W H SMITHS - what's that all about?

[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 don't know where other posters live, but both the WHS branches I go in are light & airy and well stocked, and both seem pretty busy.

If I'm honest I suspect yours are in the minority. It's quite telling that so many posters have all commented on the fact they seem to have no lights on and are very claustrophobic.

I used to work for WHS in 2008, apologies about the hard sell, I used to get a piece of paper thrust in my face telling me I was failing miserably at it almost weekly (I only did it when a manager was near, as I thought it was ridiculous, I had to push chocolate oranges)

It's an awful place.

@user1497207191

WHS own most of their own premises so aren't suffering the stupidly high rents charged by commercial landlords.

They're also often the "last man standing" in terms of town centre newsagents as all the smaller/independents have closed, so have the captive audience for people wanting specialist/unusual newspapers & magazines as supermarkets tend to sell only the most popular ones.

Taking in the post office counters has enabled many of their shops to remain viable - a good forward thinking business decision.

The airports/train stations are indeed a separate division and the High Street shops have their own division which remains profitable.

WHS have been closing under-performing stores for years rather than letting them drag down the whole group. That's the mistake that other chains made, such as Woolworths who didn't chop loss making stores soon enough which brought the whole group down, even the profitable ones.

I don't know where other posters live, but both the WHS branches I go in are light & airy and well stocked, and both seem pretty busy.

user1497207191 aka W H Smith

We have a huge one in our main high street, large, decent selection of books, toys, games plus all kind of stationary and art supply incl. upmarket and good quality brands.

But the one on our local high street? If not for the post office that one is dead. It's next to a Card Factory so nobody goes there for wrapping paper or cards. We have a Sainsbury with basic stationary you go to when your child lost its pens. We have a proper art supply shop and another stationary shop with also a good selection.

Dark, dingy and empty.

I have no idea how they are still operating; I avoid the stores if I can! The smell, bright lights, overstocked shelves, piles of stuff everywhere, clutter at the tills and a distinct lack of staff make it a horrible retail experience for me and I’m really not that sensitive, but it’s one environment that makes me feel awful both physically and mentally!

You need to be careful in there, especially if going in with a small child. They could easily be buried in an avalanche of falling crap at the tills.

I worked in one for 5 years (left in 2019), travel massively propped up the high st side, I'm amazed they're still around this side of lockdown and travel restrictions! A colleague used to jokingly describe them as 'the cockroach of the high st - everything else could shut down but Smiths would still be hanging on' and I think he might have been right all along!

WHS have been closing under-performing stores for years rather than letting them drag down the whole group. That's the mistake that other chains made, such as Woolworths who didn't chop loss making stores soon enough which brought the whole group down, even the profitable ones.

The ones they’re closing must be horrendous as the ones left standing are shitholes

WH Smith in our city is awful! Miserable staff and overpriced compared to other shops.

Does anyone remember those awful pop up makeup sales people, Victoria Jackson or something? They used to have a stand at the front of our WH Smith and try and flog their shite makeup as soon as you stepped foot in the shop.

I have fond memories of going there as a child, it seemed a lot more upmarket back then, unless it’s my rose tinted 80s glasses…

I don't know where other posters live, but both the WHS branches I go in are light & airy and well stocked, and both seem pretty busy.

Forget about where all the other posters live, where do you live? A busy WH Smiths is like a bigfoot sighting.

As other posters have pointed out they often don't turn on the lights, and are pretty much empty apart from those who go in for the post office.

The only thing I recognise in your post is that they're well stocked. However, they actually have too much stock. Cramped aisles full of tat and over priced items, which makes navigating the store feel like a game of it's a knock out.

WHS have been closing under-performing stores for years rather than letting them drag down the whole group. That's the mistake that other chains made, such as Woolworths who didn't chop loss making stores soon enough which brought the whole group down, even the profitable ones.

It's one of the few shops left in my town centre but that branch hasn't been busy in years. It's really big with two floors but at most there are 3 or 4 other people in there when I've got at lunchtime. I only tend to go before Christmas for wrapping paper and cards. Like other branches, they seem to have the lights off as much as possible which feels strange and the carpet is threadbare. It all feels very rundown and nothing like it was when I was a child. They must think there's going to be a revival as our two department stores have shut down and Waterstones is about to follow suit. The only competition left on the stationery side is Wilkos and Amazon for the books.

Maybe they turn the lights off so you can’t see how bad the carpets are 🤣

The one in Sutton Coldfield is pretty decent and incorporates the post office AND a small M&S food. But SC is full of oldies who have likely shopped there since it's heyday.

It's far more expensive than the alternatives though.

I remember the days when W H smith had the old brown colour and logo and each store using to have drawings of local landmarks on the wall - it all went down hill when they sacked that off!

Actually I've just remembered - the one in Meadowhall is spacious and light and seemed reasonably clean the last time I went in AND after I'd posted I (unusually) went in my branch as I had to use the post office and, it does seem a little better than I last remembered. They seem to be making an effort with the tester pens with notepads out for testing, and the tills don't seem so cluttered with offers. Also, I remembered one other good thing about them which is their sale shelves, mostly rubbish but some good hardback cookbooks can be bought for £3.

As mentioned up-thread, WHSmith is still the only place I know of that does a range of straightforward old writing paper pads (non ruled, post quarto size) with matching envelopes. I only need one every few years, so there's a real risk that they'll have disappeared by the time I next run out - maybe I should stockpile a lifetime supply, ie one spare pad?!

Our local one has the only post office in the town plus a M&S mini shop so always has plenty of footfall. Not sure how many people actually buy anything from WHSmith though.

I didn’t get a part time job in WHSmith when I was at uni. They asked a question about whether they should be concerned about competition and I replied along the lines of ‘yes of course, market forces, customers go elsewhere blah blah’
They told me that WHSmith wasn’t concerned about competition because they were such a strong brand and I was obviously ridiculous (or words to that effect). I walked out of there thinking they had such a deluded and stupid attitude.

When I was at school WHSmiths was the place to go
Loads of tempting goodies in bright colours with enough going on for the adults to keep them interested

I used to work over the road to one years later and wandered in a few times to have a look at books
£8 for a book I could get at tesco/Asda for £3.50
The hard sell at the till and small bags of Thornton’s chocolates for £1

Nah,I don’t bother now

@ConfusedByDesign

I didn’t get a part time job in WHSmith when I was at uni. They asked a question about whether they should be concerned about competition and I replied along the lines of ‘yes of course, market forces, customers go elsewhere blah blah’ They told me that WHSmith wasn’t concerned about competition because they were such a strong brand and I was obviously ridiculous (or words to that effect). I walked out of there thinking they had such a deluded and stupid attitude.

And yet they're still on the High Street and havn't crashed like a lot of other "branded" shops. Perhaps they were right all along?

And yet they're still on the High Street and havn't crashed like a lot of other "branded" shops. Perhaps they were right all along?

Up to a point but they have been struggling for a long time. Many of them have taken in post offices so that’s helped, plus the fact they’re in stations and airports. They’ve had to change to keep surviving and arrogance doesn’t help.

@ConfusedByDesign

And yet they're still on the High Street and havn't crashed like a lot of other "branded" shops. Perhaps they were right all along?

Up to a point but they have been struggling for a long time. Many of them have taken in post offices so that’s helped, plus the fact they’re in stations and airports. They’ve had to change to keep surviving and arrogance doesn’t help.

They're separate divisions. The High St division are profitable on their own without the stations/airport division.

Taking in post office counters is just evolution of the stores - it was a master stroke to help them survive, but lots of High St WHS branches don't have PO counters and are still busy.

At the end of the day, the main USP is that they sell newspapers and magazines that people can't readily get elsewhere as most newsagents have closed down and supermarkets only sell the top sellers, so if you want something unusual/niche like a hobby magazine or a foreign newspaper, you go to WHS. Obviously the news/mag market is declining and eventually WHS will probably close but in the meantime, they're evolving to remain profitable as a division and continuing the ongoing closure program on the under-performing and loss making stores.

As for WHS "struggling", their High Street division made a profit of £19m last year with turnover up 4%, doesn't sound "struggling" to me.

Well, I stand corrected then
Taking in post offices was indeed and excellent move.
Though I do wonder how many people will continue to buy magazines and newspapers when everything is online now.
I actually love WHSmiths. My dcs have found fab cheap random books in there.

Specialist magazines have an off line appeal IMO. DH is glued to Pistonheads all day but still buys Car/Evo magazine, for example. If I can't find him on the High Street I go to the magazine bit in WHSmith!