Maplin Electronics UK goes into Administration

[Cragdor]

Hi All, 

 

Following on from NCIX Bankruptcy with you, it looks like Maplin Electronics and Toy'R'us in the UK are both going under. 

FYI Maplin started off as a Electronics component catalogue company. They then opened stores, and in the 2000's changed business model to sell consumer electronics, though still selling electronics components. 

I think long term they couldn't compete with Amazon on the Consumer electronics front, or more recently the electronics component front.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43223175

 

Regards.

Craig Thomas, Cambridge UK

[RuffRuffmcgruff]

Doesn't surprise me at all, they sold nice quality goods but they're horribly over priced. Shame about Toys r us though, that place was boss as a kid.

[ItsMitch]

thank fuck, they sold shit wayyyyyy over priced and their support was utter dogshit, thank fuck. 

[WhatTheHell]

They are terrible and I'm glad to see them gone, however unemployment sucks for those who will be affected.

[Cragdor]

@SC2Mitch agreed, though that is only a 2005 onward issue. Before 2005 they were great, especially if you did hobby electronics and wanted to browse or pick up components, without the delay of postage.

But i suppose this signals a greater trend in that no one these days would try or attempt to fix consumer electronics. That being said RS and Farnell are both going strong i believe.

[Sir Asvald]

10 minutes ago, RuffRuffmcgruff said:

Doesn't surprise me at all, they sold nice quality goods but they're horribly over priced. Shame about Toys r us though, that place was boss as a kid.

Ikr. I had buy a HDMI cable. They were £20 for a 3m. Such a ripoff

[porina]

I haven't bought anything from Maplins in years... maybe that's part of the problem. I too also first used them for electronic components, as Farnell/RS didn't like dealing with individuals, not at that time anyway.

 

I'm trying to think but not sure who went at what time, but other high street electrical retailers have gone. It is a tough space to be in.

[porina]

2 minutes ago, Cragdor said:

But i suppose this signals a greater trend in that no one these days would try or attempt to fix consumer electronics. That being said RS and Farnell are both going strong i believe.

I don't know if it is still the case, but I always saw RS and Farnell as catering more to business sales. I felt so dirty, as recently I needed some SD cards at work. We have an open account with Farnell, and I ended up with small capacity, overpriced, slow SD cards. If I could buy with my own money, I could have got more capacity, faster cards from Amazon for half the price.

[ItsMitch]

 

This was apart of their fucking problem

[Tieox]

Maplins used to be something really great, then things changed, this was just waiting to happen past few years.

[WhatTheHell]

8 minutes ago, porina said:

Small capacity, overpriced, slow SD cards. If I could buy with my own money, I could have got more capacity, faster cards from Amazon for half the price.

It's usually quiet easy to find a new supplier with better prices, it's just whoever originally set up business accounts never check these things at a later date to see if they should switch to another supplier, plenty of times I've bought equipment for my previous employer out of my pocket and they paid me back the same day, because I found superior and more affordable after fishing around for about three minutes.

 

The problem is most employees don't care because it's not their cash, and usually saving the company you work for money goes unnoticed. 

[Cragdor]

@SC2Mitch https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/value-hdmi-to-hdmi-cable-1m-a98xg

[porina]

1 minute ago, WhatTheHell said:

It's usually quiet easy to find a new supplier with better prices, it's just whoever originally set up business accounts never check these things at a later date to see if they should switch to another supplier.

We're in the electronics industry so we do get a load of stuff from RS/Farnell in general, hence the open account - we can order from them with one less layer of approvals than otherwise. There are not really other wide ranging component suppliers without going international. Basically to do anything else would have required me to get a new account set up with someone else, and it just isn't worth the hassle.

 

1 minute ago, WhatTheHell said:

Plenty of times I've bought equipment for my previous employer out of my pocket and they paid me back the same day, because I found superior and more affordable after fishing around for about three minutes, 

I used to do that, but getting repaid was more like a week or two. Now they changed the rules so this is essentially not allowed at all. They want people to use the business processes even if it means everything takes 10 times longer while we screw around with the (virtual) paperwork.

 

1 minute ago, WhatTheHell said:

The problem is most employees don't care because it's not their cash, and usually saving the company you work for money goes unnoticed. 

We do care, but business rules prevent us from doing something better, and like in any large organisation, changing that is not a battle most will want to fight.

 

My manager actually tells me to spend more on expenses while work travelling. If I have a meal, I just have a meal, decent but not extravagant. My amounts are being seen as too low compared to other departments who go more all out.

[ImSimplySte]

From both personal experience and work, maplin has be a go to supplier, especially for parts, not just PCs, we lay our own cabling throughout the site. That includes power, networking, audio and visual. I ran my own Ethernet through out my house, for the ends of cables and small components, maplin has been great especially when you just need a couple of RJ45 ends and can't be bothered waiting a day or two for shipping. 

 

Time to look for another go-to supplier...