Maplin

[Brian Gaff]

I wonder now who is going to supply those components and weird cables and short wave radios and wireless doorbels that actually work etc. The situation is that there is no hobbist electronic market of enough size now and the scatter gun approach they have used to add to their stock seems to have been ill conceived. I suspect a number of other companies which supplied them may also be in trouble. The whole thing has been killed by cheap imports on the internet, where you can afford to buy stuff and even if its no good you probably did not spend as much as getting into town ad going to maplin and buying it at top whack prices. Its a shame but there you are. I'm rather surprised at Toys R Us, but of course they have been under pressure in the states by imitators who do the toy stuff better than they did. You can never sit back and relax as competition will come along and steal your business. Sadly with Maplin there seems no business to steal any more. Brian

[charles]

you mean Timothy Whites and Taylors?

[alan_m]

The other outdated store chain is WH smiths. They can possibly survive at stations and airports but I suspect not on the high street.

[Chris B]

'Sfunny you say that. This afternoon I had to kill about 45 minutes and had a B&Q close by. I decided to waste 45 mins in there. I was pretty much the only one in the store, and whilst walking round my memory drifted off to the late 80's, when on a Bank Holiday Monday you couldn't get near the car park of the same store.

I know today was a cold and windy weekday but I'll bet there will be plenty of spaces this coming Easter.

[stuart noble]

One imagines that high streets will become secondary shopping areas soon, and presumably rents will plummet. No one wants to pay more than a quid for an hdmi lead, even if it is gold plated

[alan_m]

Toady was also old age perishers day where they can get 10% all purchases.

[damduck-egg]

How many remember they once had a library service?

G.Harman

[charles]

In Guildford it was in Chapel Street

[Dave Plowman (News)]

But was Boot's main source of income ever prescriptions? Unlike say a local chemist?

[Rob Morley]

Some people do want to spend lots more, because they believe that cables assembled by pixies on the confluence of ley lines have less jitter, which they are sure they can sense.

[alan_m]

But these people buy mail order from Russ Andrews rather than buying the inferior £100 gold plated leads from PC World. Only Russ's leads give clear improvements in image quality, with less noise, finer colour detail, more detailed sound and better three-dimensional resolution.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I think that is absolutely true. Town centers are no longer places where inmprtant shops are: they are leisure areas with cafes, bookshops, and showcases for products that half the time are bought online anyway.

I use bookshops a bit, and cafes. And the chemists (old age sucks) but thats about it for 'going into town'

If I actually want to buy, its amazon 99 times out of 100, or some other online store.

The internet has made 'mail order' so amzingly simple that unless you actually need to touch and feel te goods, there is no point in shops at all. And te 'customer feedback;' is pricelesss. I was browsing to see if I coiuld get a stainless steel replacement for te £30 17l tescos microwave that has rusted in two years

Model after mnodel 'crap, dont buy this, it doesn't work'. Finally a stainless Bosch 'crap dont buy, rusted in two years IN SPITE OF BEING "STAINLESS"'.

In the end I really dont have an option - another £30 one from tescos or bite the bullet, rearrange the kitchen, move the microwave to where there is room for a 20l one and buy a semi professional one designed for commercial restaurant and cafe use. And pay £300...

Point is, I wouldnt have FOUND those options in a shop.

And even £2.86 p&p is cheaper than putting diesel in the car and driving

4 miles into town.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Still do. And they rent DVDs.

good way to populate that entertainment server..Hi, HandBrake!

Mind you I found some DVDs it wouldnt rip - all the Riddick series.

Had to 'record' them while playing with VLC....

[Martin Brown]

It is already happening but the rents are not falling - the shops are going vacant at a scary rate even in once prosperous market towns. There are only so many charity and mobile phone shops the rest are empty.

There was a noticeable loss of businesses last quarter day. This is in an area where it was previously not too bad in the earlier recessions.

[tabbypurr]

Supermarkets are all about avoiding anything niche. If they act as landlords it'll be to sellers of all the most popular lines.

NT

[tabbypurr]

no-one buys shortwave radios, except the occasional old timer, for whom the re are plenty on ebay. The other things you mention are mostly bought onlin e. As for electronic parts, we are so awash in scrap electronics now that i t's mostly not necessary to buy anything, a hobbyist can keep a box of boar ds and be moderately well supplied.

And of course being able to buy stuff for less than 1/10th the price is a g ood thing.

NT

[damduck-egg]

Are we talking about the same thing? The Boots library service I mentioned where subscribers could obtain books from some Boots shops finished in 1966.

There is a library bearing their name at Nottingham University presumably because of local connections and maybe sponsorship at some time, but that isn't quite the same thing.

G.Harman

[The Other Mike]

The answer being they cannot solder and can only use a breadboard

[Tim Streater]

OK, now I see Boots mentioned above. But read in isolation, your question "How many remember they once had a library service?" could be taken as a lament that County Libraries are being closed left right and centre.

[dennis]

It was charging the NHS for boots manufactured drugs at prices the independent chemists couldn't charge. That is tens to hundreds as times as much AFAIK.

Pharmacies used to be paid a dispensing fee + the cost of the drug, the cost being whatever was on the invoice. Being a manufacturer and a dispenser was likely to make money.