Maplins

[Station240]

this is almost the same scenario as here in AU with DickSmith Electronics stores, in the 80's they were bought out by Woolies (Woolworths Limited - no association with Woolworths UK) for a while, right up to the end of 90's they kept the format pretty much the same, hobbyist and electrical components stores for enthusiasts!
However end of 90's the average customer wanted more, and with growing competition from Harvey, GoodGuys etc etc. Woolies decided to change the format in order to keep the shareholders happy and make profit by selling TV's, consoles, PC's, Apples, Ipods.
They stopped employing clerks with knowledge of electrical components and started to employ sales men instead. Changed the store layouts and the type of stock.
On one hand all the better for shareholders as they single-handedly killed off their biggest competition, Tandy Australia, and bought them out.

Woolworth's Electronics people have dubbed it these days. My local store the only electronics person is the manager, he's battling to keep some of the tools (like the compressed air spray) on the shelves.

On the other hand it only leaves us with JayCar Electronics, almost all of the sales people are "geeks" (which is a good thing!) or eBay.

You're not been in Jaycar lately obviously, its full of sales drones now, with a token electronics person somewhere in the store. Plus the prices went up on everything a few years back.

So I now shop for electronics online, or at the (one only) independent city electronics shop. With the Aladdin's cave of spare parts out the back, bits and pieces all over the counter, bins full of DIL sockets and IDC connectors. Yak about your latest project, the TV your fixing or whatever and they know what you are talking about.

 

[AmiNeo]

this is almost the same scenario as here in AU with DickSmith Electronics stores, in the 80's they were bought out by Woolies (Woolworths Limited - no association with Woolworths UK) for a while, right up to the end of 90's they kept the format pretty much the same, hobbyist and electrical components stores for enthusiasts!
However end of 90's the average customer wanted more, and with growing competition from Harvey, GoodGuys etc etc. Woolies decided to change the format in order to keep the shareholders happy and make profit by selling TV's, consoles, PC's, Apples, Ipods.
They stopped employing clerks with knowledge of electrical components and started to employ sales men instead. Changed the store layouts and the type of stock.
On one hand all the better for shareholders as they single-handedly killed off their biggest competition, Tandy Australia, and bought them out.

Woolworth's Electronics people have dubbed it these days. My local store the only electronics person is the manager, he's battling to keep some of the tools (like the compressed air spray) on the shelves.

On the other hand it only leaves us with JayCar Electronics, almost all of the sales people are "geeks" (which is a good thing!) or eBay.

You're not been in Jaycar lately obviously, its full of sales drones now, with a token electronics person somewhere in the store. Plus the prices went up on everything a few years back.

So I now shop for electronics online, or at the (one only) independent city electronics shop. With the Aladdin's cave of spare parts out the back, bits and pieces all over the counter, bins full of DIL sockets and IDC connectors. Yak about your latest project, the TV your fixing or whatever and they know what you are talking about.

My fave stores ever when you can just walk in and talk for hours about stuff lol!!!

 

[Hell_Labs]

independent record shops!

Kaleidoscope records near wilkies, what a shop. Guy is a bit weird.

 

[commodorejohn]

independent record shops!

Just what I was thinking of myself. My area has the same thing going on with record stores as Station240 has with electronics shops - there's the various larger music stores around that stock the "new but 'indie' enough for the hipsters" CDs, only the one of which stocks vinyl. And most of that is just new releases, the old stuff has been thrown together in a just barely organized fashion, price tags stuck straight on the sleeves and priced pretty much according to how badly they're falling apart, with an extra $5-10 tacked on if it's by a group you've ever heard of :| Not that the hipster kids manning the counter care.

Then there's the one small shop across the lake in Wisconsin that's full to the brim with LPs of all shapes and sizes. Not so much in the way of new releases, but there's all kinds of stuff from the commonplace to the really obscure, it's been arranged with some regard to the actual condition, and the only ones with a price tag higher than $5 are the real collectors' items in good condition. All that, plus the proprietor is a friendly older fellow who actually knows all about the majority of his stock - he's rarely even behind the counter because he's off talking with some customer or other about classic metal albums or the history of some country singer or whatever, but he'll head right over as soon as you need him. Makes me wonder how the first shop is even still in business.

 

[specialK]

On the other hand it only leaves us with JayCar Electronics, almost all of the sales people are "geeks" (which is a good thing!) or eBay.

You're not been in Jaycar lately obviously, its full of sales drones now, with a token electronics person somewhere in the store. Plus the prices went up on everything a few years back.

So I now shop for electronics online, or at the (one only) independent city electronics shop. With the Aladdin's cave of spare parts out the back, bits and pieces all over the counter, bins full of DIL sockets and IDC connectors. Yak about your latest project, the TV your fixing or whatever and they know what you are talking about.

the only store i dealt with was JayCar at Blacktown, the older generation of staff there are the ones who do chat and are interested in your projects, the other half of the sales guys (the younger ones) are not so keen or lack the enthusiasm.

 

[Harrison]

Years ago in Southampton there were loads of independent stores like that. If you travelled to the more run down end of the city away from the main high street you could find some great independent record stores run by true enthusiasts who knew they business.

The same was true for computing too, and one place that opened in the same area in the late 80's was an Amiga and ST user's paradise, with rows of them setup and the ability to book time to use them in the store. Think of it like a precursor to the internet cafe. Around the walls were rows and rows of games and you could pick any you wanted to play, take them to the desk and pay to rent time playing them. It was great. I still remember the networked ST and Amiga gaming sessions.

There were also some independent computer stores with guys who knew a lot and as mentioned here you could go in and chat for hours about things.

And we had a great Tandy where you were guaranteed to find what you needed.

Sadly they are now all gone. All that is left is an HMV for music, a Maplins to attempt to get any emergency electronic of computer items, and that is about it. The only other places are out of town superstores like PCWorld if really desperate. The youth of today has missed out on the great times when shopping in town was a fun experience, and where you could get anything. The internet has killed it all.

 

[chiark]

Things are certainly different, that's for sure.

There seems to be no pride in retail: the only way to compete against the internet is understand insanely well who you're selling to and what they need, and have an audience that isn't terribly price sensitive.

With hackspaces popping up, I am starting to think that there might be a market in catering for these needs, along with retro stuff... But selling at a way you could make a profit would be hugely tricky.

You'd also need enthusiasts, and people who really cared about the stuff they sell: they typically have decent jobs elsewhere...

But, on the other hand, the internet means we can get information for ourselves, publish whatever we want that anyone anywhere in the world can read, and source practically anything for next day delivery.

It's not all bad, but a lot less personal...

 

[Amigarobbo]

Speaking of clueless employees, I asked for a PATA (Parallel ATA) hard drive in a PC shop about a month ago and got a look like I'd just asked for a lump of sand from Mars. Had to say IDE before they knew what I meant. Now wouldn't you think a qualified technician would know an interface by its real name? :dry:

Hmm.. PATA is the fancy new 'Hard Drive Previously known as IDE' name init?

I kinda refuse to use the new Politically Correct name myself. But then, I don't work in retail..

 

[rkauer]

Funny that in Portuguese PATA means a female duck. So, using the word PATA means the user is a "PATO" (slang for "fool").:jester:

 

[zaxon]

Hmm today i looking for connector for spectrum edge and cheap batery holder for coin battery cr 2032, for my urgent spectrum project.

Only Maplin, edge slot for 1.50 pound, battery holder 1 pound,next day delivery. So sometimes Maplin save life.

 

[Nathanieltolbert]

I was looking around Friday for any kind of electronics shop like what you speak of in this thread. Here in Kansas City, I couldn't find one that dealt in small electronic parts. I know there has to be some, but I didn't find any. I really need to order a couple Molex 5194 cable terminators, and two Molex 5195 connectors and the only place I can order them that I have found is on line through either JameCo or other places but they all have a minimum order number of hundreds to thousands or a minimum order amount cost. This is difficult for me, and I would prefer to just go into a store and buy it. I'm not worried about paying more for the part, I just want it in small quantities. I don't forsee doing a lot of these power supply modifications.

 

[2E1 BZU]

Grrrrr
Maplin....waste of space.
I bought 4 energy saving lights online, they were listed as 'while stocks last'. Fair enough, I added them to my basket and paid via Paypal. A few days later I recieved a letter with a credit note from Maplin. Strange, so I rang up and asked about that, and was told the items were discontinued. Why was I sent this credit note and not a refund? I was told to send the credit note back and they could refund it..yea, like I am going to that and lose my money completely. So, I thought, I do want a VCR to PC converter so I will have a look. A short time later (2 months) I found what I wanted on line (and it was online only) and proceeded to add it to the basket. Great,I qualified for £10 off using a voucher, and I thought £12.99 off as well for my credit note. How wrong can I be? They don't accept credit notes on line. Getting anoyed now.
I had some time off last week so went into Eastbourne to have a look around Maplin to see if there was anything I needed. There was nothing apart from junk. So I tried asking for cash from the staff, and I could give them the credit note and then end of story. Not quite. They rang head office, explained the situation, and we were told (staff member and me) that they will refund immediately my Paypal account. They wanted me to leave the credit note with them, but no way, I kept it, albiet with them having writtin 'void' on it (fair enough, I get my money, I keep the credit note 'just in case' as no other evidence to say I am owed money) Guess what, no refund, Paypal 45 day dispute passed, me out of pocket.

I may form a one man protest at my local branch.

 

[lopos2000]

Do you actually think a company can survive by selling component?
Rant Over!!!

yes. Because that's exactly what they were doing, and they got a national chain out of it.

But that was in the early 80's. No Internet. No competition.

---------- Post added at 21:22 ---------- Previous post was at 21:08 ----------

Grrrrr
Maplin....waste of space.
I bought 4 energy saving lights online, they were listed as 'while stocks last'. Fair enough, I added them to my basket and paid via Paypal. A few days later I recieved a letter with a credit note from Maplin. Strange, so I rang up and asked about that, and was told the items were discontinued. Why was I sent this credit note and not a refund? I was told to send the credit note back and they could refund it..yea, like I am going to that and lose my money completely. So, I thought, I do want a VCR to PC converter so I will have a look. A short time later (2 months) I found what I wanted on line (and it was online only) and proceeded to add it to the basket. Great,I qualified for £10 off using a voucher, and I thought £12.99 off as well for my credit note. How wrong can I be? They don't accept credit notes on line. Getting anoyed now.
I had some time off last week so went into Eastbourne to have a look around Maplin to see if there was anything I needed. There was nothing apart from junk. So I tried asking for cash from the staff, and I could give them the credit note and then end of story. Not quite. They rang head office, explained the situation, and we were told (staff member and me) that they will refund immediately my Paypal account. They wanted me to leave the credit note with them, but no way, I kept it, albiet with them having writtin 'void' on it (fair enough, I get my money, I keep the credit not 'just in case' as no other evidence to say I am owed money) Guess what, no refund, Paypal 45 day dispute passed, me out of pocket.

I may form a one man protest at my local branch.

sorry to hear about your bad experience. But a credit note can be refunded in the shop. So, the staff there was misinformed by bad customer service advise (Head Office).

 

[commodorejohn]

But that was in the early 80's. No Internet. No competition.

There's not much competition on the Internet, either - the majority of electronics wholesalers online are geared towards mass-quantity product sourcing for large companies, and the ones that do serve hobbyists tend to be so pricey that a retail store probably could compete.

Even if you're right, though, they don't have to survive only by selling components; it would be fine for them to make their money on general consumer electronics and sell components on the side. It'd be a lot better than abandoning what they built their business on.

 

[lopos2000]

But that was in the early 80's. No Internet. No competition.

There's not much competition on the Internet, either - the majority of electronics wholesalers online are geared towards mass-quantity product sourcing for large companies, and the ones that do serve hobbyists tend to be so pricey that a retail store probably could compete.

Even if you're right, though, they don't have to survive only by selling components; it would be fine for them to make their money on general consumer electronics and sell components on the side. It'd be a lot better than abandoning what they built their business on.

That's not what I meant. Over the years Maplin has changed hands serveral times. New owners new directions but one thing all of them kept is the component side of the business. I wish we had more components in our warehouse but it's just not big enough. So, the only way to find out if your local has it in stock what you need is to go onlne to check the stock level. I have to tell customer on a daily basis to go to Farnell or RS to find the right component because we are out of stock. It's sad but true.:shhh:

 

[AmiNeo]

Grrrrr
Maplin....waste of space.
I bought 4 energy saving lights online, they were listed as 'while stocks last'. Fair enough, I added them to my basket and paid via Paypal. A few days later I recieved a letter with a credit note from Maplin. Strange, so I rang up and asked about that, and was told the items were discontinued. Why was I sent this credit note and not a refund? I was told to send the credit note back and they could refund it..yea, like I am going to that and lose my money completely. So, I thought, I do want a VCR to PC converter so I will have a look. A short time later (2 months) I found what I wanted on line (and it was online only) and proceeded to add it to the basket. Great,I qualified for £10 off using a voucher, and I thought £12.99 off as well for my credit note. How wrong can I be? They don't accept credit notes on line. Getting anoyed now.
I had some time off last week so went into Eastbourne to have a look around Maplin to see if there was anything I needed. There was nothing apart from junk. So I tried asking for cash from the staff, and I could give them the credit note and then end of story. Not quite. They rang head office, explained the situation, and we were told (staff member and me) that they will refund immediately my Paypal account. They wanted me to leave the credit note with them, but no way, I kept it, albiet with them having writtin 'void' on it (fair enough, I get my money, I keep the credit note 'just in case' as no other evidence to say I am owed money) Guess what, no refund, Paypal 45 day dispute passed, me out of pocket.

I may form a one man protest at my local branch.

Write to their head office explaining the whole story, tell them you're furious and extremely disappointed in them. Demand the refund and say if its not resolved you'll take it further with trading standards. Close with another message of let down and disappointment in their business.

I'm sure you'll get through to them that way

 

[Mowcius]

Write to their head office explaining the whole story, tell them you're furious and extremely disappointed in them. Demand the refund and say if its not resolved you'll take it further with trading standards. Close with another message of let down and disappointment in their business.

I'm sure you'll get through to them that way

Try to find an email of someone high up - speaking to support gets you nowhere - speaking to managers/execs gets results fast.

I'll also add my hate of maplins here. My local one sells LEDs and some battery holders and minimal other parts in loads of plastic packaging - all very over priced. What's wrong with LEDs in an antistatic organiser bin? Pick how many you want...
I'd really like to open a store selling this kind of stuff again but it would have to be on the side as has been said - you can't make a living off selling components alone.
My local computer store(s) are also a load of rubbish too so perhaps a new computer store selling electronic components too (maybe a hackspace on evenings - now there's an idea - if only I could afford rent for a store)