Post by Nortube on Mar 13, 2018 10:31:13 GMT
Maplin Electronics is now in its final death throws. All shops are closing (possibly by the end of the week) and their closing down sale has discounts on everything, up to 50% depending on item.
As an electronics hobbyist, I started buying from Maplin in the early seventies when they were just the original mail order and small shop at Westcliffe, using the excuse of visiting them to visit Southend as well. Maplin later expanded to a few places, starting with a shop in King St in Hammersmith, which was more local to me.
As computers started to become more common, more of my time was spent with them than electronics, something I suspect that many electronics enthusiast did. However computers also opened up the possibility of being able to interface electronics with computers and I seem to recall using a Commodore 64 to control a relay! Nowadays, computers are used to control so many things that it is no longer a novelty and it is usually much simpler, and cheaper, to buy a product ready made than to build it from scratch, although that removes all the fun that made things interesting.
At some point Maplin sold out and new owners took over. Something that happened several times. Maplin seemed to go go downhill from that point. I appreciate that hobbyist needs change and also that it was generally much cheaper to buy components cheaper online, especially if bought in bulk, even cheaper buying on ebay, even though quality wasn’t guaranteed.
However, Maplin changed from a shop that sold reasonably priced goods and had knowledgeable staff to a place that had a very high turnover of staff from managers down and sold things that were, in most cases, vastly overpriced. This also included expensive tat Rolson (the Amstrad of tools!) and what appeared to be Maplin badged Rolson items.
Staff, whilst friendly and helpful, often had little knowledge of their stock and, unless you were lucky, there was no specialist of any kind amongst them. When shopping, unless I’m on a quick in / out visit for a specific item, I like to browse to see what’s available. The most annoying thing was going into a shop where there were 4 – 5 assistants, being greeted with “Can I hep you?” and seemingly to have an assistant pop up every few minutes with a “are you looking for anything particular?” type of question, or even being followed around. I appreciate that it may relieve their boredom, especially if I am the only customer in the shop, but it’s very annoying.
To me, what summed up a lot of what was wrong with Maplin was when I was looking for a hard drive and Maplin had an offer on drives. They only stocked drives that were in a Maplin branded box. Being careful about the drive make, I asked an assistant what brand the drive was. “It could be anything”. I asked if they could open the box to see. “Can’t do that. You can buy it and then look, but once the box is open we can’t take the drive back” !
Yesterday, I decided that I wanted to buy a Fluke T90 voltage tester. Fluke recommended price £60 incl.vat. Checked the internet – average price (including Amazon) about £40. Whilst out, I looked to see if Maplin had one. They did. Shelf price £69.xx When I asked an assistant if the price was correct, he said “ignore that, it’s 30% off”. This made it around £49. Just why, unless they needed it instantly, would somebody buy something for £70 when they can get it for nearly half that price elsewhere?
There are some bargains to be had at the moment, but even with big discounts, many things are still cheaper if bought elsewhee.
As an electronics hobbyist, I started buying from Maplin in the early seventies when they were just the original mail order and small shop at Westcliffe, using the excuse of visiting them to visit Southend as well. Maplin later expanded to a few places, starting with a shop in King St in Hammersmith, which was more local to me.
As computers started to become more common, more of my time was spent with them than electronics, something I suspect that many electronics enthusiast did. However computers also opened up the possibility of being able to interface electronics with computers and I seem to recall using a Commodore 64 to control a relay! Nowadays, computers are used to control so many things that it is no longer a novelty and it is usually much simpler, and cheaper, to buy a product ready made than to build it from scratch, although that removes all the fun that made things interesting.
At some point Maplin sold out and new owners took over. Something that happened several times. Maplin seemed to go go downhill from that point. I appreciate that hobbyist needs change and also that it was generally much cheaper to buy components cheaper online, especially if bought in bulk, even cheaper buying on ebay, even though quality wasn’t guaranteed.
However, Maplin changed from a shop that sold reasonably priced goods and had knowledgeable staff to a place that had a very high turnover of staff from managers down and sold things that were, in most cases, vastly overpriced. This also included expensive tat Rolson (the Amstrad of tools!) and what appeared to be Maplin badged Rolson items.
Staff, whilst friendly and helpful, often had little knowledge of their stock and, unless you were lucky, there was no specialist of any kind amongst them. When shopping, unless I’m on a quick in / out visit for a specific item, I like to browse to see what’s available. The most annoying thing was going into a shop where there were 4 – 5 assistants, being greeted with “Can I hep you?” and seemingly to have an assistant pop up every few minutes with a “are you looking for anything particular?” type of question, or even being followed around. I appreciate that it may relieve their boredom, especially if I am the only customer in the shop, but it’s very annoying.
To me, what summed up a lot of what was wrong with Maplin was when I was looking for a hard drive and Maplin had an offer on drives. They only stocked drives that were in a Maplin branded box. Being careful about the drive make, I asked an assistant what brand the drive was. “It could be anything”. I asked if they could open the box to see. “Can’t do that. You can buy it and then look, but once the box is open we can’t take the drive back” !
Yesterday, I decided that I wanted to buy a Fluke T90 voltage tester. Fluke recommended price £60 incl.vat. Checked the internet – average price (including Amazon) about £40. Whilst out, I looked to see if Maplin had one. They did. Shelf price £69.xx When I asked an assistant if the price was correct, he said “ignore that, it’s 30% off”. This made it around £49. Just why, unless they needed it instantly, would somebody buy something for £70 when they can get it for nearly half that price elsewhere?
There are some bargains to be had at the moment, but even with big discounts, many things are still cheaper if bought elsewhee.
