Thoughts on Boots?

[ohthehorrorthehorror]

We're away for Christmas and I needed a new mascara. We're staying quite rurally so the little Boots in the nearest small town was my only option other than Amazon.
In recent years I haven't used Boots much as I've found it expensive, and things were often not in stock. Also didn't like what I heard about how they treat their pharmacy staff. I used to shop there loads, dating back to when I was a Saturday girl there, hammering my 25% staff discount at the makeup counters!
Shopping there today was a dismal experience. The (small) store felt tired, dated, dingy, and even a bit dirty. The stock on the shelves was sparse, and jumbled. The makeup stands were atrocious. Hardly any stock, half of what there was had been opened and tested, and then when I got to the tills, the prices on the shelves didn't match what was rung up. I ended up leaving empty handed and ordering from Amazon. Even delivering to rural Cumbria, I will get my mascara tomorrow and at half the cost that Boots was charging.
I've often wondered over the past few years just how they have survived, even the larger ones in cities feel a bit dated alongside Superdrug. What are other people's thoughts on Boots? Do you still shop there? Or do you think there are better places?

Same here, our Boots is really good and always busy. I use it a lot.

I do agree that I've been in some depressing smaller branches though.

Agreed, my nearest out of town Boots is amazing. Clean, well-stacked and tends to have good offers. I tend to earn points on Liz Earle and spend them on nappies!

The small ones are very depressing and the pharmacists so slow and, in the one in a mall near me, staff are quite rude I find. I can't see those surviving when there is a Poundland downstairs.

I've thought this for a while, so glad I'm not the only one!

It’s gone massively downhill since it was bought by Walgreens (US company) in 2012.

I haven't been in one for about 10 years.

Our new look Boots

I used the Boots online gp a few months ago when I had a raging uti over the weekend. Paid my money, filled in the forms, for a message saying my antibiotics were ready to collect at the local Boots. Well. They were so RUDE when I got there! Insisted that my message was wrong and that I’d arrived a day early (this was absolutely not what it said online, the whole point of paying was so I could get started with treatment on a Saturday rather than waiting for the GP to reopen on Monday so I’d triple checked!), huffing and puffing and basically making out that they were doing me a huge favour by dispensing the medication that I’d paid for (!) rather than making me schlepp back 24 hours later. Not that I was going to leave until I got my drugs, I was in a lot of pain at that point and desperate to start knocking it on the head. But ffs. It was an awful experience and I will never use that service again. Couldn’t even find any way to give feedback.

They're the WH Smith of the pharmacy world. On the face of it quite baffling as to how they stay in business but do so due to having a monopoly in places like airports and rural locations, plus distribution arms although I don't know if this also applies to Boots.

Plus I think they were the forerunner of the dreaded '3 for 2' overpackaged overpriced shite toiletries 'Christmas Gifts' so that's reason enough not to shop there.

Boots is a bit like WH Smith, in that you wonder how it keeps going, when other shops have better stock, better service and cheaper prices. Both of those shops give you the feeling that you're going to be rinsed, whatever you buy. You're never going to get an actual bargain, in spite of their claims to the contrary. They're both last resort shops and never your first choice, if there are alternatives.

I agree that 3 for 2 is a con, really: it's deterring you from only buying the one you need, but it also has the baked-in aspect of making you pay for more than 2 if your items aren't the same price.

Such a shame, as Jesse Boot always seemed to be such a good egg - a genuine philanthropist who gave various wonderful facilities to the people of Nottingham.

Pretty much completely x-posted with Barbara there!

I hate threads like this where mumsnetters seem to take vicarious pleasure at seeing yet another retailer go the same way as many others.

Soon we won't have any shops left and the only places left that people who prefer to shop in physical stores will be supermarkets.

I find online shopping so joyless and will continue to go into actual shops for clothing, makeup and skincare.

I hate threads like this where mumsnetters seem to take vicarious pleasure at seeing yet another retailer go the same way as many others.

I for one don't want to see Boots go - I'd much prefer them to return to the Boots that they used to be, unlikely though it is.

I don't think we can say that we just aren't allowed to critique well or badly-run businesses, as it's 'not kind'. Good businesses that lose their way will take public opinion on board, care about their customers and take steps to remedy their issues.

We have two nearby, one in town and one on a retail park. The latter has been refurbed recently and is very good. The former is a bit more tired but still has several staffed beauty counters (off the top of my head Clarins, Clinique, no 7 and Benefit) and is also pretty good. Our Superdrug is awful - over-crammed with no space in the aisles, always a child crying at the back having their ears pierced, and incredibly rude and incompetent staff.

The advantage card is still pretty generous, especially if you use the double points vouchers. Conversely I recently learned that Superdrug beauty cards expire if you don’t use them for a year…

We have been boycotting Boots for the last year after an incident when a pharmacist refused to give my daughter her free flu jab despite us having a letter from NHS England saying have a free flu jab and basically accused us of fraud / dishonesty ( my daughter has fairly extreme anxiety so the 20 minute haranguing sent her over the edge ) . However I had to go in a different one last week as they apparently are the only pharmacy that can get hold of a drug that I need and it was absolutely stacked so I doubt they are going out of business anytime soon . Coincidentally they still haven’t called to say that the drug is in stock !

@RampantIvy I certainly didn't mean to take vicarious pleasure in this - I regularly shop at larger branches of Boots in Yorkshire and do not want to see branches close. I have a bit of a soft spot for Boots ever since working there as a 16 year old Saturday girl in 1980!

I use a large out-of-town Boots regularly. Always clean and well stocked, helpful staff. Rarely have problem getting what I want.
There is a small one near my work which is mainly a pharmacy and holds a tiny stock of other items, wouldn't be able to get the mascara there!

Good businesses that lose their way will take public opinion on board, care about their customers and take steps to remedy their issues.

I agree that constructive criticism is good, but some mumsnetters just want shops to close. The number of times I have read that xx deserves to go bust. It isn't nice, and it puts yets more people out of work.

The number of times I have read that xx deserves to go bust. It isn't nice, and it puts yets more people out of work.

Yes, I agree with you there - it's not like a single tradesperson who really CBA, does a terrible job and gives shocking service. I also don't like the way people are blaming ordinary posties for the top-level Royal Mail (mis)management.

Our local branch is understaffed and a bit dingy. But I like the fact they are in train stations and you can get a reasonably priced meal deal compared to all the overpriced food outlets at most stations.

Superdrug although cheaper I find more unpleasant to shop in. I know it's not the staffs fault but the constant attempts at upselling perfume (does anyone buy a bottle of perfume on a whim?) and other crap puts me off going in

I also don't like the way people are blaming ordinary posties for the top-level Royal Mail (mis)management.

Neither do I. I thanked our postie profusely yesterday when he delivered a parcel. My cousin was worried we couldn't get it in time, so she was very relieved to hear that it arrived in one piece.

Boots has gone a bit of a weird way tbh. The advantage card is very good, and because of that i buy things in boots that it might be easier to get elsewhere (eg my shampoo when it would be easier to stick on the food shop). The Covent Garden boots is conveniently located between work and home and I get my eyebrows waxed there. It isn’t too bad in there, although they do sell a baffling array of stuff (including cool books?).

But some of them are awful! The Trafford centre one (last time I was in) was like a baby clothes jumble sale; and the local one near where I grew up is as depressing as hell and barely has any stock. Just a disaster. The online shopping experience is absolutely shambolic and takes an age for your parcels to be shipped out (plus they don’t pack it well and half the stuff leaks). Very unimpressive service.

*cook books

My local branch (where I get my repeat prescriptions issued) is atrocious: too few staff, huge queues, staff who are disinterested and rude, tired store, dingy, almost no stock, bare shelves, always run out of what I went for. No customer service whatsoever.

Unfortunately they have a monopoly in terms of location, so we’re forced to use it. I hate the complacency of the place.

There are two local to me. One is in a town and that's fine, always well stocked, clean etc. The other is smaller and on a retail park - it's hideous, always badly stocked, shelves half empty like it's been ransacked. Can't understand why there is such a difference, it's not like they're a franchise, so staffing/management issues maybe? But it's always the same.

The massive boots by my DH's workplace is awful. It's often randomly closed on the middle of the day, closes early, staff are miserable and the stock is dire. I actively avoid it.

I hate ordering from them online. Twice now I have paid for next day delivery and have not received the order for three or four days! The last order they didn’t send the correct item. It’s impossible to get through to their help desk. The stores can be very hit or miss. Larger boots like my local are often well stocked however I notice that smaller boots end up completely empty, makeup stands in particular seem to get completely gutted. Who is in charge of ordering the stock? It’s bizarre.