Know what? I miss Maplin

They were expensive as hell but there was somehting to being just able to walkin and buy things like thermal paste?


Can not find mine and want to put in a new-ish processor but nope, no easy shopping. I'll have to trawl to find a repair shop and hope that they sell some.

TitianGerm

[Deleted User] wrote: »

They were expensive as hell but there was somehting to being just able to walkin and buy things like thermal paste?


Can not find mine and want to put in a new-ish processor but nope, no easy shopping. I'll have to trawl to find a repair shop and hope that they sell some.

I was in PC world in Waterford the other day and they had RAM, a GPU, two CPUs and a few fans. There was some thermal paste there as well. Never seen any of it before.

VeVeX

Deleted User wrote: »

They were expensive as hell but there was somehting to being just able to walkin and buy things like thermal paste?


Can not find mine and want to put in a new-ish processor but nope, no easy shopping. I'll have to trawl to find a repair shop and hope that they sell some.

You're suffering from an acute case of Stockholm syndrome :P

K.O.Kiki

Maplin were complete and utter ass; many a time I actually gave up trying to buy a thing because they either had no stock, or they flat-out didn't send a guy over to man the bloody tills!

Now, Peats on the other hand were GREAT!
Actually knowledgeable, friendly, great selection, fair prices.
I still don't understand how they went under.

K.O.Kiki

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Maplin were complete and utter ass; many a time I actually gave up trying to buy a thing because they either had no stock, or they flat-out didn't send a guy over to man the bloody tills!

Now, Peats on the other hand were GREAT!
Actually knowledgeable, friendly, great selection, fair prices.
I still don't understand how they went under.

Peats were great, when I was in Dublin, yeah. Overpriced rental locations didn't help

gctest50

[Deleted User] wrote: »

They were expensive as hell but there was somehting to being just able to walkin and buy things like thermal paste?
.......

You just need to get out of that tarpit and stock up on bits n pieces - it'd be cheaper by a longshot anyway

gctest50

gctest50 wrote: »

You just need to get out of that tarpit and stock up on bits n pieces - it'd be cheaper by a longshot anyway

Stocking up on random rare use items isn't very lean (I hate lean/agile)

TerrorFirmer

Liked browsing Maplin. Rarely bought anything. They were OK for mainstream stuff like external HDDs, but appallingly overpriced for most things.

As in, a 1m HDMI cable for €20. A GPU you could get online for €250, for €800. I remember seeing an R9 390 in there once for €900 in their catalog.

They embraced an ethos of low sales, high yield, rather than the opposite.

Simon201

They're back but only online. Seems to be free delivery to Ireland but not really sure how competitive the prices might or might not be...

But yes as per the OP I did enjoy an old browse around the shop even if I didn't buy much there.

gctest50

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Stocking up on random rare use items isn't very lean (I hate lean/agile)

Worse than i thought - will need professional extraction and deprogramming

Go off and buy paste, molex/power crimps, bios tester, psu tester, usb tester etc etc

And buy a barrel of oil.

eg :

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercedes-Genuine-Engine-Oil-210L-Barrel-5w30-MB-229-51-LowAsh-/113404166958

Cuddlesworth

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Now, Peats on the other hand were GREAT!
Actually knowledgeable, friendly, great selection, fair prices.
I still don't understand how they went under.

If I remember, they expanded just before the bust leaving them with a bunch of long term leases at stupid high rates. Most landlords at the time refused to revisit pricing, so a lot of companies like Peats had no choice but to close.

Kimbot

Currys seem to have a decent selection these days depending on the shop though.

Maplins weren't going to survive on your one purchase of thermal paste lol

their business model was broken and was inefficient to begin with - online exposed them for the thieves that they were.

as said, awful customer service usually also.

glasso

glasso wrote: »

Maplins weren't going to survive on your one purchase of thermal paste lol

I never said that they would/should.
I said that I miss the convenience of a shop that would have the small things (yes they were insanely priced for stuff)

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

I never said that they would/should.
I said that I miss the convenience of a shop that would have the small things (yes they were insanely priced for stuff)

I don't mean to attack you - I just meant that they weren't going to survive on the odd convenience buyer - they didn't have any sort of model that was going to keep them in business.

did the mgt there even try to make a go of it?

I think that they had given up long ago.

glasso

glasso wrote: »

I don't mean to attack you - I just meant that they weren't going to survive on the odd convenience buyer - they didn't have any sort of model that was going to keep them in business.

Agreed on the convenience buyer but I've had problem lately with online operators (amazon in particular but others also). So much so that, for a lot of things, the 10% or so saved on many items is not enough to make me discount the bricks and mortar store.
Maplin were often multiples of the online cost so were never a runner but if a local store (giving local store service and access) can stay at all within the ball park, I am tending to go with them now.
Online retailers are carving out monopolies/cartels and prices are rising, while customer service is dropping.

yes, competition is definitely needed and any one entity getting too powerful is not desirable.

not saying that Amazon are perfect - far from it. they are not as "customer-focused" as they once were.

Never mind Maplins. Bring back Peats.

Subcomandante Marcos

[Deleted User] wrote: »

They were expensive as hell but there was somehting to being just able to walkin and buy things like thermal paste?


Can not find mine and want to put in a new-ish processor but nope, no easy shopping. I'll have to trawl to find a repair shop and hope that they sell some.

Needed thermal paste recently and couldn't find anywhere in Athlone or Galway that sold any now that Maplin is gone. Also recently needed a 6 pin pcie extension cable and same thing bhad to resort to eBay/Amazon for both. I'd have paid the premium for the convenience of not waiting a week!

Subcomandante Marcos

Subcomandante Marcos wrote: »

Needed thermal paste recently and couldn't find anywhere in Athlone or Galway that sold any now that Maplin is gone. Also recently needed a 6 pin pcie extension cable and same thing bhad to resort to eBay/Amazon for both. I'd have paid the premium for the convenience of not waiting a week!

It's the week that is killing me. Factor in that I have to purchase over €25 to make the delivery free...

gibgodsman

Honestly surprised they didn't close sooner. Their prices were a disgrace, their staff knew literally nothing, they never had anyone on the tills, they never had anything in stock that you were actually willing to over pay for. I used to go into Maplin literally only to see what something looked like before I bought it elsewhere.

Subcomandante Marcos

Subcomandante Marcos wrote: »

Needed thermal paste recently and couldn't find anywhere in Athlone or Galway that sold any now that Maplin is gone. Also recently needed a 6 pin pcie extension cable and same thing bhad to resort to eBay/Amazon for both. I'd have paid the premium for the convenience of not waiting a week!

yes but there aren't enough people willing to pay the premium for a store to have all sorts of (for most people) niche items stored in stock.

realistically (speculating here) there would have to be a 50% premium over say amazon which some people might pay on cheap items but not on anything going over 50 euro in most cases. need a lot of cheap items to be sold to keep a place going.

so while it's nice to think of having such a service it's not really viable anymore

the small hardware shops with fairly rip-off prices are a fair comparison and they are just really hanging on in a market where there are more customers (hardware stuff more commonly bought that electronics)

if you invest in amazon prime you get quicker delivery

Mebuntu

gibgodsman wrote: »

Honestly surprised they didn't close sooner. Their prices were a disgrace, their staff knew literally nothing, they never had anyone on the tills, they never had anything in stock that you were actually willing to over pay for. I used to go into Maplin literally only to see what something looked like before I bought it elsewhere.

Sums them up perfectly. One of the biggest rip-offs here with prices massively in excess of those in NI. When I queried it with them I was basically told to xxxx off. Great shops to look at and examine stuff but always buy somewhere else.

Peats was a huge loss. Great knowledgeable staff. The shop I miss most in Dublin.

Mebuntu

Mebuntu wrote: »

Sums them up perfectly. One of the biggest rip-offs here with prices massively in excess of those in NI. When I queried it with them I was basically told to xxxx off. Great shops to look at and examine stuff but always buy somewhere else.

Peats was a huge loss. Great knowledgeable staff. The shop I miss most in Dublin.

again people just weren't buying the big ticket items in there anymore - tv's etc as they were cheaper elsewhere.

ancapailldorcha

I don't know. A lot of overpriced, outdated tech. Staff were a bit spotty. Some really good and some who just didn't GAF.

I only bought a screwdriver from them and it was too fat to use for my PC so I'd to get a one pound one from Asda which happened to be magnetic.

Ultimately, less competition is a bad thing but Amazon just seems to be stomping over everyone at the moment.

OK when I say Maplin I mean any bricks and mortar local store where I could pick up the bits and bobs, that are unavailable locally now.

I did not really mean Maplin themselves

Blazer

[Deleted User] wrote: »

OK when I say Maplin I mean any bricks and mortar local store where I could pick up the bits and bobs, that are unavailable locally now.

I did not really mean Maplin themselves

Too late!!! From henceforth you’ll now be known as that “maplin sucker”

Got sorted in PC Maestro, for you cork based lads. Friendly lad in there, shop is fairly well stocked too.

https://pcmaestro.mysimplestore.com

K.O.Kiki

Aye, I randomly came across PC Maestro during a weekend in Cork.
They had GTX 1080 / 1080 Ti's at RRP during the crypto-mining boom!

How the hell did I never know this!

Oh, came home and found my own thermal paste too.

Hotblack Desiato

Deleted User wrote: »

Peats were great, when I was in Dublin, yeah. Overpriced rental locations didn't help

I seem to recall hearing that there was a bit of a kerfuffle over that - Parnell St and possibly some of the other locations were owned by one part of the family, the retail business was owned by another part - guess what the property owners did...

Only thing I ever bought in Maplins was a free to air satellite box in about 2006. Was raging shortly afterwards when I found out I could have got a better one online for about half the price.

Maplins (by the time it came to Ireland) was seriously weird. Lots of store space taken up with overpriced weird crap like disco lights. Did they ever sell a single one?

From reading articles on The Register, there is a lot of affection though for the old incarnation of Maplins in the 70s-90s - when you had knowledgeable staff and a vast range of electronic components. Just like the old Peats.

Maplins originally started out as mail order - they should have been well positioned to have a strong online operation but instead they went for broke with retail outlet expansion and got screwed over badly a few times with private equity buyouts loading debt onto the business. Farnell / RS going from trade only to online retail sales didn't help them either - plus people getting stuff for half nothing from China if they were prepared to wait.

Hotblack Desiato

gctest50 wrote: »

Worse than i thought - will need professional extraction and deprogramming

Go off and buy paste, molex/power crimps, bios tester, psu tester, usb tester etc etc

And buy a barrel of oil.

eg :

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercedes-Genuine-Engine-Oil-210L-Barrel-5w30-MB-229-51-LowAsh-/113404166958

Well that's me fcuked then, they say they deliver to Southern Ireland but I live in Eastern Ireland :pac:

That's actually really cheap! but manufacturer branded oil always reminds me of "Mobil 1 specially filled for Triumph" motorbike oil which cost twice as much as an equivalent synthetic oil like Castrol which is just as good.

Deleted User wrote: »

Got sorted in PC Maestro, for you cork based lads. Friendly lad in there, shop is fairly well stocked too.

https://pcmaestro.mysimplestore.com

The funny thing is that pretty much all of the equivalent shops in Dublin have closed - rents I suppose.

There used to be a good one on Parliament St - gone
Another one on Westland Row - gone
Never bought anything in Max Burns but I don't think they're still around, either.

iarann

Anyone got a copy of one of their latter catalogs (I couldn't find anything online). Im looking for specs on some of their components I bought while the shop were still a thing and wondering if I could get a picture of a few pages?