maplin, Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Keplar240B · 23-02-2018 1:38am #1

Business
Crunch time: Maplin in talks to sell the business

Ailing gadget souk Maplin is locked in eleventh-hour talks with a potential buyer of the chain but the company may be placed into the hands of an administrator if an agreement cannot be reached.

Private equity owner Rutland Partner, which bought Maplin for £85m in 2014, is understood to be negotiating with interested parties including Edinburgh Woollen Mill, according to Sky. PWC is managing the process, we are told.

bit of gap market in they go in terms of a brick and mortar component store or is it all online now.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/02/20/crunch_time_maplin_in_talks_to_sell_the_business/

Capt'n Midnight · 24-02-2018 8:11pm

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 · 25-02-2018 9:44pm

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/

Capt'n Midnight · 25-02-2018 11:56pm

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 · 26-02-2018 12:21am

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

No thanks,

ScouseMouse · 26-02-2018 12:25am

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 · 26-02-2018 12:28am

Farnell wipe the floor with craplin.

28-02-2018 1:03am

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 · 28-02-2018 11:51am

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

bnt · 28-02-2018 11:57am

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.

ozmo · 28-02-2018 5:19pm

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

28-02-2018 6:24pm

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

Capt'n Midnight · 28-02-2018 9:02pm

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 · 28-02-2018 9:40pm

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.

28-02-2018 11:08pm

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

03-03-2018 1:00am

..and another thing. No DC switches!

I wonder do they sell much AC electronics.

Capt'n Midnight · 03-03-2018 12:04pm

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.

ozmo · 03-03-2018 12:43pm

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.

ozmo · 09-03-2018 7:48pm

Maplins closing sale started today

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

09-03-2018 8:30pm

Overcharging to the bitter end. :pac:

Harryhumanity · 09-03-2018 9:56pm

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

Ridiculously overpriced... everything!!!

fritzelly · 09-03-2018 10:36pm

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 · 16-03-2018 9:13pm

closing down sale announced

ozmo · 18-03-2018 11:13pm

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.

19-03-2018 12:16am

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

Capt'n Midnight · 19-03-2018 12:58am

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 · 19-03-2018 1:04am

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

ozmo · 19-03-2018 1:55am

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 · 24-03-2018 2:33pm

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 · 25-03-2018 6:53pm

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.

ozmo · 25-03-2018 8:08pm

ShRT wrote: »

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.

Went in myself looking for a soldering iron as my favorite one I’ve been using for years just died and I cannot get a new element for it- going get a decent one but the hakko 888d they had at 220 (180 closing sale price) is way overpriced- even in uk maplins the no-sale price was 135 euros.

Decided I’m going get a ts100 they seem to be all the rage at with the electronics community the moment at a third that price and topping all the reviews.

https://m.banggood.com/MINI-TS100-Digital-OLED-Programable-Interface-DC5525-Soldering-Iron-Station-Sapphire-Version-p-1211661.html?rmmds=search

Just trying find a place that sells one with the tips I like included and if I’m not waiting weeks delivery that would be a bonus.

maplin, Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

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