Maplin / Toys R Us

[#1]

Both have gone into administration today - both were looking for rescues that did not materialise.

Shame as Maplin were a good place once and even though they're a bit rubbish now, i still liked a look round on the rare occasion i was near one.

Toys R Us.. well shame my little lad will never get to see one. We went in their with him as a baby and they had quite a good R/C range compared to Smyths.

I guess the next thing will be stock reductions...

[#2]

I'm surprised to hear about Maplin, but to be honest I thought they were just getting greedy in the past few years, there really is nothing available there that you can't get from either Amazon, eBay, CPC or RS-Online and cheaper too. Shame all the same yet another name lost from the High Street.

[#3]

I was the same with Maplin, back in the 80's they used to be a great supplier of electronic bits, then in the 90's they switched to pre-make kits and I stopped really buying from them.

[#4]

Maplin were good if you urgently required something for a premium but, as @Mook said, you could get what you wanted cheaper elsewhere and often with next day delivery.

[#5]

Shame about Maplin, like comments from other posts they were very good years ago and employed staff with a good knowledge of the products and good advice to customers.

Bought loads of small stuff from them years ago such as capicitors, resistors etc  but I cannot remember the last time I got anything from them must be more than 20 years ago at least.

Prices are just silly for many of their products.

[#6]

I'm not surprised Maplin is going under, they used to be useful as a components supplier, then they became an outlet for chinese tat you could get from Banggod or DX for less for the same tat, the last thing I bought from one was a Uni-T multimeter, and that was about 5 years ago...

[#7]

Must admit although looking round a maplin store could take several hours of drooling, i did find the prices were way beyond reason for some things.

£35 for an arduino mega that you can get for £10 on ebay 

What i found annoying was their stock control for components. They'd frequently say they got something only to go and grab it and find none left.

On a positive note refunds were a breeze. If you had something go wrong they didn't quibble at all - just like any other shop these days they'd cough up your money with no fuss.

I will miss Maplin but they have kinda brought this on themselves.

[#8]

Toys R Us wasn't exactly unexpected. Which is a shame.

Where else will people take their kids to see and pick out the toys to buy online elsewhere a lot cheaper.

I was surprised at Maplin. I still pop in my local one every now and then. Though lately the staff have usually been outnumbering the customers.

[#9]

Yeah i noticed that too - the last couple of times there have been 4-5 staff and one or two customers. I could never understand how they could maintain that.. i guess now i know the answer.

TRU are now selling stuff off, last day of trading is apparently 11/3 so if you want bargains for your kids or grand children..

Maplin still trying to ride it out and continue trading even though they can't replenish their stock - in other words going down fighting and still not lowering prices. They just don't learn..

[#10]

I'm surprised the owners of Hamleys haven't, as far as we know, expressed an interest in Toys R Us.