You're very lucky. My local hardware shop I liked and used a lot - with the original owner who knew about almost everything he sold - got taken over by a youngster who merely thought he knew it all. And wanted to only sell fast moving high profit stuff. Just like a supermarket sold in its hardware section for less. It's now yet another takeaway. Which I don't use either. ;-)
Yes- there were plenty. What I liked about the original Maplins was visiting a shop as an alternative - and almost always buying something extra that took my fancy. And if they didn't have the parts I wanted in stock, they phoned them through and got delivered free here usually the next day.
In message , at
14:42:15 on Sat, 23 Jun 2018, Max Demian remarked:
Very few diversified into mail order with a wide enough product range. Many were in effect a development from the 'Army Surplus' stores such as those on Tottenham Court Road, but getting their stock as end-of-line unused components from UK-based electronics manufacturers (mainly "hi-fi" but other stuff too).
A lot of both types of business were located in south Essex (and Maplin was of course started in Southend, where one of the bigger components clearance outfits was). Maplin also got into the business of supplying "complete kits" to build things, with an emphasis to the music/disco end of the market. Whereas down the road Ambit was doing the same with an amateur radio slant.
A lot of provincial high streets were much less well provided for with big shops, and local department stores were already in decline in the 1970s. I didn't see an Argos until I was at university! Also credit was much less av ailable with many people still being paid in cash.
The same philosophy still applies with places like Brighthouse.
Owain
I can only remember two offhand:
I remember one called TRS for general electronic components. Plus lots of others (advertised in Practical Wireless) that sold specific components and kits.
In message , at 20:29:06 on Sat, 23 Jun 2018, Bob Eager remarked:
There was LST in Brentwood, later changed its name to Arrow. They got a lot of their components as factory rejects (they didn't hide the fact) but this meant what was in the shop from week to week varied a lot.
Their standard catalogue was a bit thin, and this was one of the reasons Ambit was formed, also in Brentwood, as a channel to distribute first-grade leading-edge components typically not available anywhere else (other than minimum orders of 100 from a wholesaler).
In fact it was LST who suggested the idea! They were reluctant to expand their range and/or buy in 100 expensive components when people asked for just one or two. So Ambit's founder bought some 100's from the wholesalers LST suggested, and then had to find a way to shift the other
98!In message , at 07:38:23 on Sun, 24 Jun
2018, Roland Perry remarked:Page 27 here describes buying semiconductors from LST and then testing them individually to pick the "good" ones:
We used to refer to Radio Spares as Reject Spares for a time when they overprinted manufactures markings with their own stock numbers. The overprint could be removed to see the original manufacturers part number. It sometimes revealed that, say, on a order of 10 off of the same Radio Spares part number it resulted in ICs from 2 different manufactures with different specifications.
Firstly, I don't think Maplin is a sign of anything except appauling management. Remarkably, they survived the 90's and 00's when there was a severe reduction in the hobbiest space (and Tandy went bust), but they failed to realise the boom in maker/hack spaces, arduino/Pi, and many other things that were the traditional heart of Maplin. They would never be able to compete on price in the shops, but they should have been competing on skills, advice, running hack evenings, and other things mail order companies can't touch. They could have got away with higher prices, but not an order of magnitude higher - even at 80% off, they were still twice the regular price. They completely missed the resurgence of their traditional market. I'll bet it's a long time since they had anyone technical on the board.
High street retail as a whole has a problem -- too many overheads to compete with online, both for the customers (parking) and the retailers (rates, staff) to compete with online. Even the cost of car parking verses free browsing on the internet is a big factor, and retail controlled by local councils (which treat car parking as a cash cow) will vanish in all but a few large retail towns. Many stores will no longer consider retail areas unless there's free parking, and have been moving out from town centres to retail parks with free parking. Councils, looking to protect their parking revenue, are betting more on leasure than retail in the future, believing people who spend money on leasure will also be willing to spend money on parking.
The retailers who survive will be those with a clearly defined market sector in which they are the leader - there won't be the trade to support the retailers in third and fourth place. Lots of people do enjoy browsing in real stores, and providing it's not more expensive than browsing on the Internet, the leaders in each of their market sectors will survive.
Ones that I recall using... Henry's Radio (and many other stores in Edgware Rd, names I've forgotten) Cricklewood Electronics Watford Electronics (1970's) Home Radio Components Proops Jones Radio, Lovering Bros, Shop on the Bridge (local stores in Reading)
There were also manufacturers selling direct, such as ILP transformers (made toroidal transformers, and would wind you anything you wanted for same price as the off-the-shelf models).
I still have my electronics magazines from that era, but to reduce shelf space, I tore out all the advertising pages and just retained the article pages (which was easy to do in those days, as the ads occupied exactly same number of pages at start and end of each magazine).
I - and many others - used to *buy* the Maplin catalogue as an invaluable source of data sheets.
Rayners Lane *one* of Harrows shopping centres (along with South Harrow, North Harrow, Harrow Town, Pinner, Wealdstone, Hatch End, Harrow Weald and Stanmore*) had *3* electronics shops that would sell components and offer advice. All within a 3 minute walk of each other. (Viking electronics, Odeon Electronics, and Pinner electronics).
*That's one single London Borough. Now compare with almost any other city in England - even Birmingham simply cannot match it.
There used to be a brilliant over-the-counter shop in Chatham Street, Ramsgate. You had to set aside half a day for a visit, as it was tiny, and the owner would chat to customers for hours!
Yup - and basic circuits for the relevant ICs too. To save looking up the data sheets. Gave you an idea what they might be used for when glancing through the cat.
Rather obviously written with the home constructer in mind. Which is where Maplin went so wrong later on. They seemed to get rid of the people who actually knew about such things.
In message , at 11:20:15 on Sun, 24 Jun
2018, "Dave Plowman (News)" remarked:Depends what you mean by "Maplin", as if it had some kind of corporate psyche independent of its venture capital owners that week.
You could argue those dominoes began to fall in 1994.
Tandy's UK rot set in much the same time, resulting a few years later in a very topical refrain:
and they were divested in 1999 to Carphone Warehouse, presumably as that was the only profitable product line they had.
And now they're looking into the abyss.
(TBH, good.)
In message , at 13:42:23 on Sun, 24 Jun 2018, Huge remarked:
The networks never were very keen to have third parties selling phones, so the Carphone Warehouse proposition always was a bit of an interloper.
They then had the bids to get more High Street (and Retail Park) penetration through Tandy, Best Buy and now PC World.
Thought that was the start of its decline? Changing hands from the original owners?
In message , at 19:04:59 on Sun, 24 Jun
2018, "Dave Plowman (News)" remarked:There are two schools of thought: one being that start-up entrepreneurs need to hand a business over to those more skilled at building it up and running it day to day in the medium term; the other that the smart founders could see that now was the time to bail out.
I've seen both.
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