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Maplin administration


Jonboy
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I can't see the "online " version succeeding, the Old Maplins lost out because they were no longer needed as a middle man between you and China. They had saddled themselves with huge debts in their over the top expansion and the sums no longer added up...

An online Malins is also not needed, as they  need more profit to operate than Amazon or Ebay to purchase the exact same items....

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23 minutes ago, TheQ said:

I can't see the "online " version succeeding, the Old Maplins lost out because they were no longer needed as a middle man between you and China. They had saddled themselves with huge debts in their over the top expansion and the sums no longer added up...

An online Malins is also not needed, as they  need more profit to operate than Amazon or Ebay to purchase the exact same items....

While you and some others might be willing to find a direct source of supply from China, it isn't every ones choice. There are also those who don't trust all far eastern suppliers to provide a good service, a good product, etc. If your assertion is correct then Rapid, RS, Farnell and all the rest are on their way out.

 

How do you know that Maplin needs to generate more profit than Ebay or Amazon? Is it because they expect to pay taxes? 

 

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52 minutes ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

While you and some others might be willing to find a direct source of supply from China, it isn't every ones choice. There are also those who don't trust all far eastern suppliers to provide a good service, a good product, etc. If your assertion is correct then Rapid, RS, Farnell and all the rest are on their way out.

 

How do you know that Maplin needs to generate more profit than Ebay or Amazon? Is it because they expect to pay taxes? 

 

 

 The Product is exactly the same, whether you buy  from China or the above companies, they just buy it from China themselves.. China has wiped out non specialised electronic manufacturing. The company I work for makes a DMM, costing £17,000. Almost all the broards and components are designed in the UK or USA, but made in China, shipped to us, put together in a pretty box, then labeled Made in the UK and sold.. thats how it works these days...

 

RS are slightly different in that they sell mostly to business and when required supply a certificated paper trail. (the company I work for uses them at times because of that.)

Farnell have also provided that service in the past I don't know if they do now..

Any small supplier is on a loser as a direct comparison to Amazon and Ebay unless they can provide some Better service .

 

Yes,  MaplinOnline if they are based in the UK, will find it hard to dodge taxes VAT and import duties.. which is very unfair..

 

Ebay has no warehouses no transports costs, it's just between you and the seller, and if you buy in small quantities at a time, there are no import taxes or VAT.

 

Amazon is the same as Ebay if you are buying direct from China, if it's come via their warehouse then at least import duties and VAT will have been paid.. But they have Huge economies of Scale and where they use an outside courier you can guarantee its a vastly better deal to them than a small Upstart company could get..

Edited by TheQ
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4 hours ago, TheQ said:

Yes,  MaplinOnline if they are based in the UK, will find it hard to dodge taxes VAT and import duties.. which is very unfair..

 

 

Rapid Online is UK based and keeps stock here. It also is hobbyist friendly with dedicated hobby items

It has many more items for sale than Maplin Online and it's cheaper.

Both Farnell and RS will supply the hobbyist (Farnell has for much longer) and are also cheaper with greater stock ranges

 

Maplin used to be the useful High Street outlet for those hard to get bits you need quickly.

Without that the new Maplin is IMHO pointless and won't succeed as there is too much competition.

Edited by melmerby
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Sadly when Maplins arrived in many towns,  it killed the true electronics shops run by people who knew what they were talking about.

Just like supermarkets killing family run grocers.. 

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15 minutes ago, TheQ said:

Sadly when Maplins arrived in many towns,  it killed the true electronics shops run by people who knew what they were talking about.

Just like supermarkets killing family run grocers.. 

I don't remember many places having "True" electronics shops!

Places like Edgware Rd in London & Hurst St in Brum weren't AFAIK the norm.

I think Hurst Street was changing, long before Maplins came to town.

The first store in Birmingham was out at Erdington.

Originally there weren't many Maplins and staff did seem to have some knowledge.

Later they went on an expansion spree and as you said, many staff were lacking in knowhow.

 

However never as bad as PC World where they regularly dished out total twaddle in the name of "expert advice"

Edited by melmerby
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Certainly I was a regular in electronics shops in Norwich,  Bristol, Edinburgh and of course once or twice Edgeware rd.. Yes I used to get around a bit,. Often they were combined with something like radio amateur equipment , also an increasing rarity.

 

PC world...  The only good thing about them was that in Norwich  sweet Briar estate,  it was next door to Maplins.. 

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4 hours ago, RedgateModels said:

I can't remember there ever being one in Nottingham or Mansfield but there was a lovely little electronics shop in Coventry in the '80s :)

 

R F Potts in Derby if they're still trading which given the amount of customers I used to see there when I worked regularly in Derby they should be.

The drive train for the O gauge 76s on Netherwood sidings came from them. Cost about £5 per loco, if memory serves, for two seven pole motors and gear sets.

There's also a proper olde worlde electronic bits shop in the middle of Lincoln at the bottom of Steep Hill leading up to the cathedral.

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14 minutes ago, great central said:

 

R F Potts in Derby if they're still trading which given the amount of customers I used to see there when I worked regularly in Derby they should be.

The drive train for the O gauge 76s on Netherwood sidings came from them. Cost about £5 per loco, if memory serves, for two seven pole motors and gear sets.

There's also a proper olde worlde electronic bits shop in the middle of Lincoln at the bottom of Steep Hill leading up to the cathedral.

RF Potts: https://www.rfpotts.com/

Looks like a proper job. Their surplus picture looks interesting!

 

 

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1 hour ago, great central said:

 

 

There's also a proper olde worlde electronic bits shop in the middle of Lincoln at the bottom of Steep Hill leading up to the cathedral.

 

I remember them too though I've only been in a couple of times but not since the 1990s at the latest 

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On 15/02/2019 at 16:10, TheQ said:

Sadly when Maplins arrived in many towns,  it killed the true electronics shops run by people who knew what they were talking about.

Just like supermarkets killing family run grocers.. 

How many remember maplins roots. It was a small dedicated electronics shop staff by those who knew there stuff, and was a joy to visit. It lost its way once it tried to become mainstream selling drones rc stuff and car stereos ect at over inflated prices

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While I did not go to the shop, I remember the early days when you got a catalogue with the pictures of the entire staff inside the front cover and a free Si Fi poster..

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6 minutes ago, Andymsa said:

How many remember maplins roots. It was a small dedicated electronics shop staff by those who knew there stuff, and was a joy to visit. It lost its way once it tried to become mainstream selling drones rc stuff and car stereos ect at over inflated prices

 

I remember when I was growing up in Luton in the 70s, there was an electronics shop which I used to go to, but they mostly catered for the amateur radio and hifi builders - fine if you wanted discrete components back then (they even still sold valves), but I was starting to get interested in digital electronics and I doubt the shop had even heard of those rectangular plastic things with numbers starting 74... printed on the top.

 

One Maplin catalogue later and a postal order and I finally had some TTL to play with. 

 

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Now that Maplin have disappeared, is -are there a supplier of electrical products such as the modeller might use?

 

Maplin were ok, but for real expert advice, I used the old lady who looked after the fruit & veg at our local Tesco. She new more as well....

 

Ian.

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57 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

And before there was 74-series TTL wasn’t there 54-series, possibly DTL? Just as before Maplin there was Lasky’s. And components were once sold in multiple shops in Lisle St, now the heart of London’s Chinatown.  

 

The 54- series was the 74-series but with an extended Military Spec. temperature range - it did appear a little before the commercial spec 74- series though. 

 

Fairchild produced the most common DTL in the 1960s with the 930 series devices. 

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19 hours ago, tomparryharry said:

Now that Maplin have disappeared, is -are there a supplier of electrical products such as the modeller might use?

 

Maplin were ok, but for real expert advice, I used the old lady who looked after the fruit & veg at our local Tesco. She new more as well....

 

Ian.

It is probably due to both the demise of the old owner/driver specialist stores as well as modern retail organisations who prefer to put the bright young things on their career paths into the retail customer facing environment for experience. Unfortunately the BYTs often know little but think they know a lot and  don't know when to say "I don't know, I'll see if I can find out" but continue to talk b*lls**t. 

 

All Components are a model railway supplier who carry some electronic items. There is also Squires. Otherwise you need to go to the likes of Rapid, Farnell or RS.

 

 

Edited by Jol Wilkinson
Spelling/grammar, but still no guarantee it is correct.
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18 hours ago, tomparryharry said:

Now that Maplin have disappeared, is -are there a supplier of electrical products such as the modeller might use?

 

Maplin were ok, but for real expert advice, I used the old lady who looked after the fruit & veg at our local Tesco. She new more as well....

 

Ian.

As has been mentioned before RapidOnline stock much of what Maplin sold and much, much more besides.

Their prices are lower than Maplins and their postal service is IMHO second to none.

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Anybody remember Tandy (you must do!)

Their shops were mainly franchises and the staff were just folks who had bought into the franchise system with a result there was (generally) little knowledge of the stuff they sold.

 

Had a few odd bargains there.

e.g. A car radio "sold as seen" for a fraction of it's normal cost in the manager's specials bin, with a simple fault that took about 5 mins to find.

Had many years of use out of it.

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19 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Anybody remember Tandy (you must do!)

Their shops were mainly franchises and the staff were just folks who had bought into the franchise system with a result there was (generally) little knowledge of the stuff they sold.

 

Had a few odd bargains there.

e.g. A car radio "sold as seen" for a fraction of it's normal cost in the manager's specials bin, with a simple fault that took about 5 mins to find.

Had many years of use out of it.

I remember going into a Tandy In Edinburgh IIRC, I was after 8 memory chips... they wanted £10 each for them, against Maplins Mail order of about £1.35 each  needless to say Maplin go the order.

Tandy for a brief time were THE computer seller to supply to small business accounting, they were running Sage...

 

Tandy still Exist in the USA, back in their orginal business selling leather work.. They also exist in London / online  under new ownership still selling electronics.

 

Another old blast from the past would be Doram, this was RS's Sales branch for the hobbiest. Eventually they sold it off, but under the new owners it sank without trace..

Edited by TheQ
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