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Author Topic: The end of Maplin ( and Toys 'R us )  (Read 14369 times)

grendel

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Re: The end of Maplin ( and Toys 'R us )
« Reply #50 on: March 03, 2018, 04:09:37 pm »

the small high street shops couldnt afford the rent, so went online with no premises, found they could undercut those bigger retailers that priced them out of the high street, and are now getting their own back.
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Peter Fitness

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Re: Maplin on the brink
« Reply #51 on: March 03, 2018, 09:42:17 pm »

Simple answer to the shops closing.


STOP BUYING ON LINE !!!  Stop being lazy get off your a'#'# and go down and support your local shops and buy from them.


That's not always easy to do, especially when the nearest shop is several hours' drive away. >:-o


Peter.
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phil_parker

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Re: The end of Maplin ( and Toys 'R us )
« Reply #52 on: March 03, 2018, 09:54:37 pm »

"Yeah, I wouldn't be too sad to see the back of Halfrauds. Although having said that, they do make good tools. Or rather, they rebrand good tools as their Halfords Advanced range. And they're generally pretty good with warranty.

However, when for example I can buy bulbs over the counter at somewhere like Euro Car Parts for less than half the price Halfrauds charge, it's the least they can do!"

If Halfords closes around here, it's goodbye to any supplies or paint and primer in spray cans. DIY stores do some but it's a very limited range. As for car bulbs and wipers, they will become a dealer parts as nowhere within 30 miles sells them, and I'm not in a rural location.

I bought some mirrors for my VW from Eurocarparts - they had rust on them straight from the box! I complained and was sent replacements but I had to post them back at my expense first! I guess you get what you pay for...
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tigertiger

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Watch for Toys'r'us sales
« Reply #53 on: March 09, 2018, 01:37:58 pm »

Just a thought. If Toy'r'us may be having clearance sales, there are items that can be of interest to modelers. Action figures, military models, and for those with a wider interest, other items.
It might be worth keeping an eye on your local store, if you have one.
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Stan

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Re: The end of Maplin ( and Toys 'R us )
« Reply #54 on: March 13, 2018, 02:24:14 pm »

Called at the Leeds Maplins store yesterday. The sale seems to be in full swing  some good discounts on some products. Discounts vary from 20%  to 50 %. Gell cell batteries are still very highly priced even with a discount

 
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smudger1309

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Re: Maplin on the brink
« Reply #55 on: March 16, 2018, 11:57:17 pm »

Simple answer to the shops closing.


STOP BUYING ON LINE !!!  Stop being lazy get off your a'#'# and go down and support your local shops and buy from them.


as few of us on here have said we are not millionaires,  why buy stuff that are over priced when you can get it cheaper,  i brought 2x ESC with fans on £15 from china that included the postage,  so i think your bit cheap there saying (Stop being lazy get off your a'#'# and go down and support your local shops and buy from them)  you might be a millionaire but most of us on this forum are not and most on here also have family's
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roycv

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Re: The end of Maplin ( and Toys 'R us )
« Reply #56 on: March 17, 2018, 12:12:02 am »

Hi all, I bought a headband type magnifying glasses (6 sets of magnifyers that could also be used in pairs) with an adjustable light all for less than £9.00.  I have used them a lot but I would hesitate to pay the UK price of £50 or so.  may not be Maplins but difficult to resist.
regards Roy
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Re: The end of Maplin ( and Toys 'R us )
« Reply #57 on: March 17, 2018, 12:26:55 am »

Bought a set of small tools as I was caught short away from home last week.  Closing down sale in the windows of the local store.  50% off! yet -I paid full price for all my stuff and virtually everything in the store was no discount!!!!!  Nothing useful was discounted, just the usual dross which always is.  I did wish the staff in there well though -nobody likes to see folk out of work.
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phil_parker

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Re: Maplin on the brink
« Reply #58 on: March 19, 2018, 12:53:19 pm »


as few of us on here have said we are not millionaires,  why buy stuff that are over priced when you can get it cheaper,  i brought 2x ESC with fans on £15 from china that included the postage,  so i think your bit cheap there saying (Stop being lazy get off your a'#'# and go down and support your local shops and buy from them)  you might be a millionaire but most of us on this forum are not and most on here also have family's

That's fine, but don't complain when all the shops are gone from your local, or any other high street. Or that your family can't get a job because both manufacturing and retail are all in China. Or that you are paying a fortune in tax to cover the social security costs of all those people who can't find a job because all the manufacturing and retail are in China.

I get why people buy direct, but there are consequences of us all doing that. We ALL (not just one person) just need to decide if the benfits outweigh the downside.
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smudger1309

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Re: Maplin on the brink
« Reply #59 on: March 19, 2018, 02:05:04 pm »

That's fine, but don't complain when all the shops are gone from your local, or any other high street. Or that your family can't get a job because both manufacturing and retail are all in China. Or that you are paying a fortune in tax to cover the social security costs of all those people who can't find a job because all the manufacturing and retail are in China.

I get why people buy direct, but there are consequences of us all doing that. We ALL (not just one person) just need to decide if the benfits outweigh the downside.


in this moment in time buying from china does out weight the downside,   its the government that allowing this to happen,   i bet they get hefty payout by china
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phil_parker

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Re: Maplin on the brink
« Reply #60 on: March 19, 2018, 02:21:46 pm »


in this moment in time buying from china does out weight the downside,   its the government that allowing this to happen,   i bet they get hefty payout by china

And how would you react if the government said you couldn't buy from China?

More to the point, how could they stop anyone?

Sorry, this is OUR decision. Nanny state can't always be there to protect us from ourselves. Chinese stuff is cheap because it's cheaper to employ people in China. You wouldn't be happy if your kids suddenly found the only job they could get paid £3 an hour in a factory where the conditions would do them harm. We could support UK manufacture, but we don't.
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Bob K

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Re: The end of Maplin ( and Toys 'R us )
« Reply #61 on: March 19, 2018, 03:42:59 pm »

Support your local store, or buy it online?
Just been announced that Carpetright could be going into administration.

Try buying a fitted carpet from E-Bay !!!!
Postage from China or Hong Kong could be prohibitive.

Our local hardware store in Windsor shut down at Christmas.  Places like B&Q only sell lines that move in thousands of units per day, unlike our hardware store who always seemed to have everything you needed.
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smudger1309

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Re: The end of Maplin ( and Toys 'R us )
« Reply #62 on: March 19, 2018, 05:21:04 pm »

up our wages then simple, if not that is why we go cheap stuff sadly the cheap stuff is not in our great country and maplins why go there for batterys etc when you can go to howes models of oxford or component shop and get them cheaper,  you wanna go and pay over price then that is your choice,  my choice is £15 including postage or lot more with postage on top of that,  so go on were would you go,   


same with Morrisons asda aldi and lidl and co op 
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Colin Bishop

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Re: The end of Maplin ( and Toys 'R us )
« Reply #63 on: March 19, 2018, 05:29:08 pm »

Quote
same with Morrisons asda aldi and lidl and co op
Quote

But the sandwiches are MUCH nicer in Waitrose.  :-)

Colin
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phil_parker

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Re: The end of Maplin ( and Toys 'R us )
« Reply #64 on: March 19, 2018, 05:36:59 pm »

up our wages then simple, if not that is why we go cheap stuff sadly the cheap stuff is not in our great country and maplins why go there for batterys etc when you can go to howes models of oxford or component shop and get them cheaper,  you wanna go and pay over price then that is your choice,  my choice is £15 including postage or lot more with postage on top of that,  so go on were would you go,   


same with Morrisons asda aldi and lidl and co op

And if you up our wages, what happens to the price of anything made in the UK?

As I said, if we all buy from China then we can't complain when all the shops and factories in the UK close and people are thrown out of work. Of course, then China know they can up their prices because we have nothing to compete with. It's an unsolvable problem really.
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Colin Bishop

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Re: The end of Maplin ( and Toys 'R us )
« Reply #65 on: March 19, 2018, 06:24:11 pm »

It's an effect of globalisation and the 'protectionism' being touted in the USA isn't the answer as they will still end up poorer. The only real solution is for the more developed countries to move upmarket so they are producing goods and services that the developing nations can't undertake although China is confounding this in many respects by being well ahead of the rest of the world in some areas.

Thus the latest RN Auxiliary tankers were constructed in South Korea as actually building the ships is now cheaper abroad but the technological fitout has been done in the UK. Some European shipyards continue to flourish but only by building complex or specialist ships which require a lot more than just metal bashing. The UK has largely missed its chance in this particular area as we only have pockets of excellence such as naval shipbuilding and even these are economically shaky.

This of course does mean that it is difficult to find work for unskilled and semi skilled workers in the UK as only the skilled workers (including plumbers and tradesmen of course) can produce a positive economic return.

Donald Trump has complained about the influx of German cars into the US but, as one of the German manufacturers pointed out, the US needs to build better cars. I have hired cars in North America and technically and generally they are well behind equivalent European and Japanese designs. They have lots of bolt on gizmos but the basic technology is just not up to scratch and they are not much fun to drive or economical to run.

Generally speaking, globalisation means a tendency to levelling between countries so the traditional first world nations will level down and become relatively poorer which is why there are financial pressures on public spending on the NHS, Defence, Social Care etc. etc. Relatively speaking the UK is a good deal poorer than it used to be although it affects different parts of our society to different degrees.

Managing these sort of changes seems to be beyond the competencies of our politicians but I think I'd better stop there!

Colin
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smudger1309

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Re: The end of Maplin ( and Toys 'R us )
« Reply #66 on: March 19, 2018, 10:17:17 pm »

but   why can china charge such low prices then the UK,  why cant we charge cheaper prices,  i know they gotta make a profit but if china can make profit why cant us
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Colin Bishop

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Re: The end of Maplin ( and Toys 'R us )
« Reply #67 on: March 19, 2018, 10:30:30 pm »

Because their workers are paid a fraction of the rate that ours are. If we paid our people £1.50 an hour then we would make a profit too but our workers wouldn't be able to live on their wages.

Colin
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smudger1309

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Re: The end of Maplin ( and Toys 'R us )
« Reply #68 on: March 19, 2018, 10:31:58 pm »

true
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tonyH

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Re: The end of Maplin ( and Toys 'R us )
« Reply #69 on: March 19, 2018, 10:44:36 pm »

One of the major problems for retailers is the cost of their premises.
Many retailers, including some of the larger groups, owned their premises but this was often not beneficial to the shareholders once they expanded, so sale and lease back deals came to the fore and this meant that the banks were in control of one of their major costs. The rent went into external, albeit sometimes associated, companies. The result...................................... <*<
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smudger1309

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Re: The end of Maplin ( and Toys 'R us )
« Reply #70 on: March 19, 2018, 10:47:21 pm »

some banks like RBS were there to help but infact on purpose kinda shut them down
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roycv

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Re: The end of Maplin ( and Toys 'R us )
« Reply #71 on: March 19, 2018, 10:53:31 pm »

Hi all, the lessons are there, in the 1930's cheap toys from Germany were boycotted that did not work, the 'Made in England' mark was an earlier response.  If you make a good product at a reasonable price people will pay for it.  I have just bought and returned an item from a company calling itself eglobalcentralUK.  I did deal with them on the expectation that they traded in the UK.  Not the case, I had to send the return item to Hong Kong.  I had to pay the postage and a fee for 'restocking'.

The China end of the transaction could be a guy in his bedroom to a large company we just do not know.
The problem arises from removing the traditional wholesaler and retailer and so reducing the overheads dramatically.

But even in this country about 20 odd years ago I was in a toy / model shop and said I could make model yachts like that for £50.  The shop man said well actually you would have to make them for £25 including materials, packaging and transport and advertising.  The balance is my mark up and VAT.  The government wants the tax and the shop knows the market.
It is the size of the market and advertising that is hitting us.  I do not see any solutions but find the 'buy in Brittain' only, a difficult concept now.  Should I with my fixed income support a man / family in a shop where I can now only buy in a limited way owing to his prices.
 
Perhaps we should expect to pay VAT on all our buys from retailers on ebay?

Then as Tiger T has let us know that free p&p sponsored by the Chinese government is another area that should be considered as unfair trading.

Regards Roy

 
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Howard

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Re: The end of Maplin ( and Toys 'R us )
« Reply #72 on: March 19, 2018, 11:15:15 pm »


I can only now buy on line be it Cornwell models or others or flea-bay as my local model shop is a 70 mile round trip and they sell next to now't about model boat modelling so what do I do may was lucky that years ago I made myself a squirrel store so have lots I can work with same as hulls think I'll have all I'll need and still leave some for the grandson   just remember lads not all of us model makers live in City's  or are lucky enough to have a model shop in our town on the plus side I now make a lot of the parts I need  more then I used to so in a way am going back to model making.
                                 Regards Howard.
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roycv

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Re: The end of Maplin ( and Toys 'R us )
« Reply #73 on: March 20, 2018, 06:14:53 am »

I think a bit availability proofing is not a bad idea.  The last two scratch built boats were a 'shed contents only' apart from paint and glue, but I have a lot of that now.  I have quite a lot of boat plans that have appealed at one time or another.  Still got enough wood for a couple more boats plus a few boaty facelifts.
regards Roy
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tigertiger

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Re: The end of Maplin ( and Toys 'R us )
« Reply #74 on: March 20, 2018, 11:39:35 am »


The China end of the transaction could be a guy in his bedroom to a large company we just do not know.

   


There are work arounds for this, if you are willing to put in the work.
First look for larger volumes of sales (you will only see your market on ebay).
They using translate.google.com work from English to Chinese and back. You may need to be creative, as some things get lost in translation. For example a router tool, translates as moulding tool, and clamps translate as cramps.


Then search for your item on Taobao.com. If your seller only sells a few of the item in China, they are some guy in his bedroom, often buying from a bigger supplier but taking a punt and will buy to order to sell on, one reason for long delays.
Or, search for the item, look for large sales volumes, try to find the flagship store and see if they ship to UK, they often do and international postage here is cheap.


Alternative, there is also cheap stuff on Amazon US, and they also ship internationally.


Just some hints and tricks that I have used.

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