Mplex

chunter

pgilc1 wrote: »

Then you've the supermarkets flogging all that stuff cheap anyway, so even joe computer-illiterate can pick up a PC with their groceries.

Good point. Same thing that happens in other areas of retail will happen to the computer scene.
Tesco, Argos and the like will have them on a shelf.

Charity computer shops. Now there's a business model.

motorguy

chunter wrote: »

Good point. Same thing that happens in other areas of retail will happen to the computer scene.
Tesco, Argos and the like will have them on a shelf.

Charity computer shops. Now there's a business model.

It has happened to the computer scene. You can buy computers, laptops, peripherals and consumables from all of these places. Some of the best deals on laptops are now from the likes of Argos. They can undercut PC World as they are just box shifting rather than retailing. If they can undercut PC with their buying power what chance does a local indy have?

I ran a computer retail outlet for a few years there, and it was demoralising how ruthless the general public was. I had this wild notion of offering a service to the community, advice, competitive pricing and support in our area. People just didnt see that though. All they say was the price and the bottom line.

I will give you two examples - and these sort of things happened daily.

Example 1
Our cheapest laptop was £329. Guy comes in -
Customer "Tescos have a laptop for £249, can you price match?"
Me "Sorry, no. Ours is a much higher spec, there are waifer slim margins on hardware, we offer full customer support with ours, as opposed to tescos where you would be bringing it back to a checkout girl. The best i can do though is £299 .
Customer "No, i will only buy it if you can pricematch"
Me "Sorry, i cant. Ours is a much higher spec, you're not comparing like with like, etc, etc. I guess you will have to buy the one from Tescos if thats your budget though"
Customer "They've none in stock....."

Example 2
Customer comes in looking to transfer files from a PC to a laptop - wanted to know how. We explained about USB drives, easy way to move files, showed them them working, took about half an hour with them, general chit chat and advice. "how much is that then?". "£11 please" - girlfriend interjects "Oh i saw those at £9.99 in tescos, lets walk down there and get one"

THEN we had the classic phone call "Hello, my name is Ronnie and i'm phoning from the new Tescos store thats just opened down the road from you, we want to support local businesses and encourage our customers and staff to use the surrounding facilities and as such we have created a notice board for local businesses to advertise, would you like to advertise on that board?", me "yes, sounds good", "great thats £80+VAT per month then". me Click Brrrrrrrrr.

Genuinely, i could write a book on it. It finally wore me down and we gave up trying and closed up.

forrest38

I fully support mplex. I have always found them a pleasure to deal with. I am an Internet seller myself selling parts for mobile phones and accessories so I know how competitive it is.
But some people want things straight away and can't wait . For instance my laptop packed in. I needed a new hard drive and needed it the same day. Checked online for prices. Pc world being ultra expensive and other online shops were about £30 which could take five days to get to me. Phoned mplex who had one for 40 quid but a better make. Samsung.

Went down, collected, job done that day.

People need to remember that it's the only way these shops can stay open and if mplex were to go then we are left with pc world where you can be sure nothings cheap

moonpie

I think the world has moved on too much for these places to stay open much longer.

I'm now in my 40's and I tend to look at the price I'm offered before anything else. The knowledge and experience that was once available in these stores is no longer confined to their premises, it's global. Spend a little time researching things yourself and you save a lot of time and money, which for me is a driving factor.

Given the wealth of knowledge shared on the internet, and yes you do have be careful and use your brain, there are very few retailers/trades/professions that will not be forced to adapt to survive.

We live in interesting times.

motorguy

moonpie wrote: »

there are very few retailers/trades/professions that will not be forced to adapt to survive.

We live in interesting times.

I think you're right in what you say. I just wonder if sometimes people appreciate what they will ultimately loose. Out of town supermarkets promised ultra low prices with the stack em high sell em cheap model, but really now that the local cornershops have all gone and people have the 'supermarket' mentality, are they really that much cheaper, now that they can manipulate prices among themselves?

You only have to look at our high streets in most towns to realise that the bulk of retailers now opt for large shopping centre type environments all of which have the same selection of national / international retailers, so we're losing our town centres which now tend to be a combination of empty units, banks and solicitors.

Its only a matter of time before we lose the likes of HMV as its losing money hand over fist, which did in its time force out the small independents, so we'll all just get our CD's in jiffy bags, or ultimately electronically.

We've lost most computer shops in the same way.

Video / DVD rental shops - most people download illegally or buy from the cheapest online supplier, or use one of the online rental arrangements.

People buy glasses and contact lenses online, but will cheekily use their local optician for checkups.

Next will be the clothing and shoe shops - look at amazon, etc whereby you can pretty much have what you want next day.

I see Tescos have now got into bed with blackcircle to offer their customers tyres online, so thats a further squeeze on local tyre distributors.

Car dealerships - now mostly large corporations with small independents only on the periphery. And now you can buy cars online and simply go and pick them up in some industrial estate.

And unfortunately there is little in the way of 'adapting' to be done by high street retailers / local businesses. People are that obsessed with price that they forget that when they need real true customer service and help it wont be there. But then, as you say, is that much of a problem when people can google to their hearts content anyway when they have a problem?

Interesting times, as you have said....

Tainted81

You should try Novatech or Aria if you don't want to spend the extra money locally. They're both very cheap - probably around the same money as Ebuyer, if not cheaper and they offer cheap delivery options too. I sent a few well-placed PM to members of staff at Novatech and told them of the Tariff being the same for the whole of the UK and they eventually caved in and dropped their delivery charge to £1.99 for Northern Ireland via ParcelForce. Aria have also done something similar, in that, they will only charge you £5 for guaranteed next day delivery via City Link.

Mplex are good if your looking something there and then but expect to pay what you would online plus 15-20% on top - which is understandable as they can hardly compete with bigger retailers like Ebuyer, Scan, Aria or Overclockers.

PS: Never buy from Scan if your from Northern Ireland, your likely to be charged around £20 for the privilege and they'll tell you it's a surcharge they are charged when in fact they're being charged no more than £6.99.

nickcardwell

<BUMP>

Are mplex still in business?

Web sites been down for the last few days....

yorkie98

nickcardwell wrote: »

<BUMP>

Are mplex still in business?

Web sites been down for the last few days....

It says it's undergoing maintenance.. I bought some stuff in the Lisburn branch a week or so ago, so it was open then but they have been gradually shutting stores, Portadown went at the start of the year, now leaving just Lisburn and the two Belfast branches.

Bigcammy

Dargan Road branch was closed last time I was past, pity, but internet prices are beating them in the credit crunch I reckon

nettieg

I used to use the Portadown one all the time mainly for my discs but i went one day earlier in the year to get stuff only to find it had closed down, sort of overnight people said, and the unit was completely empty when i got there.
The Lisburn one was also closed for a while there, for what reason i don't know, but i see it has opened again as it was open when i passed it yesterday.

As people have already said they must be really struggling to compete with the online retailers these days and probably aren't getting enough of a daily footfall of customers and purchases to make the business sustainable as their overheads are probably very high with little profit margin to be made as an independant. I know a fair bit about computers and stuff myself but anytime i was in and wanted to query something with them i always found them very approachable and knowledgeable on all things computer related which i like, and as you say you don't get that in your local Tesco store, but most people do not care one bit about that and are purely price driven these days, mainly due to the current economic climate which is putting an even bigger squeeze on the smaller independant businesses trying to hold their own against the monster that is the supermarket industry, and the way things are heading this last few years i think we will soon have nothing left only large supermarkets and shopping centres to buy our stuff from as the local business men will simply not be able to carry on for much longer and compete with them sadly, but i guess that's just the way of the world these days unfortunately.