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Original poster

W H SMITHS - what's that all about?

133 replies

Febrier · 04/04/2022 08:21

It's a shadow of its former self. It used to be a classy place to go for top quality books, especially of the Christmas present or school award variety. Also, posh stationery.
Now it's just cluttered with cheap toys and discounted Cadburys. (Are they still doing that hard sell at the till?). Customers skim the surface of the shop for ten- a scratch card but none penetrate the dark inners of the store.

How is it surviving? It's ripe for a Sold Its Soul To The Devil conspiracy theory.

OP posts:
NannyR · 04/04/2022 09:02

The choice of books in my local one is terrible, they have the current bestsellers but that's about it. If I want to buy a book in a physical shop, I want the whole bookshop experience, like an independent bookshop or Waterstones. I remember really enjoying a trip to wh smiths as a teenager to buy pencil cases and matching stationery before school started, but when I looked recently it was all very overpriced.

kittensinthekitchen · 04/04/2022 09:03

My teenage DC uses it for art supplies. Some of their Whs branded stuff is pretty good

Neverendingdust · 04/04/2022 09:03

As a kid I loved my old local one, the book section was the stuff of dreams and I’d easily fritter my pocket money away on the comics and magazines every Saturday. That was 25 years ago.

Now I try to avoid them at all costs. Ridiculously overpriced, untidy and no real identity as to what it’s actually selling. The offers on the tills infuriate me, there was also a time when they’d needlessly scan some kind of voucher every time you paid that did nothing else except to beep the till! I’ve been known to politely say ‘hello, I really just want to pay I’m not going to tell your manager if you don’t ask me to buy that giant bar of Fruit and Nut, thanks’ 🤣

I never seem to have a reason to go in because I’d rather Waterstones or an independent had my money for books and the rest can all be found elsewhere, for much less.

In my shopping centre you have The works, WH, Poundland, Ryman, Wilko and Homesense who can all sell more or less the same item at extremely different prices eg pack of 4 Sharpie metallic markers last Christmas were like £6 in WH, £5 in Ryman, £1.99 in Wilko and then 90p red sticker in Homesense.

middleager · 04/04/2022 09:04

It's supremely expensive, very cramped and they never appear to have any lights on.

Yes, every WH Smith I visit is like this. The lights are off!

airrrrAIRRRRiELLLL · 04/04/2022 09:09

Yes unfortunately everything that WHS used to sell is now sold by supermarkets. When I was growing up it was the only place to buy music, books and stationery. A heavenly way to spend a Saturday afternoon just browsing and deciding how to spend your £2 birthday voucher. Agree that it's amazing it's still got a presence.

H1978 · 04/04/2022 09:19

Our local one closed down during covid but it was pretty much rubbish before too, very overpriced and it had looked the same since I can remember.
Our nearest one is now in a shopping centre and seems to be doing okay.

Maternitynamechange · 04/04/2022 09:21

I think the owned, rather than leased, more of their premises than most so they’ve held on for longer.

littlefireseverywhere · 04/04/2022 09:29

Our high street is really small but there's a shop and I think it probably does ok. But the amount of shite they sell is quite amazing. Think they'd be better buying in high end stuff as it's quite a tourist spot. I only ever buy the kids birthday cards in there, everything else I get online or in the newly opened £1 shop by another name.

HappyHouseWitch · 04/04/2022 09:29

Isn't WH Smith regularly voted as Britain's worst shop? Their shabby carpets have their own Facebook following I believe!

Jobseeker19 · 04/04/2022 09:33

Its when people stopped buying cds it went to shit.

Sobeyondthehills · 04/04/2022 09:38

@Maternitynamechange

I think the owned, rather than leased, more of their premises than most so they’ve held on for longer.
That is not true, the owned most of their properties, then sold them all off and rented them back.

When I was there they were propped up by travel, but the high street stores survive by selling space and the chocolate and water at the till, give them great profit margains

Gardeningfool · 04/04/2022 09:47

Ours is the only place you can buy magazines or papers in the town centre (with the exception of M&S which has a few papers). So, it always seems pretty busy.

Maternitynamechange · 04/04/2022 09:50

@Sobeyondthehills As I wrote it, I was thinking who even told me this and why? Grin

ComDummings · 04/04/2022 09:52

The one near me is a dump.

IFinallyJoinedNowWhat · 04/04/2022 09:53

Our local WHSmith shut in January - couldn't afford the rise in rent apparently. And ours did have a Post Office in it as well, which has now relocated to a tiny location elsewhere in town... not sure how the usual monster queues are going to cope with that, but WHSmith is no more here...

Grumpyoldpersonwithcats · 04/04/2022 09:54

It's a huge problem if they were to close down because of the number of post offices contained within the stores.
However I have to agree that they now only seem to sell overpriced shite and my local WH Smith is normally deserted.

BarbaraofSeville · 04/04/2022 09:56

WHSmith has been shit and overpriced for years. I checked the date on your post to make sure it wasn't a Zombie from about 20 years ago, but surprisingly not.

With Amazon, supermarkets, cheaper places (Card Warehouse, Wilko, pound shops, The Range, Home Bargains etc etc) if you want something more reasonably priced I'm not sure what WH Smith is actually for in city/town centres.

Most useful thing they do is the meal deals at railway stations and airports and some books to look at to pass the time while waiting for a flight/train.

kitkatsky · 04/04/2022 09:58

It makes me sad. I was a Saturday girl at one in the late 90s/ early 00s abd it was a premium place to work and so busy. They've gone badly wrong along the way

Whinge · 04/04/2022 09:58

@Grumpyoldpersonwithcats

It's a huge problem if they were to close down because of the number of post offices contained within the stores. However I have to agree that they now only seem to sell overpriced shite and my local WH Smith is normally deserted.
I don't think it would be a huge problem, as the integration of the post offices is quite a recent thing. Perhaps it would be a bit disruptive, but I think if WH Smiths closed the post offices would move to other stores such as supermarkets.
sorryforswearing · 04/04/2022 10:01

WHS has always been expensive. I once complained to head office because I bought a CD there and saw it at a fraction of the price elsewhere. They send me a refund. That was years ago when there were other record shops. Don’t know about now but books have always been more expensive than other places. I can remember when Waterstones first opened in our area. They could get a book in for the following day. Smiths took weeks. I’ve wondered for a long time how it’s survived. Our local one is very unappealing. Stuff piled up, lighting low and unwelcoming and they often don’t have basic requirements.

gildalily · 04/04/2022 10:01

I think that they have a big distribution arm which is quite successful so that probably offsets the tired and expensive stores.

PAFMO · 04/04/2022 10:01

@Febrier

It's a shadow of its former self. It used to be a classy place to go for top quality books, especially of the Christmas present or school award variety. Also, posh stationery. Now it's just cluttered with cheap toys and discounted Cadburys. (Are they still doing that hard sell at the till?). Customers skim the surface of the shop for ten- a scratch card but none penetrate the dark inners of the store.

How is it surviving? It's ripe for a Sold Its Soul To The Devil conspiracy theory.

I used to work in Smith's and you're right. It was the biggest retailer of greetings cards in the country- the profit from them was colossal. I did the ordering for them and we shifted thousands and thousands. There was also the lucrative news wholesale division- Smith's provided the newspapers and mags for lots of other newsagents. They sold premium art supplies among other things. All the bigger stores had a travel agency and the one I worked in employed reps full time for things like a Parker pen concession. Staff were well-treated and trained up. I only worked there first as a Christmas temp after university then stayed while waiting for my graduate civil service job. In that time I did a management training course provided by the company for which we were given so many hours study time per week. It's a shambles now. Utter dross. The shops are dark and dirty and the shelving cluttered and unattractive. The forcing on you of the "cheap" snacks is reprehensible.

It's a crying shame and I can see them ending up only in airports selling £5 bottles of water and over-priced paracetamol.

PAFMO · 04/04/2022 10:02

There was also a staff canteen and 2 cooks, subsidised hot meals, and if you were on overtime for Christmas etc your meal was free.

Georgeskitchen · 04/04/2022 10:02

Used to be a great store, with that lovely smell of new books. Now it's cluttered and dark. I went to the post office counter and stood for about 10 minutes until another customer told me it was closed. Turns out there was a small hand scribbled notice on the front doors saying PO counter was closed for 2 hours. Shocking customer service. I just use our local surviving sub post office that is sited in an independent grocery store

Sundancerintherain · 04/04/2022 10:06

As a business they wholesale to other newsagents ( or did 20 years ago when my family had a newsagents)

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