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Maplin sold at a loss....

Used to work there on a Saturday when I was at school. The days when maplins was an electronics shop.
 
Ouch :( I worked at Maplin full-time for a couple of years, in the Brighton store by Preston Circus around '96-97, when they started giving the stores a modern facelift. Out went the white shirt, tie and smart dark-blue v-neck sweaters, and in came the cheap and nasty turquoise polo shirts. We spent several months returning most of the back-room stock to head office (all the useful electronic components that us geeks like) and then they moved the shop back wall to nearly double the shop floor area, which they promptly filled with cheap stocking filler crap.

It was the end of the golden era and I hated it when it changed. It's been s*** ever since.
 
Unfortunately I think it's the only place in our town where you can still buy components off the shelf. :-(
 
Maplins hasn't been a decent component stockist for some time now.

More recently they never stock what I need and I find myself back online. Its a shame but I agree with the above. Stocking fillers and general junk for the masses has ruined a great idea. Im not shocked at all to see them going down hill.

I actually got one of the staff to search his book for a flux capacitor... True story!
 
It is a shame about Maplin's decline, but what are they actually trying to be now?

Back in the day, they were an electronic components retail store and had a really good selection of components that you could just pick up off a shelf.

As time has gone on, we have all seen the decline in components and increase in generic PC parts, mp3 players, laptops, car stereos .... things that you can buy anywhere else. They no longer have any "edge" as the stuff they are selling is becoming more and more generic. Granted they still have a few useful bits and pieces (only yesterday I picked up some crimp terminals for John) but there seems there will be a point when they no longer stock electronic components at all.

Surely they would be better going back to their roots and serving a niche market of hobbyiest, than to put more effort into trying to compete on selling generic household electricals. No one else sells components retail, so why not make better use of that market


I love how in the US they have giant electronic component superstores, like Frys. The one in Vegas was amazing. You could literally buy anything you would ever need to fix a pinball machine off the shelf. They had every single Molex and Amp connector you could imagine, every transistor,resistor,diode,common IC that you could ever desire, loads of decent tools and test equipment including some pretty high end stuff. Is they can make a successful business of that in the US, why cant we?
 
Who else remembers buying electronic components from Maplin in the late seventies and early eighties when they were just a mail order electronics company based in Essex (named after nearby Maplin Sands). And paying for all the parts by postal orders too!

They just seemed to fill the place of Tandy /Radio Shack once those shops disappeared from the High Street, as Luke says, filling their shops with gimmicks and cheap junk toys.
 
lukewells said:
It is a shame about Maplin's decline, but what are they actually trying to be now?

Back in the day, they were an electronic components retail store and had a really good selection of components that you could just pick up off a shelf.

As time has gone on, we have all seen the decline in components and increase in generic PC parts, mp3 players, laptops, car stereos .... things that you can buy anywhere else. They no longer have any "edge" as the stuff they are selling is becoming more and more generic. Granted they still have a few useful bits and pieces (only yesterday I picked up some crimp terminals for John) but there seems there will be a point when they no longer stock electronic components at all.

Surely they would be better going back to their roots and serving a niche market of hobbyiest, than to put more effort into trying to compete on selling generic household electricals. No one else sells components retail, so why not make better use of that market


I love how in the US they have giant electronic component superstores, like Frys. The one in Vegas was amazing. You could literally buy anything you would ever need to fix a pinball machine off the shelf. They had every single Molex and Amp connector you could imagine, every transistor,resistor,diode,common IC that you could ever desire, loads of decent tools and test equipment including some pretty high end stuff. Is they can make a successful business of that in the US, why cant we?
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Sounds like you had died and gone to heaven. Frys is a amazing store and its a shame we have nothing like it over here.
 
I remember when I was a kid flicking through the telephone directory-like Maplin catalogue, along with Elektor magazine (can you guess what my Dad's hobbies were?). They always had cool sci-fi covers with spaceships like an Isaac Asimov novel.

michaelwlach.files.wordpress.com_2013_08_maplin_1989.jpg

Maplin still has it's uses. Sometimes things are a bargain on special offer, or you just really, really need a diode or roll of hook-up wire super urgent. But they're just too expensive for everyday shopping. I dropped in just this weekend to see if did inkjet printer cartridges. Not only was their range rubbish but the twin-pack I was after was a full £10 more expensive than even PC World next door, who in turn were £8 more expensive than Asda next door again!

As for building their online business... ha! Have you used their website recently to find something as simple as a metal film resistor? And the range of values is terrible. And the prices! They haven't got a chance next to the like of RS or Mouser or Farnell.

It's a shame because they were very convenient but they missed more than one boat in several markets and now they're just drifting down the same river as Woolworths, Borders, Focus...
 
deathrow said:
Maplins hasn't been a decent component stockist for some time now.
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I must have just got lucky then. The very first transistor I blew on my R&B was one they had in stock so I could get it fixed pronto. ;-)

Surely the fact they branched out is more indicative of the changing marketplace? They aren't going to survive on me buying 2 transistors at the princely sum of 78p so they have to try to find other items to stock that might yield a higher turnover?
 
GrizZ said:
What an offer !!!!!!!!! 2 Ferric C60s ...or 1 chrome C60 !!! Holy sh*t, the stuff of a madmans dreams :clap: Steady the buffs now, lets not have a crush on our hands
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It's gotta be chrome every time...
 
Wiredworm said:
I must have just got lucky then. The very first transistor I blew on my R&B was one they had in stock so I could get it fixed pronto. ;-)

Surely the fact they branched out is more indicative of the changing marketplace? They aren't going to survive on me buying 2 transistors at the princely sum of 78p so they have to try to find other items to stock that might yield a higher turnover?
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Maybe it is changing times and maybe you were lucky.
Just from my own experience I have been unable to get the parts I need from them in recent years. It never used to be an issue.

It could be my age? Youngsters seem to be less 'hands on' and more with programming etc? Circuits are cheap enough to replace rather then repair on modern items. Demand changes with time.

Its a shame but they just don't cater for my needs anymore and they have little more to offer then The Range or B&Q. The component section of my local store is a joke.

If I want a solar charger for my boat battery and some kids remote control crap them I'm in! If I want something other then an extendable plastic ladder that scares the crap out of me then I'm off to RS components or ebay.
 
I always end up between CPC and RS for parts. CPC stock most, and if they dont have it it's off to RS. Sometimes also Rapid electronics.
It's a sign of the times when Maplin is last on the list... :(
 
It was great working there as we used to get loads of freebies and were paid in cash.. £20 for a Saturday ! Also mad to think that the people working there has actual electronics experience.
 
abaxas said:
It was great working there as we used to get loads of freebies and were paid in cash.. £20 for a Saturday ! Also mad to think that the people working there has actual electronics experience.
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I've still got loads of ex-display stuff from my days at Maplin. I'm sorted for resistors as I have a box of around 10,000+ in all sorts of values. And connectors, plugs, sockets, pins, etc., but also other odd bits and bobs like a car amplifier, gas soldering torch.

Those were indeed great days. And all the full-time staff were very knowledgeable (and so were the weekend staff to a lesser extent). A couple were into HAM radio big time (we used to sell a lot of scanners at the time), the manager was a build-it-yourself audiophile nut and I was an undergraduate over-clocking computer geek. Between us we knew our sh*t.
 
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