Why Maplin Failed

Sadly they were just the latest of a long line of similar ventures. I used to think that it was down to us having a long line of really crap ‘managers’ but I slowly realised that the feather bedding of the sharks and charlatans became the main game, just look at the mess that was created out of BHS.

Maplin’s rot did start a long time back, when you could cross the road and find the same kit in PC World for up to 30% less something had to be wrong. The abandonment of mail order, its once own ground was another own goal, but what shocked me was the gross margins that they aimed to generate, no wonder a lot of the stuff was at the lowest end of cut price quality but sold for far too high a rice, now we know why. The term pyramid selling keeps wanting to come up. In the end those wonderful high margins were only used to create an illusion that the chain could trade – did no one bother to realise that it was all illusion? The whole desk of cards was built on selling the business several times over. Once to raise a loan with which to buy it, then to take the money a scarper leaving only a high interest shell to implode. The most amazing thing for me is that someone should realise the name of the game and call out the loan abusers, if not the first time round, at least by the second or third. Someone must be left holding the bad, worthless paper.

I learned from earlier, much earlier displays never to live on credit, I saw too many businesses and people suffer from high cash flow zero residual worth situations. I struggle to find the difference between what was done and money laundering, which is of course a close cousin of the pyramid deals.

It will be interesting to see if Peter Jones can create a worthwhile mail order business out of the wreak, there is still a chance,but for a long time Amazon and to a less extent EBay have more or less sewn up the business since Maplin started.

Ed P wrote:

I thought that the unacceptable face of capitalism had been cleaned up. I was obviously wrong.

How else can the Conservatives stay in power without the support of these people ( and I use the term very loosely ) !!

Jeremy Corbyn is coming out with some ideas which look wonderful on paper and sound wonderful from the Rostrum at LB Conference. Then one asks the crucial question: Post-Brexit, which to me will be at least 10 years of hardship, cuts and expanding National Debt, how will we pay for it?

An element of “Soak the Rich” appears to be present. Which will present the Best Brains with a dilemma: stay or leave?

It also appears that he wants to officially go for a new Referendum, if elected.

I believe a change is necessary to remove this bunch of capitalist-directed, divided, incompetent, clueless bunch of wazzaks. Where to find the proponents who can give us that change? We tried ‘moderate’ New Labour, which took us into Wars we did not want and debt we are still paying for. We tried the Con/Lib Dem coalition, which we discovered to be actually one Big Con. Atm, we have a Con/DUM coalition (of sorts) which is just a fix to hold the Tories in power whilst they give the DUM whatever they want.

Too many potential voters cannot be ar**d to listen and look at the issues, then turn out to vote. That apathy allows in the MP who looks on Westminster as a path to power and a soft job for a few years, then a directorship or Lobbying job. Those are mostly (but not all) Tories and are as interested in their constituents as was Winston Churchill during the General strikes of 1921 and ’26.

So we get the government that the Apathetic masses deserve.