Maplin has just 48 hours left to avoid administration

[scaryjim]

HERE IS WHY THEY FAILED:
20m HDMI lead:

Maplin £79.99
Amazon £26.56 with free delivery!

More to the point though, a 10m HDMI cable at Currys is £40, a 10m HDMI cable at Maplin is £50. If you've got time to check both, you'll be buying in Currys.

You can't compare bricks and mortar high street stores to online warehouse retailers. They're targeting different markets. By your standards every brick-and-mortar shop would be shut, because everyone would buy everything online. That's not the reality. What Maplin have failed to do is give people a reason to choose to shop there - and while part of that is price, it's a lot more complicated than that.

[peterb]

On the positive side, if they are bought by the Edinburgh Woollen Mills group, they could develop a new line in wearable electronics!

[Percy1983]

More to the point though, a 10m HDMI cable at Currys is £40, a 10m HDMI cable at Maplin is £50. If you've got time to check both, you'll be buying in Currys.

You can't compare bricks and mortar high street stores to online warehouse retailers. They're targeting different markets. By your standards every brick-and-mortar shop would be shut, because everyone would buy everything online. That's not the reality. What Maplin have failed to do is give people a reason to choose to shop there - and while part of that is price, it's a lot more complicated than that.

I do agree partly, The problem is the gap is too big for many.

There isn't any exact formula but if I could get something form amazon for £26.56 I would be happy to pay £35-£40 if wanted urgently, £79.99 is enough for me to change me diary around so I do something else while I wait for amazon to deliver.

I see there is larger overheads to cover but if they sell cheaper they would sell more and me able to distribute said overheads over a wider sales base.

[b0redom]

On the positive side, if they are bought by the Edinburgh Woollen Mills group, they could develop a new line in wearable electronics!

And presumably they'd be way sheeper....

I'll get my coat.

[Millennium]

Sad to see Maplins go the way of Radio Shack et all, but it was kind of inevitable with the prices they were charging and the range they stocked. Not really a 2018 company strategy, especially with the problems all high street shops are having at the moment. Now I just wish we had cheaper postage options in the UK, ebay would be very competitive but paying high p&p costs on small components will really mess up the market.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Sad to see Maplins go the way of Radio Shack et all, but it was kind of inevitable with the prices they were charging and the range they stocked. Not really a 2018 company strategy, especially with the problems all high street shops are having at the moment. Now I just wish we had cheaper postage options in the UK, ebay would be very competitive but paying high p&p costs on small components will really mess up the market.

Its partly because the UK has very fair postage if you are living in further flung regions,instead of it rapidly rising the further the package has to travel.

[scaryjim]

... just wish we had cheaper postage options in the UK, ebay would be very competitive but paying high p&p costs on small components will really mess up the market.

Don't forget that direct postage costs are only a part of the charges people will make on ebay - there's packaging materials and time/labour for picking/packing/labelling/dispatching that all needs factoring in too. Plus on low-value items people are likely to look to bump their profit margins slightly through P&P costs.

[peterb]

Its partly because the UK has very fair postage if you are living in further flung regions,instead of it rapidly rising the further the package has to travel.

Indeed! I did some calculations and for a car doing around 40 mpg it costs more to deliver a small parcel beyond a 20 mile radius than it does to post it. (obviously depending on the weight and size of the parcel of the parcel)

It's an interesting calculation to do next time you mutter about the cost of postage!

[Jowsey]

The really sad thing is that someone said they (the 'cheap' ones) were good value for money!!!!!

But the very worst thing about that entire page is the reviews stating good value for money were actually for a different product.

"This was originally posted on Maplin HDMI Cable 5.0m"

Just shifting reviews where they want them to go apparently.

[Jonatron]

I don't get how the electronic components part of Maplin in stores could ever make money. Last time I asked for some resistors, I used up about 15 minutes of staff time for an 80p sale, mostly because their stock system wasn't accurate.

Things that most people need, like cables, are over priced. I never saw them experiment with lowering prices and making up for it in volume. They could've had displays explaining the different types of cables and sockets etc.

Greggs are doing alright because they made the strategic decision to "smell what sells", quoting The Apprentice. Maplin, however, aren't. People don't want massively overpriced cables and random tat. If a corner shop charges slightly more than a supermarket, I'll pay it for the convenience. If they were charging £3 for a tin of beans, I wouldn't pay. It doesn't seem that complicated to me. Maybe they'll find a buyer who can turn the company around, maybe not. Maplin as it is now doesn't really deserve to carry on.

[watercooled]

I do agree partly, The problem is the gap is too big for many.

There isn't any exact formula but if I could get something form amazon for £26.56 I would be happy to pay £35-£40 if wanted urgently, £79.99 is enough for me to change me diary around so I do something else while I wait for amazon to deliver.

I do agree with that - I've often found the difference is so huge I'd rather just wait a day or two vs the convenience of having it 'now'. For a few quid you wouldn't mind but that's too often not the case.

[tweake628]

Yes it very much was, they had an extensive catalogue of parts which diminished over the years. My first PC was a Tandy 1000TX. Good old days, 8Mhz processor

mine to lol them dam tape drives lol .hours of code for silly stuff lol .kids just have no idea

[Jonj1611]

I was lucky, never had tape drives. I had a 5 and a quarter inch drive, 3 and a half inch, and a massive 20MB hard drive. Dizzy heights

[keithwalton]

The writing has been on the wall for quite a few years now.

Every now and then i'd be tempted to build a new pc. With no local parts suppliers maplin's is my only immediate choice.
But this is where they fell down. They only ever sold last generation cpu's, motherboards from the generation before that, graphics cards at insane prices
Occasionally they'd do some prebuilt kits that were almost up to date, except they were almost never in stock anywhere.
The parts in the kits were interchangeable but they wouldn't let you mix and match to get the specs you want.
On the occasion they were in stock somewhere that was all they had in that shop.

To get all the parts to build a complete pc i'd need to visit 5 different stores. At which point i lose interest and plan on getting things delivered in time to build it the following weekend.

[3dcandy]

And they're in administration now along with Toys R Us....

[Tabbykatze]

And they're in administration now along with Toys R Us....

Yup, friends just confirmed, they're in admin