Bath Road
The Bath Road store was occupied by Maplins ever since Woodwares packed up sometime in the late 80s. It was big for sure but not more than a 10 minute trek out of town IIRC and in it's heyday was heaving with punters in the hour or so it was still open after office hours. I don't recall when the neatly organised component racks moved from behind the long counter by the door to a little cubby at the back of the store and the staff became less knowledgable but it must have been sometime in the new century.
It stole plenty of trade from Jones Radio and Shop on the Bridge (who could get you anything from the Farnell catalogue). They moved all the way out to Tilehurst and stopped doing components at all. Grrr.
/old enough to remember a Halfords in town which employed car people.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
