Re: Maplin stores
I can't be the only one who prefers a specific, specialised experience to a generic warehouse selling a variety of the same Chinese tat as everywhere else. A local components shop would be brilliant. Here we have a fasteners place where it's not impossible to take in a screw of unknown thread and buy a couple of new ones when they've worked out what it is. No matter how convenient the online shopping experience is, it cannot compare with the ability to inspect a product for feel and size before purchase - I've been caught out with connectors bought mail order before now, which I wouldn't have got had I been able to see them in a shop. I suppose the problem is the rent, which is generally outrageous for residential and commercial places. Instead of sad-looking high streets, shuttered or populated by bookmakers and charity shops, there could be a concerted effort to make these places affordable for relatively low-volume emporia.
While it's not convenient for me to go to Cheltenham and buy components, I'd love to have such a shop in town so when I cycle in for groceries I could come away with some capacitors as well. Having more such shops would also mean my generation would be exposed to the concept of repair and the associated tools and experience rather than having it apparently accessible online, but also distant.
Rather like cricket - they wonder why the game is struggling to find new players, but don't look at how it's not been on free-to-air TV since before I was born!
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