Well, that was quick. Four days ago we mentioned that the British electronics retail chain Maplin was being offered for sale, and today it has been announced that no buyer has been found and the company is going into administration.
We dealt with all the nostalgia for what was roughly a British equivalent to Radio Shack in our previous post. Perhaps now it’s time to look beyond the jumpers-for-goalposts reminiscences about spaceships on the catalogues for a moment, and consider what this means for us in 2018.
It’s fairly obvious that a retail model for selling either electronic tat or components is no longer viable in an age of online ordering and availability of almost anything at knock-down prices for anyone prepared to wait for a packet from China. This applies on both sides of the Atlantic, but for British retailers, the killer combination of very high rents and local business taxes makes it particularly difficult. Maplin were extremely convenient when you needed a part immediately, but the universal reaction from Hackaday readers was that they were overpriced. It’s the same story that has cleared away numerous chains in other sectors, and the toxic view that retail property is still the goldmine it might have been in decades past is largely responsible.
Despite all that, there must still be some demand for electronic components at a retail level even if the economics no longer support a showroom model. Perhaps a trade counter operation might have better luck, it will be interesting to see whether suppliers such as RS Components or CPC expand their networks to try to capture that business. Whatever happens, we’ll keep you posted.
Tandy was the British Radio Shack. Maplin was much rarer on the highstreet until about 20 years ago. It used to do most of it’s business via catalogs like RS.
If i’m not mistaken Tandy was the UK distributor for Radio Shack stuff but then became The Carephone Wharehouse when mobile phones took off.
I used to spend hours flicking through the Maplin catalogue and deciding what to spend my pocket money on. That was back in the good days of Maplin when they were a proper component shop and not a gadget/toy shop that they evolved into. The only decent component shop left now is Cricklewood Electronics after Henry’s Radio has now closed.
R.I.P Maplin who died many years before they went bust.
I can’t see RS being interested in the occasional hobbyist.I don’t know their current policy on walk-in trade but before my nearest trade counter was closed, I heard them tell random walk-ins that they couldn’t serve them as their planning permission did not permit retail sales. This was well before the days of them selling Raspberry Pi’s and trying to befriend the “maker” market so this may have changed. I’ve not used an RS trade counter for years but they never carried much electronic stock – whenever I was there, most of their customers were electrician/industrial controls types.
I just checked and their SE London trade counter does have at least ten 10K resistors in stock.
Not walk in, but certainly RS is happy to sell in bits and pieces to hobbiests.
Here in NZ RS will sell you a pack of 20 resistors paid by credit card with free courier delivery… for a total of 78 cents. Seriously. Obviously they are amortising shipping costs across all their orders (or in other words, subsidising shipping for those small things), but still.
Add to that as well that they sell RasPI and Arduino stuff (not cheaply though) and that sort of thing, I think it’s reasonable to say that RS sees that at least that hobbiests become engineers, or engineers are hobbiests too.
Note American friends, RS is not an acronym for Radio Shack, we are talking about RS Components
It’s an acronym for “Radio Spares”
It’s an initialism.
Allways found my local rs counter decent
In Europe RS components charge a lot in shipping and handling, even Mouser is cheaper. Best bet in Europe is smaller on-line retailers, Germany is a good country for that.
In France, for the individuals (there is a dedicated website for non professionals) shipping is free for orders on week-end.
RS have always been happy to sell to me as a hobbyest, you need to know what you want from the catalog to speed things along, but I saw a dad in there buying parts for his sons electronics project for school, they seemed to take the time to make sure the guy got what his boy needed.
Maplin occupied highstreet locations all over though, unfortunately internet kinda killed both them and radioshack in the states, too easy to get exact parts from digikey, fernell, mouser, rs or even chinese markets (there was a cool talk about getting parts reliably from china at this years fosdem: https://mirror.as35701.net/video.fosdem.org/2018/K.4.201/oshw_shenzen.webm)
I will miss being able to buy cable off the reel and looking at the cheap chinese gadgets, but selling resistors to the occasional shopper simply doesn’t justify the cost of the highstreet floorspace :(
PS ADAFRUIT should buy Maplin like they did Radioshack post liquidation.
Adafruit didn’t buy RS. Don’t believe everything you read on twitter!
No, is https://www.instagram.com/p/BZ7Km6uBy9y/ a photoshop or something?
@[spacedog], Adafruit bought RadioShack Stock Certificates, not the Trademark or Corporation, or anything.
When they bought the certificates, there was only collector value to them.
Actually it was Comcast that secretly bought plus liquidated RadioShack. Similarly it was Sky pic that bought and is dismantling Maplin. It’s all about discouraging people from doing brainy things like building stuff so that they will spend more time watching TV.
Like Motorbike repair shop drama reality TV on discovery channel instead of Extreme Engineering, Why aspire to build a hyperloop tunnel under the Atlantic when you can beat your obnoxous father over the head with a torque wrench.
I’ve always maintained that it’s very difficult to distinguish the “hobbyist” from the “engineer working for a small company”. The only differentiator might be the credit worthiness of the company, but, if its small enough (say, two guys, let’s call them Dave and Ed, or Steve and Steve, if you prefer) there’s no credit and no corporation. Plenty of people I know professionally, including myself, buy parts on their personal credit card, then file for reimbursement.
So, walk right in there,, like you own the place, and ask for what you need. If they ask you if it’s for a business, say “Yes, but we’re so small you probably haven’t heard of us” and let them wonder. Your credit card is as good as anyone else’s.
Note: this doesn’t work if you’re 14. I know from experience. I’m older now :-)
on shipping, I can’t remember if it was RS or Farnell (or both), but they used to have a minimum spend to get free shipping (about 20 quid or so). Then, when they started selling Raspberry Pis (about 6 years ago) they started a different ‘personal user’ type of account that was easier to set up and with free shipping (at least on Raspberry Pis).
Last time I looked at CPC (owned by Farnell but probably aimed at individuals or smaller businesses), it was free shipping if ordered online (they sell a lot of what RS or Farnell sell). I’ve bought a lot of good stuff from CPC.
I used to work a minute around the corner from an RS trade counter in Australia.
Their policy was, if you have the cash, they’ll sell to you.
The catalogue had marked the things in stock at the trade counter, so you knew what you could get right then. If it wasn’t in stick, you could order it for pickup or delivery
Used them all the time for work and play until I moved away. Got to know the guys behind the counter a bit, cool guys.
On the offchance that there is some retail market, maybe a small corner of Hobbycraft could be a suitable home?
Interesting you say that – here, ToysRUs, Maplin and Hobbycraft are all on the same retail park!
Stab in the dark, Stockport? :-)
I bought two ILQ74 optocouplers for a grand total of 2 pound 50 from Maplin’s shop on Oxford road a couple of weeks ago. I was thinking, there’s no way this is going to keep them in business. I was the only customer there at the time.
And the only reason I bought them from Maplin was that I needed them like yesterday. Otherwise, CPC / RS / Ebay all would’ve been adequate.
Regarding Adafruit buying Maplin, not sure that’s a great idea. If I remember, there was a small shop in Northern Quarter selling arduinos and raspberry pis to hipsters. Even in Manchester’s hipster/maker epicentre (next to Madlab) they didn’t last very long…
Nope, Cambridge. And there’s (surprisingly?) bugger-all specialist shops around any more, as I found out when I needed a 16-pin IDC socket the other week. Still waiting for it (and 19 more, ‘cos it’s still only 3 quid…) from China instead…
Hobby craft too? Damn.
Another Cambridge person
Nothing going on with Hobbycraft other than Mike’s suggestion they might take up electronics gear as part of their ‘hobby’ range.
Ha, I just cycled through there in the snow…. :-) Ever visited Mr Gee on Mill Road? Mostly ancient electronic stock (part of the charm, really) but often has things like that. Something like, “No, don’t think I have any, but I’ll go look. rummages in stock room for 15 mins Ah! I found 25, how many do you want?” He’s a star.
Maplin’s problem, which is the same as Toys R Us’ problem, is that they don’t offer a compelling reason to go there any more.
You can buy the same stuff cheaper online, and it’s not like Maplin have any electronic experts to advise you any more. In the business they call it “retail theatre”, i.e. making a nice shop that people actually want to go to.
I’m seeing the same thing in Akihabara lately. It’s great being able to pick stuff up and look it over, chat to the old guys who know everything there is to know, get your case drilled out and machined on the spot, chat about issues you had assembling the kit amp you bought… But apparently it’s not enough to keep many of them in business.
It’s a real shame because no-where else has such a great range of vintage components and browsing was great fun, but it’s also pretty hard to argue with the vast ranges available online.
Fellow Akihabara shopper here! :D
I’ve noticed the same, the small component stores are slowly drying up, but they are usually the ones that are selling the same dusty indicator lamps, switches and phono jacks as every other small store.
I don’t think the likes of Marutsu, Akizuki Denshi, Classic Components and the like will disappear too soon. Even the smaller shops that specialise in stuff people want seem pretty solid.
Still hurts a bit to see one go only to be replaced by another short lived used laptop/cellphone store.
I’m a former Akihabara shopper (left Japan in 1997). It’s a shame to hear that – in the late ’80s and ’90s it was an amazing place – anything you wanted. I would spend a couple of days a month in that labrynth under the railway! I suppose ‘Vintage Components’ is the problem when a micro does much of what the NE555 & 741 did or what logic solutions you could come up with in TTL or CMOS.
Maplin’s problem, which is the same as Toys R Us’ problem, is that they don’t offer a compelling reason to go there any more.
You can buy the same stuff cheaper online, and it’s not like Maplin have any electronic experts to advise you any more. In the business they call it “retail theatre”, i.e. making a nice shop that people actually want to go to.
I’m seeing the same thing in Akihabara lately. It’s great being able to pick stuff up and look it over, chat to the old guys who know everything there is to know, get your case drilled out and machined on the spot, chat about issues you had assembling the kit amp you bought… But apparently it’s not enough to keep many of them in business.
It’s a real shame because no-where else has such a great range of vintage components and browsing was great fun, but it’s also pretty hard to argue with the vast ranges available online.
I had a similar dream during the Radio Shack crisis here in the US. But when I woke up I realized those same customers will have the same unrealistic expectations of brick and mortar stores, with employees that deserve a just wage.
Oh well, that’ll be that then…
Jaycar are very visible here in down under Australia & NZ. If anything they seem to still be expanding!
If Dick Smiths expanded into the UK, I think the UK would welcome them with open arms. I guess Jaycar is similar?
You mean the Dick Smith that went bust and is now just a sub-brand of Kogan electronics? Kogan have tried entering the UK once before and failed.
I was never aware of there demise. It looks like Anchorage killed them off and knew that they’d done, selling them off before anyone could see the near future fate. Sad really, happens to the best of them.
They seem to be doing exactly what the grinning glasses were doing about 15 years ago.
They’re expanding, but more with off-the-shelf electronic gadgets rather than components. Before long, the components side will shrink and disappear altogether. They’ll move into the shopping centres to take on the likes of JB HiFi and Hardley Normals, then go bust.
Exactly what happened with Maplin in this case.
DSE also had a failed attempt at gaining market in the USA during the early 1980’s.
I’ve assumed that Jaycar survives by sticking with the basic components product line that Dick Smith gave up in an attempt to be the next Harvey Norman. Here’s to hoping. I used to spent money there all the time before moving to Maplinland.
They did this to themselves. At the start of the last recession they decided to open more branches, bigger stores in towns that had no proven need for them. They swamped the country with branches everywhere. They failed to hire speciallist or interested staff, No one knows anything about the products.
As soon as you enter their stores, they jump on you “DO YOU NEED ANY HELP???” I hate that so much I only enter when I have no other options – I’d rather wait 6 weeks for a part to arrive from China than walk in to a store that will pester me the very second I enter!
And another major failing on their part – they had such a poor pricing structure and attitude. They grossly overpriced themselves – RPi’s for £45 when everyone else is £30-£35, components that no domestic customer will want at prices even commercial buyers would question, and hard drives a 1/3rd more expensive than everywhere else.
The joke has been for many years when Maplins had a sale they bring their prices down to everyone else’s level.
Buy now while shops last.
I don’t think it was just their over-eagerness in store that was much of the issue, I thought it was more they were trying to emulate a store that they were traditionally not. So rather than focusing on what made them great (parts) and expanding onto the hobby market, they seemed to be going after the more main-stream high-street retail (think: toys, overpriced hifi cables, printers)
This was the major killer for me. I don’t mind paying RRP for something if it means not waiting for delivery, but paying over the RRP feels like such a rip-off and that’s not really a sentiment you want associated with your shop. Everything else I could put up with, but given a choice between a discount for a several day delivery or well-over the recommended price for it now, well, it’s rare that I need anything that urgently.
I worked in Maplin briefly, and the “DO YOU NEED ANY HELP???” thing was required. When I was there the manager sat in the office watching the CCTV all day and you got told off for not jumping on people immediately. It was like 1984 land, and made me pretty uncomfortable.
The most ridiculous thing about it was that me the teenager with a brand new A level in Electronics was by far the most qualified to actually help people, and still felt very underqualified to help them.
tge eagerness of the staff to pounce on you soon as you walked in genuinely put me off going. i hate that shit. i would onlu go if it was a total emergency . had no issue with inflated prices, its a brick and mortar store, but the harrassment from staff was awefull. and the worst was it wss clear they didnt want to do it either. then there was the 10 minute sales pitch for batteries torches and screwdrivers at the till. then the request fir an email address etc. that drove me away. as im sure it did many others.
Yep, that rings true for RadioShack’s past.
Well, not the 10 minute sales pitch, they wanted your money now, so to move on to the next customer/victim.
I would agree they should have concentrated on the mail/online order with a few shops in the big cities like Manchester,London Leeds. It’s shame that 3500 may end up with no jobs though.
Actually, “DO YOU NEED ANY HELP???” is not so bad. But only if you know that the guy can actually help you. I.e. by checking your design and advising you to e.g. use a different brand of microcontroller, because they can drive a higher load, or can handle an input signal of 24 volt with only a current-limiting resistor. Or advise you to use a different voltage regulator, or maybe use the cheapest one, but add a voltage reference. That sort of advice. But just by looking at the guy, you can immediately see that he has a ‘sales’ background and not an electronics background, and isn’t even an electronics hobbyist.
And exactly THAT is what’s putting me off. The guy isn’t asking “do you need any help???”, the guy is asking “can I sell you anything???”. His question is insincere, and I hate people who are already insincere to me even before they said “hi”. Besides, it’s obviously the seller who needs (a different sort of) help, not me. So who are they to offer their help to me?
To be true, Apple (of all companies) is doing it quite right in their App Stores. All the people in the App Stores are knowledgeable people, are of te smart(er) sort, etc. Actually, they don’t ask “do you need any help?”. They are nuanced enough to ask “can I help you with something?”. And they don’t ask immediately when you come in, but after a while. I suspect they have observers walking around, seeking out people who seem to be in need of some help, and then send someone to help them out. :) Quite a bit smarter, and it makes me feel respected.
Two comments to your comment.
Once, ( >20 years ago) I applied for a job at RadioShack.
The manager said he’d rather hire someone with a sales background over an electronics background.
That said (written), the local RadioShack had a salesperson (the Manager?) who was very knowledgeable in Electronics, (an EE perhaps?). He gave good advice, and if he saw we were knowledgeable, willingly left us alone.
Someone with that skill set is soon going to move to something that has better benefits and pay.
I then guess that that’s what Apple is doing right. ;)
They did do it to themselves – too much emphasis on sell-sell-sell, too pricey, not a great range and few people, if any with any expertise. They thought they were Marks & Spencer and that they could dupe the man-on-the-street with cheap, overpriced goods and toys. It’s a shame the convenience of a quick fix for a capacitor or something is gone, but otherwise, good riddance.
I wonder if New Wave Concepts will be shocked-awake by this – I’m thinking so. Maplin were the only UK distributor for LiveWire, PCB Wizard 3, etc. Not very professional software, or anywhere near as competent as say KiCAD, but with an almost flatlined learning curve – you can just get simple projects done in twenty minutes, or less. I upgraded to PCB Wizard 3 Pro version by calling NWC with the help of Maplin staff and getting an unlock code for £25. That was in 2005 or so. I mentioned that the software could do with an update and was told that, “We don’t really bother with it anymore – people just seem to keep buying it.”[sic] Very nice business if you can get it but this may well provide the slap-in-the-face that they need, but let’s hope they don’t think that they have become Altium and that their original coder is still with them…
I bought a pack of 1000 assorted ceramic caps delivered (in 4 weeks) from China for the same price I could walk in and get 8 from Maplin. That’s 125x more expensive! Plus they only have about 20 in stock! It’s been a shame to watch it descend from an electronics store into a toy and gadget shop.
I have a similar experience, I recently put together a BOM, maplin couldn’t fulfill it but what they did have came to £57.00 , RS could fulfill it but it came to £87.00 ali express obviously could fullfil it and for £36.00, I can wait.
I needed a 3.5mm headphone jack for a project this weekend. I ordered 50 on eBay for the same price I found exactly the same single one from Maplins. Crazy pricing. I appreciate paying more in bricks and mortar but the pricing ratios were so obscene I couldn’t justify anything other than urgently required parts.
Depends a lot on the cap.
All the disc ceramics I have gotten from china have been garabage and out of spec.
Only good for bypassing non-critical things. And even then only at low voltages.
SMD caps so far have been ok. fingers crossed.
where to get components in northern ireland now? (if theres a surplus place I want to know)
Order from Farnell, RS, Digikey or CPC. Otherwise Ebay or Aliexpress. Maybe Amazon.
or Rapid Electronics
Upvote for Rapid.
often get off amazon, but mostly just with birthday vouchers. I like the idea of going to the shop and maybe finding something new/interesting
Many many moons ago, there was a place in downtown Belfast. I used to take the bus in on Saturday mornings to buy my goodies. No idea what happened to it. or even the name.
“No idea what happened to it.”
Ka-boom?
B^)
do you live in NI?
Was it electronic centre by any chance?also known as fast eddies, its still there, but I dont know for how long it will last.. Maplin boucher road closed its doors today for the last time, as someone who shopped in the lisburn rd store before finally working there, ill miss the place as both a customer and an employee. Some of these comments are a bit crazy tho, expecting someone in a store to check over your circuits, for a retail wage is just crazy, especially when people with the skillset and experience to do that could be earning an awful lot more than a retail position pays.
According to Google, there’s a Rutronik’s off Cromac Ave. but I’ve never even heard of them. For surplus stuff you could always try the amateur radio rallies?
I used to try to get parts from Maplins, they had 2 stores in a city about 30 mins drive from me, but in order to get the 5 resistors I needed, I had to drive to *both* stores as the usual stock level of discretes were about 2-4 of each part. I mean seriously??
The prices didnt bother me too much, it was more the fact that they had such a pitiful stocking level.
I said good day!