Farewell, Maplin. One of the last remaining tech stalwarts of the UK high street is going into administration, putting 2,500 jobs at risk across its 200 stores. So how can it be saved, if at all? And is it even worth trying?
There was an inevitability to Maplin’s demise, but there needn’t be. While Blockbuster famously lost out to Netflix and Toys ‘R’ Us (seemingly) to Amazon, Maplin does meet a need that is otherwise neglected. Yet the numbers beg to differ. Maplin had hoped to find a buyer, but talks failed. It is now up to administrators at PwC to sell off what they can. Stores will remain open for now.
Ultimately, it wasn’t the internet that killed Maplin. It was Brexit. Sort of. “The business has worked hard over recent months to mitigate a combination of impacts from sterling devaluation post Brexit, a weak consumer environment and the withdrawal of credit insurance,” CEO Graham Harris said in a statement.
Online shopping definitely played a part, but it wasn’t the fatal blow. That’s a view shared by administrator PwC, which blames “a slowdown in consumer spending and more expensive imports as the pound has weakened” rather than Maplin’s outmoded business model. But now, if it is to have any chance of surviving, Maplin has to belatedly change.
In a previous life I worked for a magazine that provided advice to older users of technology. While editing the letters section I received regular correspondence from pensioners trying to work out why their Wi-Fi network extender was playing up, or why they couldn’t borrow e-books from their local library. The issues raised in the correspondence were repetitive: the instruction manual was terrible; it was only available online; searching Google for help was hopeless.
For the well-versed, finding answers to technical maladies on the internet is relatively easy. For older and more uncertain users of technology, having the confidence to find reliable information online is a major issue. You might think: so what? But technological inclusivity matters – and stores like Maplin are a key part of that.
Being able to walk into a shop on the high street and speak to a human being is important – and not just for elderly users of technology. It’s crucial for technological literacy, but also more simply for getting decent buying advice. Over the coming days Twitter will likely be awash with Maplin nostalgia – chances are, if you grew up in the 80s and 90s and had an interest in electronics, you bought at least one LED from Maplin.
As well as serving those uncertain about technology in general, Maplin was also a store for hobbyists. Common complaints against Maplin are that in-store prices are too high and the range of components available is limited. That’s not an issue unique to Maplin. In the hobbyist electronics and computing industry, Farnell and RS Components both rode a wave of Raspberry Pi-led hobbyist enthusiasm. Maplin didn’t. Making low-margin components, cables and other paraphernalia pay was always going to be precarious for a high street retailer. And so it has proved.
The finger of blame will inevitably be pointed at Amazon, but if any online stores did for Maplin it was the genuinely excellent specialists that it should have copied half a decade ago. Instead, Maplin has put too much emphasis on flogging Internet of Things devices, a trend that hasn’t really taken off as much as it had expected. If it’s to survive, Maplin’s in-store focus has to change.
Put simply, no store that prides itself on customer service and technical knowledge should be selling HDMI cables for £49.99 – nor should its cheapest HDMI cable (£3.50) only be available online. While Blockbuster and Woolworths both succumbed to infinitely better online alternatives, Maplin simply got its priorities wrong and made some bad, and very costly, bets on which technology fads to back.
On a more general level, it’s important for engineering and technology to still have a prominent place on the UK high street – but if Maplin does disappear it’s unlikely anything will be along soon to replace it. For hobbyists and technology novices alike, any future version of Maplin needs to refocus on the niche it has carved for itself. Failure to do that will see it slide further into irrelevancy.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
