few words later on). /q

We call it H U M O U R....

Jim K

[The Natural Philosopher]

# I think that decision was forced upon them: Very few people build things out of components anymore. Its all rapsberry PI, plugin modules and software.

Indeed a hobby project I am engaged in right now that would have been several circuit boards, and a mass of components, is in fact reduced to one interface board, a scrap PC that cost me a few beers, and a shit load of software.

Its *cheaper* to do it in software and digital hardware than it is in 'electronics'

Maplin have retail outlets to make a profit out of. They have to cater for the vulgar taste in instantly gratifying gadgetry. The Internet has taken any hope of selling specialised stuff on the street away too.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

But Maplin sell on the internet too. Even Ebay. Dunno who buys their stuff off there, though, as it's not at competitive prices.

[news]

Watching Dragons Den is scary wrt retail prices.

What does it cost you make these?

"We ship them in from China at 99p each, wholesale they are £4.99 and retail £14.99"

Makes you realise just how internet sellers can sell stuff cheaper than anyone with a real shop.

[Clive George]

I've said elsewhere I've never seen any reason to buy from Maplin, so I'd not be running a shop like them. But my point about single resistor pricing remains - in a retail environment, 35p is not an unreasonable price for an item like that. 35p is also not an unreasonable price for ten, and that's a clue that selling in singles isn't a good move.