BRITAIN’S fathers are in mourning for Maplin, the electronics retailer where they kept their dreams of drones and integrated USB sockets alive.
As the troubled chain went into administration, middle-aged men showed their support outside its shops with candles, prayers and discussions about whether gold-plated banana plugs really offered improved audio fidelity.
Father-of-two Martin Bishop said: “Please God, don’t let Maplin be taken away from me. Where will I browse external hard drives now?
“There’s still so much I wanted us to do together. We were going to install a mini-CCTV six-camera system that I can control from the TV. Now what? Now what?”
Fellow dad Roy Hobbs said: “We’ve built a shrine outside our local Maplin with hundreds of LED candles arranged around a surge-protected multi-socket. Now all we can do is pray.
“I can’t imagine a world without affordable decent quality German-made solar string lights. I could get them cheaper off Amazon but there isn’t the emotional connection of talking to the bald bloke at the till.”
