In article
,
Ian

wrote:
On 2018-03-01, Andrew Gabriel wrote:

I worked for a startup ISV in the late 1990's, and although we were
mostly software, we bought quite a lot of hardware. Initially, that was
all through Maplin because I knew them from my hobby, but eventually we
wanted more specialist things they didn't stock, so I applied for an RS
account. Back came reams of paperwork to fill in. A few days later,
with the paperwork still in my in-tray, and Farnell salesman knocked on
the door and said "Can I open a credit account for you?". I said yes,
and they didn't require any paperwork. Maplin and RS both lost out to
that. It was one hell of a coincidence - I did wonder if someone inside
RS was leaking data out to their competitors.

Apropos not much, I always considered Maplin a bit of a toy shop rather
than a serious electronics components supplier, even back in the 80's. I
was spoiled by having Electrovalue in walking distance though, anyone
remember them?

Yes. Excellent catalogue with pinouts for TTL - but that was in the '70s. I
visited them too, but had to drive.


Spent hours queuing there on Saturday mornings. Problem
with Maplin was they never seemed to have everything in stock, and if
you're building something, missing even one part is a killer.

Later discovered Farnell, and even got a trade account set up while still
at Uni, at their suggestion. This was in sharp contrast to RS, who
wouldn't even let me have a catalogue. Put a lot of business in Farnells
direction since then, and precisely none to RS.

Not surprised Maplins are on the rocks. As has been said, town centre
retail is dead. Battle the car-hating councils obstacle course to get
there in the first place. Pay more in parking than for next-day delivery.
Dodge the chuggers and beggars to get to the one store you actually need
to visit. No wonder there's only pound shops, betting shops and takeaways
left, it's only fit for people with lots of free time and no money.

don't forget hairdressers & barbers

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England

On Thu, 01 Mar 2018 11:26:41 +0000, Ian wrote:

Apropos not much, I always considered Maplin a bit of a toy shop rather
than a serious electronics components supplier, even back in the 80's.
I was spoiled by having Electrovalue in walking distance though, anyone
remember them?

I was thinking about them yesterday when the whole Maplin thing blew up.
Let me see...Englefield Green, Egham?

Used them quite a bit although only by mail order.

Spent hours queuing there on Saturday mornings. Problem
with Maplin was they never seemed to have everything in stock, and if
you're building something, missing even one part is a killer.

Indeed, although I used their phone services (touch tone, then BBS) to
order.

Later discovered Farnell, and even got a trade account set up while
still at Uni, at their suggestion. This was in sharp contrast to RS, who
wouldn't even let me have a catalogue. Put a lot of business in Farnells
direction since then, and precisely none to RS.

I happened to meet someone at a computer auction in Essex, and they put
me on to CPC. I use CPC, Farnell, Rapid and RS depending on what I want.
More esoteric stuff comes from Mouser and Digikey.

Not surprised Maplins are on the rocks. As has been said, town centre
retail is dead. Battle the car-hating councils obstacle course to get
there in the first place. Pay more in parking than for next-day
delivery. Dodge the chuggers and beggars to get to the one store you
actually need to visit.

Although they did (originally) have a policy of using the less expensive
end of town in many case. In Chatham it was Luton Arches (next to the
murder scene I mentioned before), in Brighton the London Road shopping
centre (the most down market of the three main ones). In Canterbury it's
Vauxhall Road, which isn't much better.


--
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wish to copy them they can pay me £1 a message.
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
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On Thu, 01 Mar 2018 12:11:02 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Yup. Take Cambridge as an example. They dont WANT cars anywhere NEAR the
town

Canterbury isn't much better. I've not gone into Canterbury much in
years, except recently once a week for the part time retirement job!

--
My posts are my copyright and if @diy_forums or Home Owners' Hub
wish to copy them they can pay me £1 a message.
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

"John Smith" wrote in message
news:2018022810590560844-nospam@nospamcom...
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

they would survive if they cut down the number of assistants that ask if
they can help from five to one ....

On 2018-03-01, Bob Eager wrote:
On Thu, 01 Mar 2018 11:26:41 +0000, Ian wrote:

Apropos not much, I always considered Maplin a bit of a toy shop rather
than a serious electronics components supplier, even back in the 80's.
I was spoiled by having Electrovalue in walking distance though, anyone
remember them?

I was thinking about them yesterday when the whole Maplin thing blew up.
Let me see...Englefield Green, Egham?

That was the HQ, yes. For me it was the northern branch, Burnage Lane in
Manchester. Now it's a hairdressers.

Randomuselessfact, they were one of the first places you could buy blue
LEDs. The price was listed as (something like) 31.34. A later edition of
the catalogue added "POUNDS EA" to that line only, just to make it clear.

--
Ian

"Tamahome!!!" - "Miaka!!!"

On 01/03/18 12:58, Tim Streater wrote:
In article , The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

On 01/03/18 11:28, Huge wrote:
On 2018-03-01, Ian


wrote:

[24 lines snipped]

Not surprised Maplins are on the rocks. As has been said, town
centre retail
is dead. Battle the car-hating councils obstacle course to get there
in the
first place. Pay more in parking than for next-day delivery. Dodge the
chuggers and beggars to get to the one store you actually need to
visit.
No wonder there's only pound shops, betting shops and takeaways
left, it's
only fit for people with lots of free time and no money.

*applause*

Yup. Take Cambridge as an example. They dont WANT cars anywhere NEAR
the town

Presumably they think that the pointy headed cyclists will be enoogh
customers to keep the town centre alive. History shows its dying though

I switched to shopping in Bury St Edmunds to avoid the sodding cyclists
in the pedestrian zone in Cambridge.

Newmarket is better



--
The New Left are the people they warned you about.

On Thursday, 1 March 2018 11:26:45 UTC, Ian wrote:
Apropos not much, I always considered Maplin a bit of a toy shop rather
than a serious electronics components supplier, even back in the 80's.

There's good business in expensive toys at the moment.

Trying to compete at the 99p and £9.99 end of the market with china ebay is a no-goer though.

Owain

On Thu, 1 Mar 2018 10:49:40 -0000 (UTC), Andrew Gabriel wrote:

... there's no reason they couldn't be a key part of the maker movement
today.

Maybe not a key part but certainly a part. Hosting a Maker Event
ought to high up their list but they hadn't paid much attention to
that area. They have a few Raspberry Pi kits, one or two Aurdino's
and just a handful of things from the huge range of Adafruit
products.

I wouldn't be surprised if you dug about a bit to find funding for
such events from a STEM budget somewhere.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Thu, 1 Mar 2018 12:53:49 -0000 (UTC), Ian
wrote:

On 2018-03-01, Bob Eager wrote:
On Thu, 01 Mar 2018 11:26:41 +0000, Ian wrote:

Apropos not much, I always considered Maplin a bit of a toy shop rather
than a serious electronics components supplier, even back in the 80's.
I was spoiled by having Electrovalue in walking distance though, anyone
remember them?

I was thinking about them yesterday when the whole Maplin thing blew up.
Let me see...Englefield Green, Egham?

That was the HQ, yes. For me it was the northern branch, Burnage Lane in
Manchester. Now it's a hairdressers.

Randomuselessfact, they were one of the first places you could buy blue
LEDs. The price was listed as (something like) 31.34. A later edition of
the catalogue added "POUNDS EA" to that line only, just to make it clear.

The earliest commerically viable LEDs were initially 130 quid a pop from a
Japanese manufacturer. One lunchtime a quick calculation demonstrated a colour
telly with an LED display was going to cost at that point in time some 60
million quid or so.

--

In article ,
jkn wrote:
A sort-of upmarket competitor to Henry's etc. was 'Home Radio' - very
much the Waitrose end of things. I had one of their catalogues as well
(with an artistic Barbara Hepworth scuplure on the front, you'd never
get that with Henrys).

They were a rather odd company. Not that far from here, in Mitcham. Had a
counter in a newish block, with the same oldbloke always serving. Then
moved to Wimbledon, but always seemed to be closed. Then disappeared.

I still have their 'Good Companion' tranny portable which I built, bought
from my first salary, and it still works, although I don't. ;-) 55 years
old.

--
*I'm not a complete idiot, some parts are missing *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 01/03/18 11:28, Huge wrote:
On 2018-03-01, Ian wrote:

[24 lines snipped]

Not surprised Maplins are on the rocks. As has been said, town
centre retail is dead. Battle the car-hating councils obstacle
course to get there in the first place. Pay more in parking than for
next-day delivery. Dodge the chuggers and beggars to get to the one
store you actually need to visit. No wonder there's only pound
shops, betting shops and takeaways left, it's only fit for people
with lots of free time and no money.

*applause*


Yup. Take Cambridge as an example. They dont WANT cars anywhere NEAR
the town

Presumably they think that the pointy headed cyclists will be enoogh
customers to keep the town centre alive. History shows its dying though

Oxford started the whole Park & Ride concept.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England

In article ,
jkn writes:
A sort-of upmarket competitor to Henry's etc. was 'Home Radio' - very much the
Waitrose end of things. I had one of their catalogues as well (with an artistic
Barbara Hepworth scuplure on the front, you'd never get that with Henrys).

I never bought anything from Home Radio but the MD used to have an occasional
column in one of the hobby magazines. I remember him writing, only
semi-jokingly I presume, about their stock control methods. He said that each
stock item was stored in a cardboard box, and every so often they'd look at
each box:

- if it was nearly empty, they'd order some more
- if it was empty and tatty, they'd order a lot more
- it the box had dust on it, they'd order a few more
- if it was full and had dust on it they'd think about discontinuing it
ect.

As the years have gone by I have occasionally considered that there are
worse methods...

Reminds me of buying some cable in Maplin in Luton many years ago.
They check the computer, yes they have plenty.
Go and find it - only 1 metre on the drum.

When will you get some more in?
We can't get any more because the computer says we have lots.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

In article ,
Bob Eager wrote:
On Thu, 01 Mar 2018 11:26:41 +0000, Ian wrote:

Apropos not much, I always considered Maplin a bit of a toy shop rather
than a serious electronics components supplier, even back in the 80's.
I was spoiled by having Electrovalue in walking distance though, anyone
remember them?

I was thinking about them yesterday when the whole Maplin thing blew up.
Let me see...Englefield Green, Egham?

Used them quite a bit although only by mail order.

Spent hours queuing there on Saturday mornings. Problem
with Maplin was they never seemed to have everything in stock, and if
you're building something, missing even one part is a killer.

Indeed, although I used their phone services (touch tone, then BBS) to
order.

Later discovered Farnell, and even got a trade account set up while
still at Uni, at their suggestion. This was in sharp contrast to RS, who
wouldn't even let me have a catalogue. Put a lot of business in Farnells
direction since then, and precisely none to RS.

I happened to meet someone at a computer auction in Essex, and they put
me on to CPC. I use CPC, Farnell, Rapid and RS depending on what I want.
More esoteric stuff comes from Mouser and Digikey.

Not surprised Maplins are on the rocks. As has been said, town centre
retail is dead. Battle the car-hating councils obstacle course to get
there in the first place. Pay more in parking than for next-day
delivery. Dodge the chuggers and beggars to get to the one store you
actually need to visit.

Although they did (originally) have a policy of using the less expensive
end of town in many case. In Chatham it was Luton Arches (next to the
murder scene I mentioned before), in Brighton the London Road shopping
centre (the most down market of the three main ones). In Canterbury it's
Vauxhall Road, which isn't much better.

But in London - a corner site at the north end of Waterloo Bridge,
Tottenham Court Road, A big shop in Great Portland Street, a corner site
near St Pauls. Edgeware Road, etc.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England

On 01/03/2018 12:22, charles wrote:
In article
,
Ian

wrote:
On 2018-03-01, Andrew Gabriel wrote:

I worked for a startup ISV in the late 1990's, and although we were
mostly software, we bought quite a lot of hardware. Initially, that was
all through Maplin because I knew them from my hobby, but eventually we
wanted more specialist things they didn't stock, so I applied for an RS
account. Back came reams of paperwork to fill in. A few days later,
with the paperwork still in my in-tray, and Farnell salesman knocked on
the door and said "Can I open a credit account for you?". I said yes,
and they didn't require any paperwork. Maplin and RS both lost out to
that. It was one hell of a coincidence - I did wonder if someone inside
RS was leaking data out to their competitors.

Apropos not much, I always considered Maplin a bit of a toy shop rather
than a serious electronics components supplier, even back in the 80's. I
was spoiled by having Electrovalue in walking distance though, anyone
remember them?

Yes. Excellent catalogue with pinouts for TTL - but that was in the '70s. I
visited them too, but had to drive.


Spent hours queuing there on Saturday mornings. Problem
with Maplin was they never seemed to have everything in stock, and if
you're building something, missing even one part is a killer.

Later discovered Farnell, and even got a trade account set up while still
at Uni, at their suggestion. This was in sharp contrast to RS, who
wouldn't even let me have a catalogue. Put a lot of business in Farnells
direction since then, and precisely none to RS.

Not surprised Maplins are on the rocks. As has been said, town centre
retail is dead. Battle the car-hating councils obstacle course to get
there in the first place. Pay more in parking than for next-day delivery.
Dodge the chuggers and beggars to get to the one store you actually need
to visit. No wonder there's only pound shops, betting shops and takeaways
left, it's only fit for people with lots of free time and no money.

don't forget hairdressers & barbers

Charity shops and mobile phone shops. (Why does a shopping centre need
three or four mobile phone shops? Why does it need *any*? Surely just a
shelf in a hardware store or supermarket.)

--
Max Demian

On 28/02/18 13:07, John Rumm wrote:
On 28/02/2018 12:13, Adrian Caspersz 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



Recovery...

Â* Shut half the shops.
Â* Focus more on selling project stuff than items of instant
enlightenment,
Â* Remove all the shelves to the back, think argos/screwfix/toolsatan
Â* Stretch a counter across the branch,
Â* Enter a components distribution partnership with Farnell/CPC/RS,
Â* Sponsor staff to take electronic/electrical training,
Â* Support the maker community with competitive pricing,
Â* Support the PC builder community with competitive pricing.

Don't turn into Tandy MkII

Much of that describes what it was like walking into the Westcliff shop
in 1980! A few things on display to look at. Loads of built up synth
kits / speakers / amps etc in the window, and a pair of (new and
exciting) Atari 400 / 800 computers surrounded by a swarm of kids trying
to get a look in. The rest of the shop packed with people waiting to be
served in a kind of "open all hours" shop environment - staff behind the
counter going off and collecting the bits of your order before
presenting it all in a taped up plastic bag at the end.


I was living in Leigh on Sea when that shop opened. There was a sort of
magic: we'd never had a shop quite like that before and what's more, it
wasn't in London, it was in our neighbourhood. Unfortunately, several of
the local second-hand radio junk shops in Westcliff closed shortly
after. The business actually started in a private house around the
corner from my in-laws in Rayleigh.

Nick

On 01/03/2018 14:08, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
jkn writes:
A sort-of upmarket competitor to Henry's etc. was 'Home Radio' - very much the
Waitrose end of things. I had one of their catalogues as well (with an artistic
Barbara Hepworth scuplure on the front, you'd never get that with Henrys).

I never bought anything from Home Radio but the MD used to have an occasional
column in one of the hobby magazines. I remember him writing, only
semi-jokingly I presume, about their stock control methods. He said that each
stock item was stored in a cardboard box, and every so often they'd look at
each box:

- if it was nearly empty, they'd order some more
- if it was empty and tatty, they'd order a lot more
- it the box had dust on it, they'd order a few more
- if it was full and had dust on it they'd think about discontinuing it
ect.

As the years have gone by I have occasionally considered that there are
worse methods...

Reminds me of buying some cable in Maplin in Luton many years ago.
They check the computer, yes they have plenty.
Go and find it - only 1 metre on the drum.

When will you get some more in?
We can't get any more because the computer says we have lots.

So how does supermarket stock control work?

--
Max Demian

On Thu, 01 Mar 2018 14:08:49 +0000, charles wrote:

In article ,
Bob Eager wrote:
On Thu, 01 Mar 2018 11:26:41 +0000, Ian wrote:

Apropos not much, I always considered Maplin a bit of a toy shop
rather than a serious electronics components supplier, even back in
the 80's. I was spoiled by having Electrovalue in walking distance
though, anyone remember them?

I was thinking about them yesterday when the whole Maplin thing blew
up.
Let me see...Englefield Green, Egham?

Used them quite a bit although only by mail order.

Spent hours queuing there on Saturday mornings. Problem with Maplin
was they never seemed to have everything in stock, and if you're
building something, missing even one part is a killer.

Indeed, although I used their phone services (touch tone, then BBS) to
order.

Later discovered Farnell, and even got a trade account set up while
still at Uni, at their suggestion. This was in sharp contrast to RS,
who wouldn't even let me have a catalogue. Put a lot of business in
Farnells direction since then, and precisely none to RS.

I happened to meet someone at a computer auction in Essex, and they put
me on to CPC. I use CPC, Farnell, Rapid and RS depending on what I
want.
More esoteric stuff comes from Mouser and Digikey.

Not surprised Maplins are on the rocks. As has been said, town centre
retail is dead. Battle the car-hating councils obstacle course to get
there in the first place. Pay more in parking than for next-day
delivery. Dodge the chuggers and beggars to get to the one store you
actually need to visit.

Although they did (originally) have a policy of using the less
expensive end of town in many case. In Chatham it was Luton Arches
(next to the murder scene I mentioned before), in Brighton the London
Road shopping centre (the most down market of the three main ones). In
Canterbury it's Vauxhall Road, which isn't much better.

But in London - a corner site at the north end of Waterloo Bridge,
Tottenham Court Road, A big shop in Great Portland Street, a corner site
near St Pauls. Edgeware Road, etc.

Oh, I know about those. Most of those came later, I think, although not
all. London is London.

--
My posts are my copyright and if @diy_forums or Home Owners' Hub
wish to copy them they can pay me £1 a message.
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

On Thu, 01 Mar 2018 12:59:16 +0000, Tim Streater wrote:

In article , Bob Eager
wrote:

On Thu, 01 Mar 2018 12:11:02 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Yup. Take Cambridge as an example. They dont WANT cars anywhere NEAR
the town

Canterbury isn't much better. I've not gone into Canterbury much in
years, except recently once a week for the part time retirement job!

At least Canterbury has car parks and they seem to be switching to ANPR
and online automatic charging instead of Pay & Display.

That's true. I tend to go where the parking is cheaper (or free). And the
traffic isn't so bad.

--
My posts are my copyright and if @diy_forums or Home Owners' Hub
wish to copy them they can pay me £1 a message.
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

On 01/03/2018 14:45, Max Demian wrote:

So how does supermarket stock control work?


Most seem to do regular shelf stock checks presumably to see if what the
computer says they have hasn't been spirited away.

I was working for one of the Marconi companies when the design for the
Texan Amplifier was published. The company stores lists claimed to have
hundreds of the output transistors in stock

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On Thursday, 1 March 2018 16:13:54 UTC, alan_m wrote:
On 01/03/2018 14:45, Max Demian wrote:

So how does supermarket stock control work?


Most seem to do regular shelf stock checks presumably to see if what the
computer says they have hasn't been spirited away.

I've always assumed that they used what the sell at the till points as that goes direct to the ordering sections, there's little need to count stolen stuff as that is a relatively small amount.

On 01/03/2018 12:22, charles wrote:

don't forget hairdressers & barbers


Yep, empty (turkish) barbers shops seem to be the new boom and bust
industry.

It appears that around my way that people are still remaining loyal to
old established traditional barbers rather than migrating to the the new
entrants who are charging less.

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On 01/03/18 16:19, whisky-dave wrote:
On Thursday, 1 March 2018 16:13:54 UTC, alan_m wrote:
On 01/03/2018 14:45, Max Demian wrote:

So how does supermarket stock control work?


Most seem to do regular shelf stock checks presumably to see if
what the computer says they have hasn't been spirited away.

I've always assumed that they used what the sell at the till points
as that goes direct to the ordering sections, there's little need to
count stolen stuff as that is a relatively small amount.


You think?

"Shoppers are stealing more than £1.6 billion worth of items from
supermarkets every year as frustration with self service tills leads to
theft, a survey found."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/household-bills/10603984/Shoppers-steal-billions-through-self-service-tills.html

OK on the scale of what we pay the EU, thats not huge

But every little helps eh?

It's about 1% of total turnover.




--
To ban Christmas, simply give turkeys the vote.

On Thursday, 1 March 2018 16:13:54 UTC, alan_m wrote:
Most seem to do regular shelf stock checks presumably to see if what the
computer says they have hasn't been spirited away.

And also, I think, to make sure the shelf-edge price label is up-to-date and they don't display a false or misleading price indication getting them into hottish water with Trading Standards.

Owain

On 01/03/2018 16:19, whisky-dave wrote:
On Thursday, 1 March 2018 16:13:54 UTC, alan_m wrote:
On 01/03/2018 14:45, Max Demian wrote:

So how does supermarket stock control work?


Most seem to do regular shelf stock checks presumably to see if what the
computer says they have hasn't been spirited away.

I've always assumed that they used what the sell at the till points as that goes direct to the ordering sections, there's little need to count stolen stuff as that is a relatively small amount.



Theft possibly depends on the product. I have seen people picking items
off the shelves, eating it while still walking around the isles and then
discarding the wrapper before getting to the tills. Giving kids a packet
of sweets to eat whilst shopping seems to be common.

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

In article ,
Nick Odell writes:
I was living in Leigh on Sea when that shop opened. There was a sort of
magic: we'd never had a shop quite like that before and what's more, it
wasn't in London, it was in our neighbourhood. Unfortunately, several of
the local second-hand radio junk shops in Westcliff closed shortly
after. The business actually started in a private house around the
corner from my in-laws in Rayleigh.

I remember sending off orders by post to Rayleigh (getting my Dad
to write a cheque to go with it), and eagerly waiting for a week to
get the goodies. They came with an order form and an envelope to
send off your next order in, with a dot-matrix printed sticky label
with your named and address and customer number stuck to the top.

The sad thing is I still remember my customer number, but last used
it 20-25 years ago. When I used to quote it in the shops some years
later, they always assumed I'd got it wrong as it had far fewer digits
in it than they expected, but it worked when they put it in the
computer.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On 01/03/2018 17:03, alan_m wrote:
On 01/03/2018 16:19, whisky-dave wrote:
On Thursday, 1 March 2018 16:13:54 UTC, alan_mÂ* wrote:
On 01/03/2018 14:45, Max Demian wrote:

So how does supermarket stock control work?


Most seem to do regular shelf stock checks presumably to see if what the
computer says they have hasn't been spirited away.

I've always assumed that they used what the sell at the till points as
that goes direct to the ordering sections, there's little need to
count stolen stuff as that is a relatively small amount.



Theft possibly depends on the product. I have seen people picking items
off the shelves, eating it while still walking around the isles and then
discarding the wrapper before getting to the tills. Giving kids a packet
of sweets to eat whilst shopping seems to be common.

When our kids were younger, we would often give them something from the
shelves on the way round, but we always picked up two and told the
checkout operator to scan the second one twice.

SteveW

On Thursday, 1 March 2018 17:35:44 UTC, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
I remember sending off orders by post to Rayleigh (getting my Dad
to write a cheque to go with it), and eagerly waiting for a week to
get the goodies. They came with an order form and an envelope to
send off your next order in, with a dot-matrix printed sticky label
with your named and address and customer number stuck to the top.

Sometimes an order posted Mon would arrive by Friday home-from-school and sometimes on Saturday morning.

The sad thing is I still remember my customer number, but last used
it 20-25 years ago.

Me too. Must be the equivalent of an Army number for anyone who did National Service.

Owain

In article ,
alan_m wrote:
Theft possibly depends on the product. I have seen people picking items
off the shelves, eating it while still walking around the isles and then
discarding the wrapper before getting to the tills. Giving kids a packet
of sweets to eat whilst shopping seems to be common.

I bought a box of indigestion tablets the other day. Meant to be 24
tablets - three packs of 8. Cardboard box not sealed. On opening it at
home discovered a pack missing. So presumably stolen out of the packet?
But how come the self service checkout didn't say the weight was wrong? It
seems to do so for everything else...

--
*I have plenty of talent and vision. I just don't care.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Thu, 1 Mar 2018 17:35:41 -0000 (UTC), (Andrew
Gabriel) wrote:

The sad thing is I still remember my customer number, but last used
it 20-25 years ago. When I used to quote it in the shops some years
later, they always assumed I'd got it wrong as it had far fewer digits
in it than they expected, but it worked when they put it in the
computer.

Ditto on the customer number. No idea when I last used it but late 80's early
90's might be about right. The only Maplin branded thing I've now got is an
aerosol of white spray grease and that was for a job I did at least 15 years
ago.
--

On Thu, 1 Mar 2018 08:19:41 -0800 (PST), whisky-dave
wrote:

On Thursday, 1 March 2018 16:13:54 UTC, alan_m wrote:
On 01/03/2018 14:45, Max Demian wrote:

So how does supermarket stock control work?


Most seem to do regular shelf stock checks presumably to see if what the
computer says they have hasn't been spirited away.

I've always assumed that they used what the sell at the till points as that goes direct to the ordering sections, there's little need to count stolen stuff as that is a relatively small amount.

But with self checkout the stock control can go mad and order a million quids
worth of brocolli and yet the shelves of 80% chocolate, macadamia nuts and
saffron will be empty.

--

On Fri, 02 Mar 2018 01:06:30 -0000, "James Wilkinson Sword"
wrote:

On Wed, 28 Feb 2018 10:59:05 -0000, 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.

snip

Anyway, don't we all buy stuff on Ebay now?

Apparently, it wasn't just about getting electrical components:

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/s...-2014013183134

Although for most here it would be more like:

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/b...20180301145163

;-)

Cheers, T i m

On Fri, 02 Mar 2018 01:06:30 -0000, Birdbrain Macaw (now "James Wilkinson"),
the pathological attention whore of all the uk ngs, blathered again:


I found them to be good for parts like an IEC plug, but actual products
they overpriced, like a USB cable for £10? Get to ****.

Anyway, don't we all buy stuff on Ebay now?

....and you HAD to "grace" also this thread with your idiocy, eh, Birdbrain?

--
More from Birdbrain Macaw's (now "James Wilkinson" LOL) abnormal sociopathic
world:
"However I do like to make fun of people. For example, a professor once
told a secretary off for having a topless male model as the wallpaper on her
computer. So I told her he was a hypocrite, and that he had pictures of
transvestites on his (not as wallpaper, but stored on the hard disk). She
spread that around quite quickly."
MID:

On 28/02/2018 15:39, alan_m wrote:
On 28/02/2018 13:07, John Rumm wrote:

Much of that describes what it was like walking into the Westcliff
shop in 1980! A few things on display to look at. Loads of built up
synth kits / speakers / amps etc in the window,

Also the ramshackle shop, which I cannot remember the name of, on the

Sendz by the sounds of it...

opposite corner to the Cricketers Pub, Westcliff which had multi page
adverts in some radio/hobbyist magazines. They did most business by old
fashioned mail order but I fail to understand how they found anything.
The whole place was stacked floor to ceiling, including the window and
entrance corridor with opened boxes with the empty boxes left where they
fell. The shop window floor was littered with items that had fallen from
the boxes.

Yup it was an odd arrangement. The main shop door not being used, and
instead a side door that lead to a flight of steps that went upstairs...
A fascinating window to look in, but quite hard to work out how you
actually bought anything from the shop itself.

I recall a mate going in there for a NICAM decoder chip. He asks for it
at the counter, and the chap behind has a rummage through some boxes of
assorted complete PCBs, locates and de-solders said chip before handing
it to him! ;-)



--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On 02/03/18 09:02, The Other Mike wrote:

But with self checkout the stock control can go mad and order a million quids
worth of brocolli and yet the shelves of 80% chocolate, macadamia nuts and
saffron will be empty.


My favourite computerised stock control story was General Electric and
their mad adherence to a mad six-sigma quality standard.

https://www.isixsigma.com/new-to-six...hat-six-sigma/

"Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for
eliminating defects (driving toward six standard deviations between the
mean and the nearest specification limit) in any process €“ from
manufacturing to transactional and from product to service."

Story I heard somewhere was that they were shipping thousands of light
bulbs between far locations in Europe.

Their computer program ran. Lorries were loaded, drivers were hired, and
the delivery got under way for, say, 40000 florescent lamp tubes.

For some reason, only 39999 tubes actually got sent. One was missing.

No problem, computer program ran again. One lorry was loaded, a driver
was hired, and the delivery sent, this time as urgent to fulfil six-sigma.

Yup, one 40ft truck and a single fluorescent tube thrown in the back.

...



It arrived broken :-|

--
Adrian C

On 01/03/2018 17:35, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Nick Odell writes:
I was living in Leigh on Sea when that shop opened. There was a sort of
magic: we'd never had a shop quite like that before and what's more, it
wasn't in London, it was in our neighbourhood. Unfortunately, several of
the local second-hand radio junk shops in Westcliff closed shortly
after. The business actually started in a private house around the
corner from my in-laws in Rayleigh.

I remember sending off orders by post to Rayleigh (getting my Dad
to write a cheque to go with it), and eagerly waiting for a week to
get the goodies. They came with an order form and an envelope to
send off your next order in, with a dot-matrix printed sticky label
with your named and address and customer number stuck to the top.

The sad thing is I still remember my customer number, but last used
it 20-25 years ago.

ISTR mine was 7 digits... I was disappointed to find I got allocated a
new longer one when ordering on the web years later.

When I used to quote it in the shops some years
later, they always assumed I'd got it wrong as it had far fewer digits
in it than they expected, but it worked when they put it in the
computer.

There was a spell (late 90s) where I would collect an order in a
spreadsheet, then fax it to them with a cc number etc. Used to turn up
pretty much next day.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On 02/03/2018 00:17, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
alan_m wrote:
Theft possibly depends on the product. I have seen people picking items
off the shelves, eating it while still walking around the isles and then
discarding the wrapper before getting to the tills. Giving kids a packet
of sweets to eat whilst shopping seems to be common.

I bought a box of indigestion tablets the other day. Meant to be 24
tablets - three packs of 8. Cardboard box not sealed. On opening it at
home discovered a pack missing. So presumably stolen out of the packet?
But how come the self service checkout didn't say the weight was wrong? It
seems to do so for everything else...


The machine weighs stuff so you can't put it on without scanning, very
few of them actually check the product weight against what is expected.

dennis@home wrote:

The machine weighs stuff so you can't put it on without scanning, very
few of them actually check the product weight against what is expected.

IME they all weigh the products and know the expected weight, the
problems come when you add e.g. one bag of quavers after a 4x2litre pack
of bottled water ...

On Thursday, 1 March 2018 16:26:19 UTC, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 01/03/18 16:19, whisky-dave wrote:
On Thursday, 1 March 2018 16:13:54 UTC, alan_m wrote:
On 01/03/2018 14:45, Max Demian wrote:

So how does supermarket stock control work?


Most seem to do regular shelf stock checks presumably to see if
what the computer says they have hasn't been spirited away.

I've always assumed that they used what the sell at the till points
as that goes direct to the ordering sections, there's little need to
count stolen stuff as that is a relatively small amount.


You think?


yes quite often, even though today is Friday.

"Shoppers are stealing more than £1.6 billion worth of items from
supermarkets every year as frustration with self service tills leads to
theft, a survey found."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/household-bills/10603984/Shoppers-steal-billions-through-self-service-tills.html

OK on the scale of what we pay the EU, thats not huge

But every little helps eh?

Not really 1% is next to nothing when talking about stock control.
I've worked in a supermarket and you don't base your ordering stragergy on what's been nicked.


It's about 1% of total turnover.

SO very difficult to detect, so you have to rely on what;s sold at the till point rather than what 'evaporates' yes evapouration was the term used by M&S when my dad worked for them 20 years ago, NOTHING got stolen but stock evaporated was the term used.





--
To ban Christmas, simply give turkeys the vote.

On Friday, 2 March 2018 09:02:42 UTC, The Other Mike wrote:
On Thu, 1 Mar 2018 08:19:41 -0800 (PST), whisky-dave
wrote:

On Thursday, 1 March 2018 16:13:54 UTC, alan_m wrote:
On 01/03/2018 14:45, Max Demian wrote:

So how does supermarket stock control work?


Most seem to do regular shelf stock checks presumably to see if what the
computer says they have hasn't been spirited away.

I've always assumed that they used what the sell at the till points as that goes direct to the ordering sections, there's little need to count stolen stuff as that is a relatively small amount.

But with self checkout the stock control can go mad and order a million quids
worth of brocolli,

you don;t let a single self checkout order anything, it goes to central stock control of all till reciepts, and can compare that with what is in the back of the shop or what should be.



and yet the shelves of 80% chocolate, macadamia nuts and
saffron will be empty.

You shouldnlt be re-ordering based on empty shelves because if people are knicking a certain item then it's best not to stock it.

You need to re-stock what you sell not what's been stolen.

On Friday, 2 March 2018 10:29:02 UTC, John Rumm wrote:
ISTR mine was 7 digits... I was disappointed to find I got allocated a
new longer one when ordering on the web years later.

Newbie :-)

Mine was 100xxx.

Anyone got an earlier one?

Owain