Maplin administration

[Colin_McLeod]

Why do you use the word "selfish"?

[meil]

No.

Electricity is more environmentally friendly, especially as the UK is rapidly expanding it's carbon free generation. Diesel is harmful to health & the atmosphere.

 

Keith

Really. Diesel engines are becoming more efficient and reducing harmful emissions. Power stations emit harmful emissions and just because your windmill uses the wind doesn't detract from all the energy and waste that went in to producing the concrete on which it stands, the copper that makes the wires and the steel that it's principally made from.

 

I would really like to see a proper analysis of total energy cost of OHLE and Diesel traction. I suspect that by the time you have taken into account the energy costs of actually making and building the OH wires the energy use will be way above using Diesel over its life time.

[ruggedpeak]

Maplin were a poorly run retailer who didn't respond to the changes around them. To drift off into treatise about windfarms and the EU is bonkers!

 

If you want to read about something even more bonkers, read up on what has happened to Homebase after it was bought an Australian company. Currently for sale but a real mess.

[tomparryharry]

I feel sorry for the shop staff at Maplins. However, my experience of their shops were poorly staffed. Witness where the situation of being outnumbered about 4-1 between the shop staff, and the shoppers. Technology moved on, and Maplins didn't appear to keep up.

 

The latest I-phones can almost do everything, except allow you to think. Little wonder that there is a shrinking market for such a specialist market. By the time you go to the shops, order the item (No, it's not in stock) get home, and install, it's obsolete.

 

The first rule of a business plan, is to keep the plan flexible. Maplins sold lots of stuff, that no-one wanted to buy. Toys R us? Or Argos?

 

 

Monty Pythons Cheese Shop sketch springs to mind....

 

Cheers,

 

Ian.

[Robin2]

Why do you use the word "selfish"?

Have you read "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins?  It should be mandatory reading for all humans.

 

...R

[Clearwater]

I seem to have missed this earlier.

 

Yes, it is true that shopping habits have changed.

 

But we need to ask whether that is a good thing or whether the long term benefit is being lost in a short term rush for selfish gain without consideration for the impact on others.

 

Just because we can does not mean that we should.

 

...R

You could equally argue the opposite position: ie why should some hardworking soul subsidise the lifestyle of another who wants to produce some goods at a higher price than is available elsewhere? Why is shopping somewhere cheaper “a short term gain?” It’s a long term gain for the consumer compared to paying higher prices in perpetuity.

 

You take a particular moral position but that does not make someone else’s choice “right or wrong.” If you’re lucky enough to make enough money to be prepared to pay above the odds for a particular goods or service then that’s your moral choice to put an additional monetary value (the difference between the market price and the higher price you’re prepared to pay) but don’t seek to impose your views on others. That’s equally “selfish.”

 

However, we live in a society that, rightly, seeks to limit pure Darwinism. That’s where the politicians and legislators need to get the balance right between what allows for individual choice and a cohesive society, Governments can, and do, choose how much they intervene in business. None, though, choose to make material interventions in the High Street. That’s why the shops on 30 years ago, never mind 60,70 or 80 are different. Habits, pricing, preferences have changed. Businesses either move on or go bust. That’s what’s happened to Maplin.

 

The same will continue to happen and that, on the whole is a good thing. It creates innovation, new ideas, better ways of doing things. If that didn’t happen, we’d also still be waiting around for Trevithick to realise his stationary engine could be made to do the work of X horses. Doubtless there were people in 1805 lamenting the impact of this new steam engine on jobs in horse husbandry. It’s the same argument as today’s high street.

 

None of that is to say that Government doesn’t have a role in planning for and helping its citizens to adjust to technological change. What it doesn’t have a role in doing is propping up failing businesses. As other have observed, failure will come to them in any event.

 

Maplin - of course I feel sorry for those directly affected. If they’re skilled they’ll find other jobs. Maybe it will prompt one or two of them to analyse what went wrong and create their own, better business.

[hayfield]

I seem to have missed this earlier.

 

Yes, it is true that shopping habits have changed.

 

But we need to ask whether that is a good thing or whether the long term benefit is being lost in a short term rush for selfish gain without consideration for the impact on others.

 

Just because we can does not mean that we should.

 

...R

 

 

Nice thoughts but in a commercial world where wages, rents, rates, suppliers etc have to be paid, its the survival of the fittest. This has always been the way, unless a company has a backer who does not mind subsidersing the business.   

[LBRJ]

In retail times change all the time

 

As I have just commented to the cheery delivery boy from Home & Colonial as he bravely battled through the snow to deliver my groceries on his BSA bicycle

[frobisher]

Really. Diesel engines are becoming more efficient and reducing harmful emissions. Power stations emit harmful emissions and just because your windmill uses the wind doesn't detract from all the energy and waste that went in to producing the concrete on which it stands, the copper that makes the wires and the steel that it's principally made from.

Any power generation facility/engine will have those sunk costs as well so it's a non-argument. Diesel just doesn't spontaneously appear out of the ground or fraction itself from the crude oil and miraculously teleport itself to your petrol station...

 

I would really like to see a proper analysis of total energy cost of OHLE and Diesel traction. I suspect that by the time you have taken into account the energy costs of actually making and building the OH wires the energy use will be way above using Diesel over its life time.

Maybe over the lifetime of a diesel engine, but probably not over the lifetime of OHLE - especially if both a built to the same environmental pollution standards...

 

Obviously third rail electrification is the way to go and Maplins wouldn't have gone into receivership if that had been more widely spread...

[Baby Deltic]

Whilst I am sad to see the demise of Maplin, a shop I have used since I was young, It cannot compete price wise with Rapid when it comes to most things. I have also been dealing with Rapid since it was a small company in Brunel Way, Colchester where you would phone in an order and collect it from reception an hour later. Rapid has grown out of all proportions and now stocks most of the stuff I used to get from Maplin at a fraction of the price at their custom built warehouse and store off Severalls Lane. Luckily I only live about two miles away so I can visit the store to get bits. I visited Maplin recently when they had 50% off PCB development and hoovered up their stocks of ferric chloride, PCB, strip board and PCB laser transfer sheets.

[Baby Deltic]

Nice thoughts but in a commercial world where wages, rents, rates, suppliers etc have to be paid, its the survival of the fittest. This has always been the way, unless a company has a backer who does not mind subsidersing the business.   

 

I like what Ray Crock said to the McDonald brothers about business being dog eat dog, rat eat rat, and the fact that if he saw a competitor drowning he would stick a hosepipe in their mouth. Just about sums it all up when it comes to the nitty gritty of surviving in the business world.

Edited April 2, 2018 by Baby Deltic

[meil]

Any power generation facility/engine will have those sunk costs as well so it's a non-argument. Diesel just doesn't spontaneously appear out of the ground or fraction itself from the crude oil and miraculously teleport itself to your petrol station...

 

 

 

No it's not a non-argument. There is the opportunity cost of OHLE. Same argument for HS2.

 

Why was the GWR electrified when it was already, and had been for many years, provided with 125mph trains? Wasn't the obvious cost benefit to provide modern HSTs rather than sink £bns into OHLE.Same with the East Cost. The West coast perhaps a different proposition given its curvy nature.

 

Lets not forget that the HST was/is probably the most liked train on the network.

[Robin2]

, its the survival of the fittest.

I keep hoping that humans will use their intelligence to rise above their animal instincts.

 

...R

[Robin2]

Why was the GWR electrified when it was already, and had been for many years, provided with 125mph trains? Wasn't the obvious cost benefit to provide modern HSTs rather than sink £bns into OHLE.Same with the East Cost. .

+1

 

I suspect it would make economic sense to build power generation cars for the Pendolinos and retire the west coast OHLE.

...R

Edited April 2, 2018 by Robin2

[BlackRat]

I keep hoping that humans will use their intelligence to rise above their animal instincts....R

Reality check...., many people can't afford to be moralistic, and if someone can save a few bob then good luck to them.

 

We don't live in some utopian paradise, and I can't see that changing for the foreseeable future.

 

I'm careful with my dosh, I'll happily pay more for quality, sadly that doesn't seem to be available locally and I have no issue about buying from wherever provides me with the best value for money.

 

My pockets aren't that deep, or that full, and every penny sometimes counts.

[jjb1970]

On electricity and energy conversion, there is no shortage of material on life cycle analysis of fuels and energy carriers etc. There are those who propose that low/zero carbon fuels and energy conversion may mature to the point where you can match the environmental impact of electrified railways in the near future but as things are the only argument against electrification is the initial capex of installing the infrastructure. Electrification reduces local pollution, GHG emissions and the trains can perform much better, it's a win-win all around. 

[Robin2]

the only argument against electrification is the initial capex of installing the infrastructure.

That is not an insignificant consideration.

 

The OHLE has a huge ongoing maintenance cost - both directly and indirectly because its presence makes all work on the railway dangerous.

 

Then there is the fact that none of the electric trains can run if the  OHLE fails.

 

And what about the damage to the visual environment due to the OHLE masts?

 

...R

Edited April 2, 2018 by Robin2

[jjb1970]

High initial capex followed by lower opex, better train performance, lower local pollution, lower GHG emissions etc, it's a good trade. And diesels are not maintenance free.

[Colin_McLeod]

Have you read "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins? 

 

...R

No.

[Robin2]

No.

When you do I believe you will understand where I am coming from (as well as where we all came from).

 

...R

[frobisher]

Then there is the fact that none of the electric trains can run if the  OHLE fails.

Not keeping up with the modern railway are we..? The class 800/802 would beg to differ, whatever their other faults...

[Robin2]

Not keeping up with the modern railway are we..? The class 800/802 would beg to differ, whatever their other faults...

Played right into my hands 

 

WTF are they wasting money putting pantographs and all the associated electrical gubbins on a pefectly good DMU.

 

...R

[meil]

Not keeping up with the modern railway are we..? The class 800/802 would beg to differ, whatever their other faults...

If the OHLE fails there will almost certainly OH line wire all over he railway - so nothing can run.

[rockershovel]

Given the overall mileage of OHLE network worldwide, compared to diesel traction, the debate seems to have been over for a long time. America still uses diesel traction for its system of extremely high power consumption over very long distances, sometimes in arduous terrain, but the Trans Siberian and other long-distance networks are electrified, as are the new Chinese-built lines in various locations

[rockershovel]

One thing that has to be said about “shopping locally” is that, with or without online shopping, the periodic recessions of the period since the late 1970s were already destroying choice.

 

Try going to a local supplier and buying good, seasoned timber, for example.