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Raspberry Pi Opens First High Street Store in Cambridge
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- samwhiteUK 8y agoHmm, I'm not sure. People who are curious about RasPi already know what it is, and people who wander in to the store wondering what it is are not THAT likely to pick one up. If it hasn't cost them much to do, then great, but I'm not sure if it's necessary. New models already all sell out immediately
- classic959 8y agoI can see some benefit, even if it's just keeping their brand visible to the market. It shows they're not going away any time soon and might just help keep momentum. As a multiple* RPi user, it's always heartening to see them doign well. *(1) media player with TV, (2) wireless music player in kitchen, (3) VPN server in the cupboard, (4) temperature sensor in the garage.
- close04 8y agoThat actually looks like it costs a bit. I wonder if they get a good return on the investment. Would more people decide to buy into the RPi ecosystem because they walked into the store as opposed to reading about it all over the internet or talking to friends? It's a running cost so it has to bring a steady flow of income to pay for itself. Hard to do in a relatively niche market with a good product that depreciates very slowly. But who knows, they probably did the math better than me, random internet commenter #9643.
- bloak 8y agoPerhaps they got a special deal on a short (sub)lease. It would be interesting to know which shop they replaced, or whether they have taken over a space that had been empty for some time. They are not yet mentioned on the Grand Arcade web site, but I've taken a copy of their current site map so that I can do the comparison in due course.
- usermcuserface 8y agoThe photos put them opposite Charles Clinkard, which means they're occupying a unit that's been vacant long enough for it to appear empty on the shopping centre map. The centre map file was last modified on October 18th last year, though the modification may have been to some other part of the map.
- pjc50 8y agoThe shopping centre is owned by USS, the universities pension scheme; I don't know if that counts for something in terms of being able to get discounted leases.
- jdietrich 8y agoMalls and shopping centres are really struggling, as they are in the US. If you're a mall with a number of vacant units, you may be more than willing to lease a unit to an interesting business at a cheap rate; an empty unit earns you nothing and makes the overall retail experience less attractive. Raspberry Pi is the kind of product that could really benefit from a quality retail experience. I suspect there are a lot of parents who might have heard of Raspberry Pi, but don't really know what it's all about and don't have the confidence to buy a kit and try it out with their kids. If you've sold someone a Raspberry Pi and given them good advice on how to use it, you're substantially more likely to go on to sell them a robot kit or a 3d printer or a bunch of Adafruit goodies.
- johnnycab 8y ago> Raspberry Pi is the kind of product that could really benefit from a quality retail experience. I don't know about the experience, but this product has some retail presence in US & Canada. https://kano.me/us https://kano.me/us
- ProblemFactory 8y ago> I wonder if they get a good return on the investment. On just sales income it seems doubtful. But in the end the Raspberry Pi Foundation is a non-profit whose goal is to get kids interested in programming, and give them the hardware they can experiment on without worrying about breaking your parents' or school computer. Sales to "hackers" is just a side business. An event space / showroom can help with that mission for kids and parents who might not buy online and get started on their own.
- nicoburns 8y ago> People who are curious about RasPi already know what it is I'm not sure about that. The Raspberry Pi foundation is big on the education market. I can definitely imagine a parent having heard about a raspberry pi but not really understanding what it is in detail wanting to talk it through with someone. I can also imagine them running hack days for kids there (kind of like games workshop allow you to play with warhammer in their shop).
- 076ae80a-3c97-4 8y agoI actually disagree about people not picking them up. If a child does not have "techy" parents then it's entirely possible that they're not aware of the rpi. Additionally, they're cheap enought that many people might just pick one up on the spot with the potential that their child would enjoy the learning potential.
- bdz 8y agoSome photos of the store https://twitter.com/Raspberry_Pi/status/1093454153534398464 https://twitter.com/Raspberry_Pi/status/1093454153534398464
- arethuza 8y agoLooks rather nicer than the Google store here in Edinburgh!
- auggierose 8y agoActually didn't know we have a Google store :-)
- arethuza 8y agoOn Shandwick Place - to be fair apparently it is a "Digital Garage" offering drop in training rather than selling stuff. I walk past it every day but never been in.
- whywhywhywhy 8y agoLooks like an Apple Store light edition. Not really convinced the design and branding of the store matches up well with the realities of their actual product.
- ekianjo 8y agoYeah. Brand-wise, I would rather see the Raspberry Pi shop like a kind of bazaar where you find everything in all sorts of places rather than a very tidy and clean place where everything is in order. The "everything should look like what Apple does" is really tiring and generic these days.
- hrktb 8y agoPerhaps their thinking is that you can already find the Pi in bazaar kind of shops full of electronics parts and really aimed at tinkerers. This shop could be more for luring new users and making it look simple for a first approach.
- leejo 8y agoMakes sense - their offices are (were?) based in Cambridge just up the road from the city centre and about a 15min walk from the new shop. Little trivia: in my previous job I worked in the offices that would be taken over by Raspberry Pi a couple of years later :)
- entity345 8y agoYes, they are based in Cambridge and so is the main Broadcom office in the UK. And so is Arm...
- SmallDeadGuy 8y agoYeah I work in the office next to them, same floor same building. And previously worked for Arm. And I have a friend working at Qualcomm just down the road from me, too. Quite a small little world here :)
- raverbashing 8y agoIt's surprising that it has become the best selling British computer even it being a hobbyist oriented product
- entity345 8y agoIt's not surprising, actually considering its price point and the fact that previous full-blown British computers date from a time when computers were not a commodity.
- analognoise 8y agoIf you've ever worked on a vintage British car's electrical system, you wouldn't be surprised that the only thing the global marketplace decided the British should handle, electrically, would be hobby-oriented. </smacktalk>
- linksnapzz 8y agoI would pay real money for an Rpi with Lucas components. Extra if it could somehow be convinced to leak oil and not boot when the outside temp is below 10C.
- laputan_machine 8y agoThere is a history of having hobbyist computers being wildly popular in the UK, see the 1980s.
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y agoI suppose previous British computers such as the BBC, ZX Spectrum etc weren't generally known and available globally like the Pi is.
- sharninder 8y agoInteresting move, but why? Are they really planning to or currently selling to the general retail public?
- chrisseaton 8y agoThey’re already marketed as hobby kits to the general public. In fact wasn’t that the entire idea from the start? Who do you think was buying them before?
- TheOtherHobbes 8y agoGiven that it's a university town with strong tech links, the general retail public in Cambridge is going to be quite different to the general retail public in most of the rest of the UK. I'm not convinced the idea makes sense financially, unless they're selling all of the extras and kit parts needed to make the Pi do something useful. If they are, then fine. If not this might look a little like a vanity move - not because it's a bad idea, but because retail in the UK can be insanely expensive to run, and it's outrageously hard to make it profitable.
- pdpi 8y agoIn my understanding, the new reality here is that brick-and-mortar stores are increasingly becoming showrooms to support online sales, with brands closing smaller shops and focusing on big "experiential" flagship stores. The description somebody else gave here of the Pi shop as "more of an event space than a store" would tie in well with this strategy.
- SmallDeadGuy 8y agoYeah that's what I've noticed, too. In Cambridge we have a Tesla store in the main shopping centre, which is just a Model S and a Model X on display in a small room with some people that talk about it. I don't think they actually make any sales there, it's just for marketing purposes.
- 8y ago
- chrisseaton 8y agoWhen did the British start calling shops ‘stores’?
- friendly_chap 8y agoI think since forever, although I'm just a foreigner, but I'm on my 6th year in London.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- yaseer 8y agoI've generally found a division between well known brands as 'stores' and local businesses as 'shops'. I might refer to the "Apple store", but would always refer to the local barber shop or coffee shop.
- dev_north_east 8y agoWhen did they not?
- NeedMoreTea 8y agoMuch more common this century than last. In the 80s it would have been mainly just shops. Apple, had they had them back then, would have found their flagship store called the Apple shop by one and all. :)
- cabalamat 8y agoThe retail chain British Home Stores was founded in 1928, so at least since then. I wasn't aware until now that this is considered an Americanism.
- chrisseaton 8y agoBritish Home Stores was founded by Americans! That's why it's called a 'store'.
- johnnycab 8y agoThe retail chain British Home Stores was founded in 1928, so at least since then. I wasn't aware until now that this is considered an Americanism BHS was founded by by a group of U.S. entrepreneurs, however, it is generally accepted usage to refer to various retail spaces as shops or stores synonymously. Some even use it as their brand identity e.g. The Body Shop, The Gift Shop, The Tie Store and now defunct Army & Navy Stores et al. Nevertheless, there are certain distinctions to be made, i.e. when someone says 'I am nipping out to the shops - do you want anything?' usually means a visit to small local independent shops/convenience stores, colloquially referred to as corner shops (bodega/deli) situated on the High Street and not mean Harrods, albeit it might also qualify as a local shop for some of the residents in Knightsbridge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_%26_Navy_Stores_(United_Kingdom) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_%26_Navy_Stores_(United_K...
- mishurov 8y agoBased and redpilled.
- adav 8y agoPerhaps this is in reaction to Maplin’s troubles? That would previously have been the only place I would have thought of to buy a Raspberry Pi on the high street.
- yardstick 8y agoIt was sad to see Maplin go. Does anyone know of any other DIY electronics stores / chains in the UK? (I miss JayCar in AU, or what DSE/Dick Smiths used to be before it went under)
- wlll 8y agoRapid Electronics or Farnell are the ones I use. Online only as far as I know, but that's fine by me, the Maplin staff rarely knew anything of use IME, and delivery is fast enough.
- daddylonglegs 8y agoThere is also RS Components - the RS / Farnell rivalry (or duopoly) is the big one for low volume electronic components in the UK. RS do have trade counters in a couple of dozen industrial estates around the country but I think they are only open office hours.
- yardstick 8y agoYes I’ve used RS and Farnell in the past. Hoping for someplace that I could easily reach same day to buy parts, rather than wait for delivery etc. Last one I needed was some small screws to attach a mSATA, but pointless to wait a day and was preventing me from working on the project. Could imagine the same thing with SATA adapters, power cables, etc.
- ChrisRR 8y agoHurry up and announce a Raspberry Pi 4 already! I want to give you more money
- FerretFred 8y agoSame here, but only if it doesn't need > 3.5 amp PSU.
- dcbadacd 8y agoIt can require that, but only when it uses USB3.0-PD.
- bsder 8y agoThat's not entirely correct. It seems like the issue is current spikes, and those can occur under far more conditions (HDMI, external USB devices, etc.). I suspect that beefing up the power system filtering would reduce the power supply maximum current requirements quite dramatically.
- dcbadacd 8y agoWhat I meant is that I'm annoyed by the lack of compatibility with standards that could provide the required amount of power to a rPi, the current microUSB implementation is awful and shouldn't be repeated.
- bsder 8y agoAh. My comment was more along the lines of "If they redid the power system with better filtering, they could make it work with 5V, 500mA and operate on standard USB." However, Broadcom won't give us plebians access to the documentation, perhaps I'm being too optimistic, and this really is the best they can do. The Beaglebone Black guys seem to work inside a 5V 500mA envelope quite well. At the very least, they don't seem to have anywhere near the issues that the RPi folks seem to.
- 8y ago
- alexellisuk 8y agoLooking forward to doing a trip to Cambridge to check it out. Did it open already?
- Khoth 8y agoIt opens on Thursday apparently.
- djmobley 8y agoLooking at the photos, this looks more like an event space than a store. Still, good to see the Raspberry Pi team continuing to fulfil their mission.
- Already__Taken 8y agoI Hope it's more of games workshop type affair. You're just not going to have useful staff that know about this equipment long term operating a shop floor. You can barely get anyone that knows much about a phone beyond the box from phone specialists.
- benj111 8y agoAgreed. I was thinking more of a hacker space that little Timmy's mum would be happy to visit. I cant see it surviving as just a shop. Shops can't even survive selling full size PCs, there isn't that much more repeat custom to expect from something that costs 2 orders of magnitude less.
- schnevets 8y agoGames Workshop is a fantastic template for a hacker-hobbyist store. I have never played miniatures games, but I was always impressed by how packed the store near my old apartment was.
- claytonius 8y agoI 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 8y agoDid 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.
- claytonius 8y agoThe 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!
- WrtCdEvrydy 8y agoProbably just high profit margin on accessories but same price for raspis
- Aissen 8y agoNo 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 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.
- bobowzki 8y agoI'm wondering how brexit will affect Raspberry Pi pricing?
- giobox 8y agoNo one can really answer this with certainty, given (somewhat tragically) no one has agreed what “Brexit” even is yet. As one example, if May’s current deal somehow was to be made tenable to Parliament, there would probably be little/no change at all.
- swebs 8y agoCambridge UK, not Cambridge Massachusetts.
- teekert 8y agoEvery time I see that case it irks me that it can't close with dupont cables attached to the GPIO pins, not just the lid, the whole case is useless. Other than that... Love the Pi, love the idea of a store.
- Siemens 8y agoIs anyone aware of a way to cheaply purchase multiple Raspberry Pi Zero W's? They are sold at $10 but are limited to 1 per person. If you want to buy more, the price is around $20 each. That's a big price difference if you are buying 30 out of pocket to teach a class.
- exhilaration 8y agoI can't help you but a workaround might be to ask each student in the class (or their parents) to purchase one individually.
- pjc50 8y agoI suspect if you contact them directly as an educator they would be able to arrange something.
- cbhl 8y agoIf you're going to teach a class, I'd recommend going out of your way to give each student a Pi 3 Model B+. The additional ports means that the device can be useful as a general-purpose computer outside of class (just hook up a keyboard, mouse, and monitor/TV). I realize the difference between $300 and $1050 is a lot, but you get way more hardware at the $35 price point. Building the institutional muscle to figure out how to get the additional $650 in funding is a good skill set as a teacher. (If you're at a school, there might be special funds set aside for buying STEM equipment you can tap into. You might also be able to get some money through the charity arms of local companies, or out of a local bank's petty cash fund. If you're teaching students at the middle-school or high-school age, you can ask them to help with the fundraising process. If you're teaching adults, just charge each adult a fee to cover the hardware cost.)
- dingaling 8y ago> just charge each adult a fee to cover the hardware cost That seems a quick way to discourage adults from taking programming courses. Should they pay for a chair and table too? Or a screen? Of course not, that cost is amortised across many classes. It's ridiculous that the Foundation makes bulk purchasing so difficult when the original vision for the RPi was for education. But that was fairly quickly forgotten when it became the darling of hackerspaces and upselling became the priority.
- arcaster 8y agoI wouldn't be surprised if the store eventually meets a similar demise to the "MakerBot Store" on Newbury street in Boston did a few years back. Really cool stuff, just nobody ever really seemed to have a reason to buy anything of reason in the store. I bought filament for my home-built 3-d printer there maybe once - only because it was higher quality than what MicroCenter carried and was a color I'd otherwise have to order. But obv most people in the store weren't buying $2k 3d printers - anyone who happened to already own a 3d printer knew that MakerBot's tech was garbage.