Where would you get electrical bits? Maplin

[TheLurker]

Ah well, final visit to Maplin today for me.  A couple of cans of aerosol silicone grease (rubber motors, lubricating for the use of), some heat shrink tubing which, given that I'm still using shrink fit tubing I bought from RS in '84, will see me out.  Couldn't get any conductive silver paint. Bugger that - jolly handy stuff..

I was impressed (and a little saddened) by the cheerfulness (wrong word, but it's the nearest I can get) the staff given the utterly shitty situation they've been dumped in.

[Basil]

I had electric bits when I was younger.

They're a bit clockwork now.  I have to be wound up first.

[thing1]

Popped in to the New Malden branch today. Up to 50% off liquidation sale translates as 10% off the smart home stuff they've attempted to hang their future on recently, 20% off headphones and disco balls, and 30% or more off the plastic tat.
As a kid I loved flicking through the black and white catalogue, and dreamt of being able to visit one of the Real Stores (North Devon didn't get maplin until late 90s). So it felt weird to walk out the closing down sale quite wanting a couple the things in it yet be empty handed as I can still get them cheaper online (from a store that maybe around to service returns).
I expect over next week or three the discounts will deepen, and eventually be hoovered up into eBay resellers.

[vorsprung]

Maplin used to be the "big" supplier.   I used to look out for the independent shops that did parts.  All gone now
I expect that Maplins demise is good news for RS

[Feanor]

Maplin was an OK supplier of parts way back in my student days ( along with Omni Electronics and Browns in Edinburgh! )
but most people who were young hobbyist electron-whisperers went on to workplaces where we had access to RS and Farnell and the like.

The need for walk-in shops for components just vanished.

[Beardy]

Talking of walk in stores, we used to have a fantastic walk in store on site which had a more varied stock than Maplin, and at it's height probably rivalled RS and Farnell. You had to submit your requisition by email (though formally in triplicate on a paper pad) the day before you needed it, and a man in a dustcoat would have you order ready for collection when you went down to the 'upper loading bay' counter. Best of all you could officially buy the stuff for your own use by just marking your requisition accordingly and taking a cheque for the appropriate amount.
Unfortunately it became a victim of a spreadsheet warrior in the late 90's

[ScumOfTheRoad]

Maplin was an OK supplier of parts way back in my student days ( along with Omni Electronics and Browns in Edinburgh! )
but most people who were young hobbyist electron-whisperers went on to workplaces where we had access to RS and Farnell and the like.

The need for walk-in shops for components just vanished.

The name Omni Electronics rings a bell...
When I was a spotty youth, there was a fantastic shop in the centre of Glasgow. Not in the Barras MArket, but near St Enoch.
I remember going in there and there were tables laid out with square enclosures filled with resistors, capacitors, transistors, Veroboard...
It was a real Alladin's cave. I used to get the Blue Train up to there and spending my pocket money.
Even at the time, it wasnot clear how a shop lik ethat made money. I guess rents were cheap in that area!

I guess these days that shop is a fashioable clothes shop making lots of $$$ as that area has definitely been gentrified.

[Kim]

I've just been round the local Maplin in search of bargains.  It was almost fully-stocked, with a number of staff wandering around looking dejected.

Considering it as a whole, it's basically a shop for distress purchases, tech-related presents, and things that tech-savvy people (ie. most of their customers) would rather buy on the internet.

I left with an assortment of ABS project boxes^[1] and a can of contact cleaner.  Someone more on the ball than me had already cleared out all the Veroboard.

Meanwhile barakta is awaiting delivery of a discounted-below-market-rate Garmin PE watch ordered via their website.


_{[1] This is one of the items where a physical shop can be helpful, not least because search engines are rubbish at "I need a box that's at least $foo mm in one dimension, but I don't care which dimension that is".}

[TheLurker]

... Browns in Edinburgh!

Aha! I've been trying to remember the name for a week or two now. Thank you.

[Vince]

Last night I discovered that the back street shop where we used to buy electronics bits (and we suspected parts of GCHQ super computers) forty years ago is still running. Very pleased for Hardings Electronics of Cheltenham.

[TheLurker]

Ooh. That makes _two_ useful shops that I've found out about in Cheltenham in the last fortnight.  Ta.

[Vince]

What was the first?

[davelodwig]

Last night I discovered that the back street shop where we used to buy electronics bits (and we suspected parts of GCHQ super computers) forty years ago is still running. Very pleased for Hardings Electronics of Cheltenham.

I'm sure I bought a computer from them way back in 1996 when I was a college, it was an old then 286 but I needed something to drive an 8086 development board.

D.