One more credit insurer abandons Maplin Electronics

Game over

See above. Less than 12 months to go I'd think.

I used to go to the nearest city centre shop quite often (by bus or train), have a look in case anything caught my eye (always more fun to browse a physical shop - more likely to come across something unexpected as online searches by definition are always quite focused and so unlikely to stumble upon unconnected interesting items) . If I found something I liked I would buy tyhre as a bit of support (instead of looking online to shave off a bit of cash) - plus used to grab the odd "emergency" purchase when time critical replacement of something

However they closed their city centre shop (I imagine rent was high) - they retained presence in out of town retail park (which presumably is far cheape rentr) but thatch of no use to me as nowhere near the city centre, and not well served by public transport (essentially aimed at car users only)

I'm sure it was cost effective wrt rental costs, but the city centre shop would get a lot of eyeballs, people might see something in window display and pop in (e.g. drones or whatever is the tech toy of trendiness this year) - whereas the only time I made the long trek to the out of town store, it was very quiet as less likely to get casual visits.

They've not been a geek emporium for well over a decade.

Wouldn't surprise me if they do close. As has been mentioned in the comments in previous articles, they must be the most overstaffed outfit in the land. It's excruciating walking through the door knowing that you're going to be followed at every turn by one of the bored staff in case you should want to steal some cheap, but grossly overpriced tat.

As a loyal Maplin customer in the early/mid 80's, I remember berating Tandy back then for their overpriced, over-packaged, low stock levels and poor range of electronic components, and always thought they sold mainly tat.

It's ironic that Maplin, an independent mail order company with only a couple of shops went down precisely the same route as Tandy, and seem destined to suffer the same fate at the hands of the competition in the form of mail-order only outlets.

They're good for batteries, as long as you buy them at the 'offer' price and not the interim inflated prices, but then Poundland just around the corner also sell decent alkalines for around the same price, and as for the rest of the tat, get it from eBay at less than half the price.

As for kids of today needing Maplin to get into electronics, I don't think so. That just sounds like an excuse for today's "I want riches without any effort" youth. As a enthusiast then student of electronics in the 80's, I can tell you that there has never been a better time than now for a kid to get in to electronics. Components are stunningly cheap, test gear is cheap, and the amount of information available at your fingertips (literally) is vast. No more ordering data sheets for 25p at time and waiting for a week for them to turn up in the post. You can buy a complete microprocessor system for a couple of quid and teach yourself proper assembly language on the family laptop. Hell, there are even analogue circuit emulators out there more than powerful enough for hobby use for free.

Aberdeen to York

... is a slightly strange way of putting it - when talking about shops across a geographical area you'd generally name the two most distant points geographically rather than alphabetically!

As far as I know they have shops across the UK from Inverness to Truro which is pretty decent coverage. I've not used the physical shops for years (since they're mostly full of cheap tat and very few useful components if my last visits were anything to go by.)

Classes

I once had great respect for Maplin and their catalogues what with the data within and spaceship on the front. But now they sell mostly expensive tat.

We do electronics and soldering classes mainly for school kids at the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge, they're very popular and something we will do more of. I enjoy helping out except maybe when I held a PCB and component in place for a little girl to solder but she took forever and I was sure my fingers smelt slightly bacon afterwards.

Out of Date, out of time...

Just left Maplin employment.

They've stopped all overtime and recruitment as their turnover is down from last year. They're feeling the pinch from online sales.

The trouble with Maplin is that they seem reluctant to compete with online with regards to availability.

Customers would walk in and out again as Maplin's policy of having a minimum of 2 of each item for their shops fails them.

Sure, they 'stock' 20,000 items but a huge proportion of these are not held by Maplin, so not available in store.

Their Web site is shockingly bad to search. Staff use Google search to improve things. They don't seem to understand that technology has several names for things. If you do find the item, then lucky day!

Their policy of giving free p+p to out of stock items was commendable 10 years ago. But with other stores offering 4 hours delivery, Maplin's 3-4 days delivery is appallingly out of date.

I got tired of all the behind the scenes rushing to keep up and knowing the problems were being ignored. Enough I thought.

With plans to put GAME stalls inside each store or doing Mobile Phone repairs. Just seems like flogging a dying horse.

Maplin = Monster Cables.

I went in there to get a lighting cable and they charged me about £20.

The minute you enter my local Maplins you are watched like you are a prolific shoplifter by the young staff there, who pretend to tidy up hanging things at the end of every aisle you are browsing. More unnerving than the ridiculously high prices for some things.

They may never be able to compete with online mail orders shops on price but some of the prices seem to be just fleecing customers who don't have a clue. If they had more sensible prices I would buy more there and accept the premium for having the item instantly.

Shops don't make money by giving good advice and service...

Customer service and great advice like Maplin used to give (and probably still do) doesn't make money and keep customers in this brave new world.

My local bicycle shop is the only one in town. Last year I was walking past and the owner had come out to view a "youths" bike. I heard the conversation from half way through...basically it was along the lines of, "what gearing system should I buy to replace this broken one?", the advice came back as "xyz, we have them in stock and I'll fit them now", the reply was "cheers mate but I'll buy them on the internet, cos they're cheaper". They didn't ask the price, and weren't told. It was presumed (correctly).

I chipped in with, "support the local shop because he gives you good advice which you can't buy anywhere else, it's worth paying a bit more to support your community", the youth and his friends said "of course you can, that's what forums are for",

Off they went without a care in the world. They were only asking the shop because he was there and genuinely couldn't care less if he wasn't.

Price is king and the Internet solves all the other issues in other ways, such as how to fit (Youtube) what to buy (reviews), advice (forums). The modern youths have no idea about community....probably because they haven't seen it, our generation killed that off.

What do Maplins, Argos, PC World, (insert name of shop), give to, or do for, the new generations that the Internet can't give them bearing in mind that communities are now taught as being "facebook" groups and shops are called websites?

Maplins may be on it's way out.....but aren't all shops that sell "things"?

I think it's all very wrong indeed...and scary. The world I knew doesn't exist any more and I don't understand this new one.

Re Shops don't make money by giving good advice and service...

Believe me I would rather go to a good local shop than buy some of the kit I own mail order.

For instance my nearest local camera shops are Norwich, Cambridge, Lincoln or Leicester (you can probably deduce which large town I live in from that). Now if I want a new lens (canon DSLR) I don’t want to buy it sight unseen but would prefer to go to a camera shop. As there aren’t any local to me I tend to wait for the photography show as it gives me a chance to try it out first.

Same with a local bike shop, why would you spend around £1000 without trying a bike for size and comfort first. Yes the accessories can be a bit expensive but support the local shops. Besides I would often prefer to pay someone who knows what they are doing to replace things rather than spend hours doing it myself and probably getting it wrong....

All they need to do is sell one of their USB cables and the margin should put them in the black.

Le Courriel

I reckon this sort of thing will be going on for a while. I'd open some international branches close by and start acccepting euros. First port of call in any new place, tend to navigate by them instead of the tube. You never know the magic credit fairy may well return. #wishtheAteamhadamaplinsepisode #undernierepourlaroute

I used to go there for bits and bobs years ago but then an RS trade counter opened up locally, now only handy in an absolute emergency.

The joys of building a tranny radio are long dead.

Now it's Lesbian dance theory at school

Swapping porn from porn hub

& sexting.

In the 70's we did not dream of running down Zebra and roasting the remains or spending hte day making a flint blade... things move on.

Can't they have (chained down) Farnell & RS catalogues?

There are people on ebay selling Farnell's stuff, using photos and text scraped straight from the web site, with a 400% markup and 99p delivery fee, despite the fact they get free drop shipping straight from Farnell to the customer. One of them, "Top Quality Tools", has 126,000 feedback - there's clearly a (perceived) need for it. Of course, people will probably whine if they ever see the actual markup, which the ebay sellers manage to conceal effectively.

Blockbuster Video

Used to love Maplins - when I was PC building or handling electronics / fixing things, I'd always nip along. They knew what they were on about re:components and electrical bits. My last venture to Maplin was just last week and no discussion, just sales - the experience just wasn't satisfying as a techie. If I wanted to look online to find something, then likely that I'll now buy online too.

They've slowly turned into Blockbuster video with their inability to adapt and protect against online. If I was in their management, I'd be using the Amazon and eBay platforms to sell the stuff from a low overhead warehouse and make the retail stores focusing on gift and specialist toys / RC and robotics/Raspberry PI/sensors and remove all the disco/PA and amp stuff. Also a section, for cables and chargers but cheaper than what they are.

Time to turn the clock back

Maplin used to be a place with a great catalogue full of electronic components I could order by post or later on on-line.

If they'd stuck with that as their business model rather than insisting they needed high-street outlets, they might not only be in better shape, they could have evolved into a UK competitor to Amazon.

Maplin used to be good, but then seemed to turn into a glorified toy/junk shop. What decent stuff remains always seems to be 50% more expensive than anywhere else. Only use it for emergency purchases now.

I'm on the Maplin email list and they are getting increasingly desperate. Today's offer is a £5 voucher if I spent £10 before Sunday. That's company willing to do anything to get cashflow. I doubt they'll see February.

Maplin's biggest issue is the fact that it is owned by Rutland Partners.

I'm not sure they've managed to successfully turn around a single business, and they're certainly not specialists in electronics. Previous failures include Bernard Matthews*, and who would have thought they'd have gone under. Won't be long before they call in Deloitte, who will then sell off various parts to get Rutland their money back.

* Rutland had to put out a statement on that investment, denying they deliberately turned down an offer to buy Bernard Matthews so they could sell it through pre-pack administration - writing off all debts and making themselves a profit.

https://www.rutlandpartners.com/news-and-media.html?id=219

Electronics Courses are the same as Steam Loco Driving Courses. - Doomed

Having spent 56 years in Electronics (and Broadcast Engineering) with this dynamic and exciting career (!); it does grieve me when looking at old "Practical Wireless"´s to see that practically 99% of all businesses have folded. Of course the problem that befell Heathkit was the surface mounted components that produced the death knell of projects. Nowadays, with Erie resistors and all the capacitor manufacturers gone from the UK, it is a pain ordering via internet and resistors from Hong Kong, is dreadful. Even Valve circuitry is appealing for its simplicity and reduced component count, but the transformers are extortionate in cost.

Alas I feel like a Railway Steam Loco Driver whose livelyhood has all but disappeared.