On Wednesday, 28 February 2018 14:00:21 UTC, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Tim Watts wrote:
On 28/02/18 10:59, John Smith wrote:
Looks like Maplin's going down - any regrets? I've found it a bit pricey
in recent years but it's good for kids gifts, cheap batteries, and some
bits you need urgently.

https://www.theguardian.com/business...-business-live




Sadly the market for electronics as a hobby scaled back and changed and
RS/Farnell became available to everyone. Maplin never really found a
good market after that - it was toys and pseudo party/disco stuff (I
expect "real" DJs bought "real" equipment "from" real DJ stores)

With 100% hindsight, I wondered what they should have done? Focussed on
toys and phone and computer accessories (small rather than bulky items)
and run with things like arduinos and Pis when they came along (again
small, not massively high value stock.

They could have run basics like 1/4W resistors, LEDs and stuff from
behind the counter - but run a stock that was optimised for the Pi etc
market?

Well, they certainly can't blame the trend for online purchasing as TRU
has done, as they were pretty early with a web presence.

I'm suprised T i m hasn't blamed Brexit or left-brainers or is it right-brainers.