maplin, Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

No gap in the market.

Maplin started out as a way to provide low cost components to hobbyists because the competition were selling overpriced tat or had minimum orders.

Guess what they became ?

Their main business nowadays was selling generic boxes. Components were a sideline.

Today you can order components off the web.

But don't by cheapo mains gear from random Chinese sites or non-reputable sites.

Places like radionics or farnell / cpcireland.farnell.com will deliver to your door for about the cost of busfare or parking.

Amalgam

hackaday.com running a feature on the sale, some interesting links and comments, including old catalogues with their lovely, 'David Foss' inspired covers.

Maplin For Sale by Jenny List

https://hackaday.com/2018/02/24/maplin-for-sale/

I like the original idea of Maplin. I love the cover art.

I don't like what they've become.

I bought a USB to serial adapter in a charity shop. Hey it's for charity, and there is the possibility that it might be a real one, but no it was a Maplin brand. And yes it was a generic PL2302 clone.

It's like Belkin*. Random generic lowest cost OEM stuff rebadged and up-priced.

*the Belkin 54g USB WiFi adaptor had 5 different chipsets depending on when you bought them. - Assume you can get the same for 50% cheaper elsewhere.

893bet

Maplin quoted me 60 euro plus for a vga to hdmi adapter two weeks ago.

No thanks,

ScouseMouse

I'm doing an electronics course in college. I needed spares so went to maplins in blanch. Have to say it was awful. I needed some spare patch boards and wire and stuff. Prices were silly and availability poor.

I couldn't get what I needed.

Very disappointed

ED E

Farnell wipe the floor with craplin.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-43223175

Rip-off merchants.

I have better stock in a pile of salvage boards than they have and I can get the components I want from them and not just whatever happened to be in the drawer at the time.
Last thing I bought there the teller was shocked I expected them to validate their stock before sale. 1 x 10kΩ resistor for the price of 10 when I asked for a 1kΩ.

DecTenToo

bnt

They're going the way of Radio Shack in the USA. When you increase prices to compensate for low sales, it's only a matter of time.

bnt wrote: »

They're going the way of Radio Shack in the USA. When you increase prices to compensate for low sales, it's only a matter of time.

Be very sad to see them go - there are very few shops in the malls left that are not handbag/shoes/food related

Its always has been a pricey place to shop - but I have bought many a gizmo there on their sales.

https://news.sky.com/story/maplin-enters-administration-with-2500-jobs-at-risk-11270699

I never considered them an electronics store. They're a plug and play store operated by spoofers who can't say "I don't know".

I have one next door and I go in every now and again to be reminded why I don't shop there.

6x the going price for solar. 10x the going rate for semiconductors. 2x the advertised price for being Irish.

The stuff they sell is generally the low end of the market. Honestly most of the time I need something fast I look online, see they only have 1 almost appropriate thing then I give up and find 5 more suitable in my e-waste

https://www.maplin.ie/clearance-shop Clearance and Pre-Owned stock :rolleyes:
https://www.maplin.ie/p/connectix-cat6a-sftp-ethernet-patch-cable-05m-green-a21rb €11.95 (OK you get a €5 voucher off €10 spend ?)

I'm sure they buy them for less than the Connectix retail price of £1.13 https://www.cablemonkey.co.uk/cat6-ethernet-cables/9352-cat6-snagless-booted-lsoh-utp-rj45-patch-leads.html

We are well used to the Paddy Tax, when prices are double, but adding a zero to the end is a bit rich.

In this case if you needed a network cable now, best advice is get one in a pound shop now to tide you over and order online/shop around for a decent one. (Cat 6 is over kill even for gigabit unless you have long runs and run through multiple racks )

Argos is a good substitute for a lot of the boxes that Maplin sell.

kurtainsider

I'm forever buying cable, adapters, gadgets on the internet. It wouldn't have occurred to me to buy them in Maplin due to their crazy prices. I can't understand how they managed to survive as long as they did.
The day of buying a cable for 10c in China and selling it in your high street store for €10 is gone.

The only place that'll sell cable by the half meter...:rolleyes:

..and another thing. No DC switches!

I wonder do they sell much AC electronics.

https://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2018/02/28/maplin_electronics_administration/

If there's a fire sale the prices might come down to the same as everyone else's.

1 - Actual electronics shoved in to a corner and no staff to help with anything technical (certainly in my experience anyway)

2 - Shelves filled with cheap Chinese tat no-one wants .... not even at Xmas

3 - Very expensive smart home and IOT guff no-one wants

4 - Massively marked up cables and connectors

5 - last year's technology priced higher than the current model

Management are fully to blame for this. The business needed to be reformed to compete with eBay, Amazon and the likes of CPC Farnell but they sat there with high staff and store leasing costs until it finally caught up with them.

Sad but not unexpected in the slightest.

Nothing new here either,

There used to be a Tandy Radio Shack on South Great Georges Street. Only went there a few times as it was way overpriced, also fairly empty too.

Maplins are not always empty though...at least in Blanch anytime I’ve bought anything I’ve had to queue for the checkouts...

They are expensive and the stock they carry makes me scratch my head (is a half isle of flashing disco lights really warranted? Do they sell that many fog machines?)

The center kiosk where they demo stuff like 3D printers and toys really needs to be expanded- that’s where they could really differentiate from amazon and Argos.

Same with the good cctv displays they have setup- the live demos is a good way to sell this stuff.

Maplins closing sale started today

Most stuff just 20% off but electrical components 50% off

Overcharging to the bitter end. :pac:

Harryhumanity

Such for a necessary part....yes.
I can wait....not a chance.

Ridiculously overpriced... everything!!!

fritzelly

They might of carried a massive stock but you paid a massive premium for that odd part
Used to groan when looking for parts and the local shops would say best bet is Maplin's

Keplar240B

closing down sale announced

Went again today to see if there were any further discounts - but nah - same 10 and 20% off they had 10 days ago when sale started - same stuff on the shelves - people know its still over priced.

Eg. DJI Mavic pro rrp. €999 price set by DJI and Maplins sell it "On Sale" for €1070? I think it was.

Nothing is actually discounted when you consider you aren't getting your warranty.

Sir Liamalot wrote: »

Nothing is actually discounted when you consider you aren't getting your warranty.

when you compare to prices elsewhere.

https://www.maplin.ie/specialoffers

CLOSING DOWN SALE Everything must go!
At least 10% off everything

Prices shown online already include discount.

fritzelly

Thanked the post above even tho a warranty is still a warranty, but having to chase this thru the individual companies will be a major PITA if it breaks a week later

fritzelly wrote: »

Thanked the post above even tho a warranty is still a warranty, but having to chase this thru the individual companies will be a major PITA if it breaks a week later

I wouldn’t trust Maplin when they were open with returns anyway- I would go straight to manufacturer.

Last week I saw someone very stressed because he wanted return a dead external hard disk but they wouldn’t let him destroy it to secure his data as it would invalidate the warranty. He didn’t want maplin looking through his stuff if they could fix it.

I myself returned a pos cctv system that firmware update killed- I put it in bubble wrap and took photos as I handed it over(it looked like new). It came back weeks later with note “no fault found” and had a big boot mark on it squashing and dinting the case and screws missing- they insisted I take it- they only accepted me not taking it anyway when I showed them there was a load of stuff wrattling around loose inside the case now and I told them it was an electrical danger.

Quiksilver

The closing down sale seems to be a bit of a sham at the moment, went in to get some solder tip cleaner, marked 14.99 (or so) with all the sign up about the discounts and their conversion charts showing what discounted prices are i taught grand i'll get it. When i went to the checkout i was told the price was 14.99, apparently item that were marked after 20th of march already have the discount applied. How was i supposed to know that, why have all the signs up showing discounts, seems very sketchy.

ShRT

Yup, went to the local one the other day and they tried to over charge me for a gas iron tip. Had to bring the guy at the counter over to where they had the hanger with the same barcode under the 50% off sign.