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Raspberry Pi Opens First High Street Store in Cambridge

bbc.com

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Re: Raspberry Pi Opens First High Street Store in Cambridge

#71

Post by fsloth »

snazz wrote: post #61
fsloth wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is inherent value in having a stable, battle tested platform. The fact that the same chip has been sold for general public for the last 8 years is to me rather appealing than a turn off. Given the complexity of the modern software stack, there have been a zillion bugs that have ruined someone elses day and have been hopefully fixed. Although, I have no idea of the support quality of the Pi foundation since I ha…

I agree with this sentiment, but I do think that the RPi Foundation is going to have a hard time improving from their current state without breaking backwards compatibility, because they made some decisions early on that no longer make much sense today. The big ones, in my opinion, are the write-limited, slow SD card interface, the microUSB power connector, the 1GB maximum RAM, Ethernet that shares bandwidth with USB…

"The education aspect (particularly as a low-level programming platform) would have been made more accessible without such an opaque boot process."

Not that I disagree, but as a counterpoint learning programming with Scratch has very little to do with getting to know the implementation details of the underlying computational substrate. I'm a software professional and I can't bother with that stuff! I'm far more interested in fiddling with my programs than tweaking the underlying substrate. I don't think this is a stance everyone should take but I don't feel a worse person because of it. I can administer my own machine but I don't enjoy it.

Re: Raspberry Pi Opens First High Street Store in Cambridge

#72

Post by benj111 »

Already__Taken wrote: post #38

I 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.

Agreed. 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.

Re: Raspberry Pi Opens First High Street Store in Cambridge

#73

Post by pbhjpbhj »

tonylemesmer wrote: post #65
adav wrote: post #22

Perhaps 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.

It would be ace to be able to walk into a RPi shop and be able to purchase LEDs, resistors, OLED screens, ESP8266 modules, breadboards etc. Maplin was a great shop and open on the weekends was often a lifesaver.

If they don't sell all that, what do they sell? Just RPi? In which case it probably is just an advert, not a store as such.

Re: Raspberry Pi Opens First High Street Store in Cambridge

#75

Post by folkrav »

ekianjo wrote: post #55
whywhywhywhy wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks 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.

Yeah. 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.

The "RPi is for nerds" shtick is specifically what they're probably trying to get rid of with that store. Looking approachable is a pretty key component of that.

Doesn't really look like an Apple Store either, unless wood and white is now reserved for Apple...

Re: Raspberry Pi Opens First High Street Store in Cambridge

#76

Post by H1Supreme »

tonylemesmer wrote: post #65
adav wrote: post #22

Perhaps 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.

It would be ace to be able to walk into a RPi shop and be able to purchase LEDs, resistors, OLED screens, ESP8266 modules, breadboards etc. Maplin was a great shop and open on the weekends was often a lifesaver.

When Radio Shack in the US still had components for sale, they were absurdly more expensive than Digikey or Mouser. I think I remember a 5 pack of 220ohm resistors being $2.99. Digikey will sell you 100 for under two dollars.

I suppose it would have to do if you're in a pinch, but there's a reason walk-in electronics stores have mostly vanished.

Re: Raspberry Pi Opens First High Street Store in Cambridge

#77

Post by adrianN »

ChrisRR wrote: post #25

Hurry up and announce a Raspberry Pi 4 already! I want to give you more money

Is there a computer in the Raspberry Pi price range that has >=4gb RAM and can play full HD movies? The 1GB limit is basically what's keeping me from using a Pi as my main computer.

Re: Raspberry Pi Opens First High Street Store in Cambridge

#78

Post by arethuza »

auggierose wrote: post #66
arethuza wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks rather nicer than the Google store here in Edinburgh!

Actually didn't know we have a Google store :-)

On 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.

Re: Raspberry Pi Opens First High Street Store in Cambridge

#79

Post by cs02rm0 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #70
bloak wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In both standard written and colloquial British English it's almost always "shop", but the term "store" is normal in the jargon used by people in the retail business. It's quite common to hear the word "store" used in a public announcement in a shop, for example. There are many things like that. For example, normal people say "tin", in my experience, but the signs in a shop seem to use "can" more often than "tin", bi…

Purchase vs buy, beverage vs drink. Not sure what the point in these slightly more technical sounding words that people seem to like to use.

Utilise vs use is the one that makes me want to get a bit stabby, especially when they correct their use of the word use to change it for utilise.

Sorry, I mean inclined to lacerate.

Re: Raspberry Pi Opens First High Street Store in Cambridge

#80

Post by giarc »

hrktb wrote: post #58
ekianjo wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. 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.

Perhaps 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.

I think you are exactly right. The customers who want the bazaar with lots of parts are already their customer and will continue to be their customer regardless of a brick and mortar store. This is trying to attract a new customer.
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