The Maplin website will be closed

They had a sweet deal pre-internet of *selling* their catalogue too. But it was invaluable with spec sheets and the like.

Reply to
Jethro_uk
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They were still selling it recently.

Reply to
Bob Eager

Maplin - when they were a serious electronics supplier - were at the forefront of fast mail order. First by phone and then via their website.

But before that, they had a high street presence. Perhaps at the poor end of the street, but there nevertheless.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Don't forget Computer Assisted SHopping by TELephone :-)

(And Distel from Display Electronics)

Their stated strategy, when they started opening shops, was secondary tradi ng areas with lower rents, with high footfall and parking.

I can see why they had a shop in Dalry Road, Edinburgh, but I don't think t hat moving into the new unit between TK Maxx and Waitrose in Stirling was p articularly sensible, even if Waitrose customers possibly buy they children an above-average number of radio-controlled cars and educational kits.

Owain

Reply to
spuorgelgoog

A rebranded Aiwa?

Reply to
Adrian Caspersz

Yes, but the detailed pin-outs and data for the components had been reduced and lost for years.

To me, part of the problem with Maplin was that prices had got too high

- when it was cheaper to go to the formerly very high priced RS rather than Maplin, something was going to give.

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

Back when they had a great range of components and actually had plenty of stock of them, the position on Oxford Road in Manchester was ideal - out of the centre, but right by Manchester Polytechnic (later Manchester Metropilitan Univeristy) and with Manchester University and UMIST just a short walk away - 10s of thousands of students. Once they moved away from components, that location wouldn't have been anywhere near as good.

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

You forgot, "almost opposite the BBC studios"

Reply to
charles

So I did. They probably did buy quite a few components there - much quicker than ordering from RS or Farnell.

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

It's where school teachers used to go sniff solvents before the next lesson, using the excuse of printing the handouts. Even the kids could still get high from the handout sheets ten mins later (although probably not by today's standards)...

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

My guess is they've had no one technical high up in the company for years, so they had no direction to go in. They survived the big downturn in the 90's and 2000's which was good going, but they completely missed the resurgence of the maker movement in the last

10 years, and there's no excuse for that - they were ideally placed to make the most of it with a high street presence which would have enabled them to do lots of things their mail-order competitors couldn't, but they had completely forgotten what their roots where, and didn't recognise when demand for that came back in a big way.

Things like the component ranges dropped so low you were unlikely to be able to source what you want there for any significant project. They could have got away with being more expensive than mail-order because of the value of immediacy and advice, but not 5-10 times more expensive than next-day mail order.

I've heard it said that the big financial problem was a load of money was pulled out of the business by the recent owners, requiring the business to borrow back from them and pay interest, but those payments were crippling. Without them, the business was profitable, but it was never going to be able to meet the repayments.

BTW, my local one has got loads more stock in - the staff said more has come in than they've seen in years. It looks like the sale is doing so well they think there's a chance of emptying much of the excess stock in the warehouse through the shops, which was not originally thought likely. My local one now has loads of giant 12V electric toy cards which they presumably over-ordered at some time, and several shops I've been in are stuffed full of C8 mains leads which someone over-ordered by several orders of magnitude (although still at 10 times the price from anywhere else).

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

My local one is also one of the "chosen" ones to receive stock from other stores that are closing sooner. I picked up a 12V, 5A regulated power supply for £12 the other day.

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

And it has now gone ...

"THE MAPLIN WEBSITE IS NOW CLOSED. However, our stores are still open, so pop in to grab yourself a bargain in our closing down sale. Everything must go! When it?s gone, it?s gone!"

Reply to
Andy Burns

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