On 28/01/2011 17:55, John Rumm wrote:
On 28/01/2011 15:51, Dave W wrote:
On Jan 26, 10:22 pm, John wrote:

Oh and Maplins were helpful: I phoned up their shop to ask if they had
0.2" Molexes in, described the sort of thing, yes they have, some
suitable
sized shells and inserts, off I go driving across town in the rush hour.
What have they got? Only 0.1" ones. Bar stewards. I have now spent the
better part of my afternoon& evening trying to get a handful of bits of
plastic and tin whose actual material and production cost is probably
about 10p :-(

Always check Maplins' website - it shows stock levels in shops. Then
you have to ask for the item in the shop as it may be in the storeroom
and not on display.

Odd thing is, when I first started going to Maplin as a kid in the '80s
(at their original and only branch in Westcliff) - it was all counter
service - very little on display and no self service at all. At the time
I thought it was a shame there was not more on display so you could go
fiddle / look etc.

Only later did they expand the shop and do just that, and it became the
model they copied for all the other shops. Alas having tried it, I
realised the counter service worked much better in practice - especially
for small bits.


As a kid (in the late 1960s) I worked in John Birkett's electronic bits
shop in Lincoln - but I doubt anybody here remembers that - 'twas great fun.