A Bad Day For the Retail World

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Ricardodaforce

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Today both Maplins and Toys r Us have gone into administration putting a lot of jobs at risk.

Both are household names that might be joining others into oblivion.
 
It's a shame but hardly surprising. When my children were youngsters about 15 years ago we bought one or two things from Toys r Us and I thought then what a poor quality retailer they seemed to be. As for Maplins, I've never been sure who their target market is myself.

The retail environment is an extremely challenging one with an increasing share going to the online retailers. Ironically the largest of those, Amazon are now getting into 'bricks and mortar' retailing, albeit food/supermarkets which show little signs of slowing of course.
 
I think they’re businesses that have failed to adapt to advances in online retailing or have done it too late. Went into a new Maplins a few days ago and was quite impressed. But I think it’s too little too late on that front.
 
Our local Maplins (Stevenage) always had a terrible problem with staff attitude, condescending and rude, no wonder they are going under if that is typical.
Toys R Us - no surprise, there's a poster saying "we reserve the right to search your bags on exit", says a lot about what they think of their customers, or more accurately what they thought. Dismal place, hardly exciting for an adult let alone a child.

Retail is changing - the shop needs to be somewhere you want to go to, not some place you'll put up with poor service/attitude because they are the only stockists locally when you can get it online so easily.
 
MatBin said:
no surprise, there's a poster saying "we reserve the right to search your bags on exit", says a lot about what they think of their customers
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Try working there any you'll know why... Customers are advised no bag inside store on entering.

Seen people put babies into prams and try and push them out of store. Some of the places women will hide things to get them out of store :hungover:.

Best job I have ever had Toys R Us!! Wish theyd have given me full time when I worked there.
 
I don't know how connected they are, but a month or so ago, I saw a report about how Toys Я Us (US) had been strip mined by investors and left to sink. That may be a contributing reason as to why they've gone down.
 
It's been quite a few years since I was in Toys R Us as my boys are now in their 20's, but for all the masses of toys they had on the shelves, if there was something specific you wanted, their selection was pretty poor so would be lucky if they actually stocked what we were looking for. Also most things were invariably at full price or just below.
As for Maplin, I have never been in one, don't recall ever having seen one and I wouldn't even know what they sold.
 
I think maplin has lost its core audience rise of disposable electronics and the intergrated circuit. They had a good strong range of electrical components but a declining market of diy repairers to use them. I also think the rise of fast cheap parts suppliers through eBay and Amazon didn’t help their store model.
 
The last few times I've looked in Maplin for something, they haven't had one in stock and have been rather expensive compared to internet suppliers. I'd still have bought from them despite the price difference had they had the item in stock but I'd have had to wait longer to pay more and make a special trip to collect from them. As for Toysaurus - no kids and they don't stock my sort of toy!
 
I use Maplin from time to time for connectors and other electronic components. Way less than I used to though, home built electronic circuits are virtually a thing of the past nowadays.
 
to be fair both business been on borrowed time for years, I won't miss Toys R us frighfull place full of kids and plastic garbage, world pollution might go down.

Maplin bit sad for that, bit like Tandy no one fixes owt nowadays just bins it and buys another one, killed off by amazon and ebay really.
 
Back in the day I used Maplin all the time, I enjoyed fixing things and thr staff on the components desk were always interested in what you were doing/building and hobbyists themselves. Their expansion wigh the growth of self build PCs helped grow them organically but, my thinking here, was the PC upgrade groundswell declined for many of us but gaming and other power hungry uses for PC really took off and a new range of sellers brought the weekend Computer Fairs mushrooming all over the country.

I was more likely to join a huge queue to get in to a local hall to buy components that Maplins were lacking, the traders at the fairs were low quantity stock sellers and would take yor number to call you if you needed something.

Work commitments, the fairs and small Computer shops opening up killed Maplins for me.

Toys R Us - total disaster for my kids.

They much preferred the smaller ‘Entertainer’ shops when I moved out of London and Hamleys in Regent Street when we lived in London.

My grandchildren hated Toys RbUs when they were taken there.

Hard for the staff no doubt but over the years, many changes and more to come no doubt.
 
MatBin said:
Our local Maplins (Stevenage) always had a terrible problem with staff attitude, condescending and rude, no wonder they are going under if that is typical.
Click to expand...

Likewise, I stopped going into the local Maplins because of it. Still purchased stuff online once in a while but prices were rarely good.
 
Shame about Maplin, I've been buying electronics bits from them for the last 40 years or so. They should have stuck to that side of the business and provided a specialist expert service from small shops rather than going for the commodity market.
 
Maplin were good when the original family owned them. They turned into a general tat shop when they were bought out. Amazon prime kills most of these places stone dead as you can order one day and get it the next without having to go to the trouble of going to find it in a shop. Their online ordering was quite good though. I'd order stuff from Maplin and it would often be delivered the next day if I ordered before mid afternoon.

The crap shops are the first to go in hard times. It means the rest of them have more customers to share.
 
Maplins is a great store to look around, but far too expensive to buy from, they never followed the trends and kept prices high, don't know what the logic was in out pricing themselves, even online prices sometimes were double of other stores, got what they deserved really, greed was their only focus, I do feel for the staff though, some were quite nice in our store and did have the time to help out.
 
As above, I recall as a spotty teenager visiting maplins for electronic components to tinker with or for school projects.

Agree that throwaway culture/not repairing items has probably contributed.

As for toys'r'us, when I went to get presents for my neice for birthdays and Christmases, the likes of Tesco and Sainsburys had better stuff for cheaper than ToysRUs. On the odd occasion they had something I wanted, it wasn't in stock in store.
 
really weird with maplins as they have a e.bay outlet that I have used where some really good deals come up ,i.e a few months ago I got a celestron spotting scope complete with tripod and metal carry case for little over £20 delivered ,they normally retail around the £90 mark ,makes you wonder
 
MatBin said:
Our local Maplins (Stevenage) always had a terrible problem with staff attitude, condescending and rude, no wonder they are going under if that is typical.
Toys R Us - no surprise, there's a poster saying "we reserve the right to search your bags on exit", says a lot about what they think of their customers, or more accurately what they thought. Dismal place, hardly exciting for an adult let alone a child.

Retail is changing - the shop needs to be somewhere you want to go to, not some place you'll put up with poor service/attitude because they are the only stockists locally when you can get it online so easily.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same, something about the store that was not welcoming and couldn't wait to get out. Not a huge shock as they have been struggling in the states for a while. would occasionally take the kids in there but rarely bought - like many I often go for the price and ease of Amazon,buit also Tesco and others stock a range of toys now so it will always be hard to compete. Looks like it wasn't well run either.

Maplins, hard to work out their market - again, Amazon and online will be big competitors, only went in once.
 
Mag1cp2x said:
Re: Toys R us
It's another world -
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/12/09/toys-r-us-trebled-pay-uk-boss-collapse/
I believe the final straw in the UK was the £15,000,000 VAT they owed.
When they applied for Chapter 11 'protection' in the US the files cited $1.6 BILLION debt.
Click to expand...
How on Earth can they owe £15m in VAT, if I miss a quarters payment they come round with big hammers and knock my door down. If I miss putting in my tax return I'm slapped with an instant fine, HMRC should be dragged over the coals for this if it's true.
 
MatBin said:
How on Earth can they owe £15m in VAT, if I miss a quarters payment they come round with big hammers and knock my door down. If I miss putting in my tax return I'm slapped with an instant fine, HMRC should be dragged over the coals for this if it's true.
Click to expand...

I guess if you say to the vatman that you cant pay, what option has the vatman got - take them to court, bankrupt them and get a small amount of that, or allow them to defer and hope they sort it out to get the money. Either way, this will be crafted by very expensive lawyers!
 
cambsno said:
I guess if you say to the vatman that you cant pay, what option has the vatman got - take them to court, bankrupt them and get a small amount of that, or allow them to defer and hope they sort it out to get the money. Either way, this will be crafted by very expensive lawyers!
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Fair enough to a point but how long have they been trading without paying the VAT owed to HMRC given they havent been able to keep trading. One "good" thing of course is HMRC have first dibs on any assets.
 
Sad about Maplin, they were always a useful resource but their target market is getting too old to support them and as pointed out, few people will pull the back of their LCD screen to replace the power caps that failed after a few years.
 
A couple of years ago maplin annual turnover was reported as £236 million. The £15million could be the current quarter (Oct to dec) that is due for payment and no arrears potentially...

Hmrc no longer have preferential status.
 
My kids used to love going to Toys R us to spend their birthday / Christmas money.
That was well before the likes of Amazon though, and we only a small independent toy store in "Town"

Maplins, I've always found my local store to be knowledgeable and helpful, when I've needed "bits".
Tis a shame indeed, but there are plenty of places to now fill the voids, which only goes to show that its not just the small independent guys that
internet shopping has killed off.
 
I was going to go to Maplins this evening for some grey insulation tape but with the weather being bad I looked online to see if anywhere nearer sold it. RS Components popped up with exactly what I want for £1.34 including delivery by parcel force with tracking and its coming tomorrow. Unbelievable!!
 
MatBin said:
How on Earth can they owe £15m in VAT, if I miss a quarters payment they come round with big hammers and knock my door down. If I miss putting in my tax return I'm slapped with an instant fine, HMRC should be dragged over the coals for this if it's true.
Click to expand...
Calm down. There is no suggestion that the £15m VAT bill includes any arrears and no reason to infer that it does.

The turnover of Toys R Us UK was £418m in the year to January. There will obviously be some significant seasonality to that, and it seems totally plausible that the VAT liability for the last quarter alone would be £15m. The VAT payment for that quarter would be due on March 7th, and the company collapsed when it became apparent that they wouldn't have the cash available to pay the bill.
 
A store manager said a buyer had to be found by close of business today, so, as of now, still a miniscule (but ever dwindling) chance of rescue.
 
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