Midland chandlers - Store closures?

[Tony Brooks]

28 minutes ago, system 4-50 said:

Ordered Valentine flowers for OH from MandS.  Beautiful packaging, nice user manual, but flowers severely underwhelming.  Won't use them again.

A thought: I supply flowers once per year on Feb 14.  The OH supplies flowers 365 days per year.  She looks after the garden and indoor plants.

 

Gave up on mail order flowers, too much rubbish. I got mine from Aldi on Thursday, nice and fresh and about 1/3 the price of similar in Morrisons yesterday.

[Victor Vectis]

2 hours ago, MrsM said:

Hope the Last Heretic real ale pub is still open in Burton - a great place to visit - and the Devonshire for their legendary pie nights. 

Yeahbut......

What about The Coopers Tavern?

[MrsM]

2 minutes ago, Victor Vectis said:

Yeahbut......

What about The Coopers Tavern?

Oooh yes, forgot that one. Haven't been to Burton since late 2023.

[Steve9007]

Forgot how quickly these topics go off in a tangent 🙃 thought it was about midland swindlers not flowers and towns. 🫣

[Lily Rose]

1 minute ago, Steve9007 said:

Forgot how quickly these topics go off in a tangent

 

Thank goodness they do, that's when the fun begins. Though not always.

[Tonka]

4 hours ago, Lily Rose said:

 

Thank goodness they do, that's when the fun begins. Though not always.

Probably because a bloke was too scared to buy his girlfriend a lock handle for valentines day

[IanD]

24 minutes ago, Tonka said:

Probably because a bloke was too scared to buy his girlfriend a lock handle key for valentines day

FTFY... 😉 

[ditchcrawler]

Popped up on FB 

[David Mack]

Nothing on their website to suggest any of their branches are closing.

[frangar]

4 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Nothing on their website to suggest any of their branches are closing.

I noticed that as well.....I also noticed that even with a trade discount I can get a better price on some light fittings I am interested in from many other non trade suppliers online.....their prices are really going to need to be more competitive if one has to factor in carriage and the like....

[jam]

On 13/02/2026 at 16:13, system 4-50 said:

IBut the business I regret losing the most, by far, is Maplin.  They were so good many years ago, their catalogue was a fount of knowledge, and then they decided to open shops…  I shed a tear every time (including yesterday)  when I open an electronics package (veroboard) with their name on (I like stockpiling).

Same with me When they first opened a couple of shops they were an aladdins cave of components. One opened in South Manchester in the early 1980's and I still have their A5 components catalogue.

Edited February 15 by jam

[Ronaldo47]

I now mainly use CPC/Farnell for the stuff I used to get from Maplin. Maybe I have been lucky, but I only use the standard delivery option , as it has consistently meant  delivery within 48 hours, and occasionally the next day.   

[IanD]

8 hours ago, Ronaldo47 said:

I now mainly use CPC/Farnell for the stuff I used to get from Maplin. Maybe I have been lucky, but I only use the standard delivery option , as it has consistently meant  delivery within 48 hours, and occasionally the next day.   

Farnell and RS both used to be trade-only, but have relaxed this in recent years... 🙂

[Jen-in-Wellies]

2 minutes ago, IanD said:

Farnell and RS both used to be trade-only, but have relaxed this in recent years... 🙂

Even when they were officially trade only, they didn't check very hard... 😀

[Up-Side-Down]

On 13/02/2026 at 11:59, IanD said:

The obvious solution is -- don't buy poorly described items online, buy from reputable suppliers who provide good information... 😉 

 

Of course if you have to return stuff it can sometimes be a PITA, though often there's no return postage to pay -- so buy from suppliers who offer this, and look carefully at the charges.

 

And then there's the Evri problem... 😞 

 

But the fact remains that -- especially if you choose carefully -- buying online offers a massive choice and is quick and easy and convenient and cheap, all of which more than make up for the occasional hassles for most people. Fewer and fewer people prefer buying locally any more, which is why shops (like Midland Chandlers) are closing.

Not to mention the Royal Mail problem ..............

[Cheshire cat]

On 14/02/2026 at 20:50, Victor Vectis said:

Yeahbut......

What about The Coopers Tavern?

Visited Burton last month. The Coopers was dead on Sunday evening but there was a healthy crowd in the Devonshire. The latter no longer sells Burton Bridge beers.

[IanD]

22 minutes ago, Up-Side-Down said:

Not to mention the Royal Mail problem ..............

All delivery companies have problems sometimes, but Evri is the worst and has been every year for several years -- Royal Mail are one of the better ones... 😞 

 

 

[Rob-M]

Delivery is so dependent on location though, our Evri delivery people are great, Amazon are good as well and Royal Mail are fairly useless.  First class post can take anything from one day to several weeks to arrive.

[IanD]

14 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

Delivery is so dependent on location though, our Evri delivery people are great, Amazon are good as well and Royal Mail are fairly useless.  First class post can take anything from one day to several weeks to arrive.

Of course it depends on location, that's why surveys like that get opinions over thousands of them!

 

If a service like Evri is worst overall, it's more likely -- but not certain! -- that it'll be worst wherever you are.

 

It's like people saying "I don't believe the surveys that say [xxx] is terrible, it's fine for me!" (e.g. mobile phone reception)... 😉 

 

First class (or second class) post is a different category to other delivery services because of the universal delivery obligation -- the Royal Mail parcel delivery service is the one to compare to the other couriers, and it comes out pretty well but not right at the top.

Edited February 16 by IanD

[Russ T]

1 hour ago, IanD said:

All delivery companies have problems sometimes, but Evri is the worst and has been every year for several years -- Royal Mail are one of the better ones... 😞 

 

 

Yep. I have found Evri consistently worse than the others. My last package was located my a stranger on facebook who was 6 miles away from the delivery address.Apparently changing a companies name to distance yourself from poor feedback is not a total solution.

[GUMPY]

2 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Even when they were officially trade only, they didn't check very hard... 😀

And Farnell had CPC,  their domestic arm.

CPC catalogue did feel like a regugitated Maplin.

[IanD]

8 minutes ago, GUMPY said:

And Farnell had CPC,  their domestic arm.

CPC catalogue did feel like a regugitated Maplin.

Only after 1995 when Farnell swallowed CPC (who had been going since 1967) -- before that Farnell were like RS. I remember trying to buy stuff from both of them without success, managed to persuade work to allow me to add stuff onto the regular RS order and have the cost deducted from my next wage packet... 😉 

Edited February 16 by IanD

[GUMPY]

23 minutes ago, IanD said:

Only after 1995 when Farnell swallowed CPC (who had been going since 1967) -- before that Farnell were like RS. I remember trying to buy stuff from both of them without success, managed to persuade work to allow me to add stuff onto the regular RS order and have the cost deducted from my next wage packet... 😉 

Working for myself ordering from RS was never a problem. I go back far enough to remember them as  Radio Spares and the trade counter in Epworth Street.

I was unaware of CPC until after the Farnell takeover.

[IanD]

1 hour ago, IanD said:

Of course it depends on location, that's why surveys like that get opinions over thousands of them!

 

If a service like Evri is worst overall, it's more likely -- but not certain! -- that it'll be worst wherever you are.

 

It's like people saying "I don't believe the surveys that say [xxx] is terrible, it's fine for me!" (e.g. mobile phone reception)... 😉 

 

First class (or second class) post is a different category to other delivery services because of the universal delivery obligation -- the Royal Mail parcel delivery service is the one to compare to the other couriers, and it comes out pretty well but not right at the top.

It seems Royal Mail have been prioritising parcel deliveries over postal deliveries...

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c39wlryn20vo

 

 

16 minutes ago, GUMPY said:

Working for myself ordering from RS was never a problem. I go back far enough to remember them as  Radio Spares and the trade counter in Epworth Street.

I was unaware of CPC until after the Farnell takeover.

That was true if you were self-employed, but not otherwise as a private individual...

Edited February 16 by IanD

[Tony Brooks]

3 minutes ago, IanD said:

It seems Royal Mail have been prioritising parcel deliveries over postal deliveries...

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c39wlryn20vo

 

 

 

That can't possibly be true, can it. We are told private companies are far more efficient than state ones, so this must just be more BBC bias.