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<p>One of the hardest things for me to deal with is the fact that
all things end. Very difficult. Going home for the holidays and
seeing all you old haunts paved over with strip malls and
apartment is really hard. Having your favorite surplus house, a
place you spent endless hours looking through, dry up and blow
away is crushing. There was a surplus place here in Portland
called <span class="st">Wacky Willy's that closed. I spent a lot
of time there. Not easy to deal with its closing. Its like
losing a friend.<br>
</span></p>
<p>But this is life. Maybe we can hold an online wake for Maplin.<br>
</p>
-timbo<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2/28/2018 5:20 PM, Guy Taylor wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAMTbUpp9+37emehkFGdpr-QXJ99uQYcSq0eOXbZfWhJvn3LQAw@mail.gmail.com">
<div dir="ltr">thats a shame :(
<div>I lived in England when I was a kid, and I remember getting
the near-phone-book-sized maplin catalogs.
<div>They are what got me so into electronics and why I am
building synth stuff today!!</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Mar 1, 2018 at 10:37 AM,
Nicholas Keller <span dir="ltr"><<a
href="mailto:nirokeforums@gmail.com" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">nirokeforums@gmail.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div>RadioShack was the same here. Way overpriced...I would
only buy there when I needed a part that same day as the
only other small-quantity retail shop in the area
(Chester's) closed their doors a few years ago. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>There used to be a dozen RadioShacks within a ten mile
radius from my house, but last I checked, the closest was
80 miles away. That's likely closed now as well. </div>
<div class="HOEnZb">
<div class="h5">
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div>On Wed, Feb 28, 2018 at 6:15 PM Richie Burnett
<<a href="mailto:rburnett@richieburnett.co.uk"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">rburnett@richieburnett.co.uk</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Another
one here shocked to see Maplin go. Last time I
was in the local<br>
store they had loads of Arduino and Raspberry Pi
stuff in there, along with<br>
table-top robots, quad-copters, and all the usual
disco lights, speakers,<br>
amps, etc. I was amazed to see that they still
had a tiny little<br>
"Components" counter at the back of the store, but
my jaw nearly hit the<br>
floor when I saw the prices for basic resistors,
capacitors, LEDs, etc!!! I<br>
think they wanted to charge me something like 5
quid for a plastic IDC tool<br>
(for fixing some telephone extension wiring,) that
was clearly a 2 pence<br>
moulded plastic piece of Chinese crap.<br>
<br>
-Richie,<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
-----Original Message-----<br>
From: Jay Vaughan<br>
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2018 8:07 PM<br>
To: SDIY List<br>
Subject: Re: [sdiy] Maplin folds<br>
<br>
> In fairness to them, they tried to cater for
a changing market, people no<br>
> longer build things these days, they are
content with buying something.<br>
> Buying things has also gotten a lot cheaper
so again, no real surprises,<br>
> but a shame none the less.<br>
> Paula<br>
<br>
It always bugs me that these part-shacks go out of
business, but yet the<br>
Maker scene is expanding in leaps and bounds. It
seems to me that its just<br>
a matter of not having the right/savvy generation
in charge of new product<br>
and market development in these dinosaurs.<br>
<br>
Like, if Radioshack had just tuned into the 3D
printer/hackaday/rPi thing a<br>
little sooner, it'd have had a pivot point to
segue into the Maker scene,<br>
which - from my perspective - seems to be
positively thriving: The kids are<br>
making stuff! Perhaps the writing was on the wall
already, what with all<br>
their over-leveraging on cheap crap from China and
corporate finance<br>
dodginess, but .. maybe there's gonna be a
brick-and-mortar retailer rise<br>
from all of this that caters to the demands of the
maker scene.<br>
<br>
Radio Shack used to be *the* doors-open
hackerspace in many communities. I<br>
know I learned a shit-ton of things in my youth by
camping out in the local<br>
RS, booting up the demo TRS-80's, and coding away
(same with Computerworld,<br>
anyone remember them?) If they'd had a more
community-/DIY/maker oriented<br>
open door policy, and actually .. I dunno ..
hosted a few events on a<br>
regular basis, perhaps they'd have become a more
viable force for the scene?<br>
One can dream ..<br>
<br>
<br>
;<br>
--<br>
Jay Vaughan<br>
<a href="mailto:ibisum@gmail.com" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">ibisum@gmail.com</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
--Tim Ressel
Circuit Abbey
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:timr@circuitabbey.com">timr@circuitabbey.com</a></pre>
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