On Fri, 10 Apr 2020 16:14:51 +0100, John Rumm wrote:

On 10/04/2020 09:01, charles wrote:
In article , John
Rumm wrote:
On 09/04/2020 12:53, charles wrote:
In article , Steve Walker
wrote:
On 09/04/2020 12:03, Peter Parry wrote:

Electronics Weekly has a report of the re launch of Maplin
Electronics (www.maplin.co.uk) as an on-line retailer

https://www.electronicsweekly.com/ne...n-enthusiasts-
raspberry-pi-arduino-2020-03/

They'll have to make a good job of it and keep the prices down too.
When Maplin had become far more expensive than RS and never had more
than a few of each item in stock, it had clearly lost its way.

Mail order it would have to compete with RS, Farnell (plus their CPC
arm), Jaycar, Amazon and Ebay - and, for me at least, RS and CPC
have the advantage of trade counters for urgent purchases and Amazon
has very quick deliveries.

you've missed Rapid Electronics, the only one to be able to produce a
fuse holder for fuses about ¼inch* in diameter. RS had spare fuses,
but no holders. *I can't be bothered to find the relevant bit of kit
to check on the exact size.

The original Maplin was basically by post, but thre was a shop in
Southend.

and don't forget CAShTel :-)

and Henry's Radio. and Proops (a lunchtime excursion)

CASHTel (Computer Aided Shopping by Telephone) was an early Maplin BBS
style service, that you could use to do mail order and other stuff. You
used ASCII terminal software and a 2400bps modem or similar. It let you
enter order codes and quantities.

I quite liked using it at times (even though I only lived a 10 min walk
from the shop) since it let you assemble a long order while sat in front
of all your notes and documentation etc.

ISTR there was an even earlier one that used the phone keypad.

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