[claytonius]

I had a minute to check it out over lunch - most of the floorspace is dedicated to demonstrating what the raspberry pi can do at a high level. They had stations for coding, gaming, sensors, etc. but only ~1/4th of the space was devoted to inventory. While they have a decent selection of Pis, sensor kits, and accessories, it's definitely not a replacement for Maplin. Additionally, Already__Taken seems to have been correct about the level of knowledge among the staff - not everyone working there was technical. This is definitely aimed at the general public.

[Aissen]

Did they sell the Pi at the $35 price (+VAT I guess) ? Because it seems that the brick-and-mortar stores I've been to strugle with this very-thin margin pricing.

If you had a physical place where you could source sticker-price raspberry pis it would already be quit good.

[iamphilrae]

This is why I feel the high street is failing. It is assumed that a single store’s value is in the products it directly sells. And if it’s making a loss... shut it down!

A store itself should be an “experience”. You go in, play with products, be inspired and get an appetite for them.

Sure you may leave the store empty handed — just like 99% of people that walk into an Apple store. But if the store convinces you that you want... no _need_ their product, you can then buy later from their online store.

People and businesses really need to think of all sales and PR channels of a business as a whole, not a subset of each part. Only then will we see initiatives like this Pi store start to revive the high street.

[Intermernet]

The problem is, for every hour that a customer is being convinced, a staff member is being payed. This works for Apple, as they have ridiculous profit margins, and huge numbers of prospective customers.

This doesn't work for RPi if they want to sell at the online rate, unless they have huge positive conversion on add-ons and up-sells.

I presume the people running the store have calculated these prospective rates and have determined them to be likely enough to open the store, but time will tell.

I wish them all the luck in the world!

[claytonius]

The prices were very low -- if I remember correctly the zero was £4.50 and the zero W was £5.00. I went in looking for a motor so I didn't catch the price of the Pi B+ etc. Sorry!

[Aissen]

No worries, answering my own question, there's a picture showing the prices on their website: https://www.raspberrypi.org/app/uploads/2019/02/Pi-Shelf.png

It's 32£, which is less than on amazon.co.uk (currently 33.95£, varying between 33 and 36 over the last month). I'm guessing it's pretty good.

You can occasionnally find them for less on chinese websites, but I haven't seen a deal in a while, and you need to wait at least 3 weeks to get one; which is pretty much the opposite of brick-and-mortar store.

[WrtCdEvrydy]

Probably just high profit margin on accessories but same price for raspis

[sincarne]

I was there just before lunch. I spoke with the guy who put together the PiCade they had out for demo. He was very helpful. The one thing that surprised me was that so many of the kits they had on sale require soldering. I would have thought that if you’re going for a more general audience, that’d be something to avoid. But I really don’t have anything negative to say about the place. Nice space, good inventory, pleasant staff.