The Raspberry Pi Store is filled with people knowledgeable and passionate about what they do. This #MagPiMonday, we get to know Tim, one of the original store employees.

The Raspberry Pi Store in Cambridge’s Grand Arcade recently celebrated being open for five years – quite a feat for a store that started off life as a pop-up. One of the keys to its success was bringing in experienced electronics retail staff from the recently defunct Maplin, including Tim Stenning.

“Not too long after Maplin closed I was approached by my manager [Oli Wilkin], who I had helped with the closing of the stores in Cambridge,” Tim tells us. “Remembering not having the chance to look at Raspberry Pi at Maplin, and [it] being a tech-centred experience, I took the opportunity and joined the team. Now, just over five years on since the opening of the first store, I’m finding that I’m still learning something new every day on the job.”

What kind of customers do you see at the store?

We see customers from all backgrounds and countries visiting the store, from those with no experience, families looking to engage their children with coding, to hobbyists, tinkerers and die-hard makers.

[Aside from the pop-ups, including the newly extended site in Leeds, UK] it’s the only official Raspberry Pi Store in the world. As you could imagine this drew interest from makers from all over the world. One notable visit during our first month open in 2019 was a couple who flew in from South Africa just to experience Raspberry Pi in retail.

What are some of the most frequently asked questions?

We get a variety of questions every day, ranging from some very common to very niche use cases. Because of the wide variety of different uses of Raspberry Pi and its accessories, there’s never any dumb or wrong questions, and we always encourage people to ask us questions.

Some of the most common ones are:

• What is a Raspberry Pi and what can you do with it?

• Can you play Minecraft / Roblox / games on a Raspberry Pi?

• Do you have Raspberry Pi CM4 / Zero / 3 / 4 / 5 models in stock?

Do you have a good story about helping someone out with a purchase?

There are a fair few stories as we try to be as inclusive as possible to everyone visiting the store, and try to provide assistance and the best recommendations possible depending on individual needs. However, the one that stands out the most for me would be when a visually impaired Raspberry Pi fan and maker asked for assistance with the products and guidance around the store.

I was happy to oblige, and walk the customer through the store and provide explanations for the range of products available. I’d like to think that the customer was provided with all the information they needed to get their project working.

What’s your favourite Raspberry Pi product?

My personal favourite official Raspberry Pi product would be the Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3. With the use of the Picamera2 library there are so many ways to take advantage of the functionality of the camera’s capabilities which only get better with the use of Raspberry Pi 5. In-store, we’ve tested and demonstrated simple tasks like taking pictures to more complex multiple camera setups, AI and object recognition.