WH Smith to sell off high street branches

[strawberrythiefleaf]

Was just reading about WH Smith selling off their fledgling high street stores while keeping their more profitable 'travel' stores (airports, train stations, etc).

For reference: news.sky.com/story/wh-smith-in-secret-talks-to-sell-historic-high-street-arm-13295955

The main reason why the travel stores are so profitable is because of how grossly overpriced most of their items are, and the fact that most people don't have any other convenient options in those travel locations.

I refuse to purchase most things from a travel WH Smith because of how expensive they are.

But is this the only way for a business to succeed now? To hike the prices up so much? What could a potential purchaser do to save the high street arm of the business?

Same. Our Smiths is closing any day now. Possibly taking our only town centre post office with it.

I went in a branch the other day.
They were having a move round. The magazines were now right at the back of the store in a dark corner and the space was small so all the magazines were packed in tight so it was hard to see what they had. The space previously taken up by magazines was having new card displays put it. Rows and rows of expensive cards. Why? Surely that's the thing they sell the least 🤷
They seem to be focusing on selling the wrong product.

If there was a task given to work out what WH Smith could stock that was future proof for a few years I'm not sure what my answer would be. What do people actually need to go in store for these days?

There will be people who will want to buy an actual pen and an actual greeting card etc but they are few and far between.

The only thing I can think of is wrapping paper (😃) and that's a bit too niche. There must be some other things?

No surprise, expensive and an outdated shop that hasn't updated itself, so people can order cheaper from Amazon.

That's the point though. They've not updated their stores as it costs a small fortune, and they know the High St stores are on the way out, so they cut costs to the bone to keep them profitable, i.e. low lighting, few staff, etc. They're not wasting their time and money trying to change them as there's no point, there's nothing they could do anyway when there's the cheap card shops, cheap stationers, Argos and Amazon. Newsagents have been closing down for decades and they've done well to survive this long. The High St division has been in managed decline for a decade or more. Idea being to keep the profitable stores open and close the loss making ones piecemeal, a few every year as they become loss making. There's simply no way of "updating themselves" as the entire High St is on it's knees.

@tobee if they actually focused on magazines and books they could possibly do quite well.
Sales of magazines are no where near as big as they used to be but it's a vicious circle - people don't buy magazines but they don't buy them because they can't actually find them in the shops.
If they are there and displayed neatly and nicely - they would sell.
Books they could do so much better. They always seem to have vague offers (buy one get one half price etc) which are frequently stickered up wrong or not at all.
Forget the cards, gift wrap, stationary, giant chocolate bars etc - that is all available so much cheaper elsewhere.

I always made the best effort with the DC at Christmas and Summer to get the Beano, as children we always bought the summer edition or annuals to enjoy. Over time though fewer and fewer of the branches stock even the summer editions of the Beano. It is such a shame. We have somewhat been forced to order them online, and my DS8 really reads them with gusto. There are now Dennis the menace books and I feel like I won't bother checking the stores but rather just order them online - which I really don't want to.

Pare back and go old school WHSmith the way to go sounds sensible @Needmorelego

@Badbadbunny the banking hubs only offer the banking services that the Post Office does. You can't do any other services that a Post Office covers like buy stamps,post a parcel or passport form checks etc.

I’m surprised it’s lasted this long to be honest. I can’t remember the last time I bought anything there. I’ll occasionally pop in for a quick free browse of a magazine. Other than that it’s just full of overpriced stuff that you can easily get elsewhere for a fraction of the price.

I have two around, both have a post office branch in them.

Our bigger WHSmith has a decent range for proper art supplies and has good footfall so I think it would be missed. For stationery wise like maths equipment the alternative is an equally expensive Rymans.

The small one only survives thanks to the post office, It's always empty, tiny, so choices are utterly limited and there are plenty of other shops who sell cards and wrapping paper

But yes to magazines, they stock a huge amount of really eccentric ones and while I personally think magazines are utterly overpriced, I can see how people would otherwise struggle if they don't subscribe to a delivery.

I’m totally not surprised. All my local high street stores are dull, poor standards and look like they’re in the 80s.

It’s also very expensive and their business model for high street is somewhat outdated.

My local store in a city centre has probably about 30 metres of magazines? Who reads them anymore? Same with newspapers. Books? Most people have e-readers or download them on their phone… Stationery - you can buy on Amazon or even the discounters for much much cheaper.

Looks like they are closing all the smaller stores too. I can’t imagine they take much.

I also don’t think any ‘investor’ will invest into the business and keep it as it is today…. Major changes needed…. Theo Paphitis could come along and make an offer to convert them into Ryman and Robert Dyas stores.

The only reason we ever go in our WH Smiths is because Toys R Us is in there. Other than that the shop I loved so much as a 90s teen is unrecognisable. I'm sure some of the stock has been there that long! I can't ever find anything and it's so expensive.

Loved smiths as a kid. Parker pens, fun faxes etc.

This is sad, but not surprising. I do like WHSmiths for their arty gift cards, range of magazines (a lot of which I would not know exist)... plus I love to go and look at the stationery because I fucking love stationery.
My local one also has a Post Office in, so that would be a worry if that went too, as it is the only one in the town centre.

Good point lots have toys r us in now!

Boots meal deals are cheaper than WHSmith even in the airports & train stations so we always go there.
our high street WHS is closing, everything is so cheap I’ve never seen it so busy! We used to go in a lot when DD was younger because it had a clearance section & she liked buying toys & stationery but we never bought anything else

Not surprised really. I went into a High Street one the other day looking for birthday cards and it was semi empty with no nice cards, I had to go elsewhere.

My local store in a city centre has probably about 30 metres of magazines? Who reads them anymore? Same with newspapers

I dread to think how many end up in the bin each day/week/month

I work in retail
Everyone on here always talks about being ripped off but has no clue on cost of products- just because it’s more than you want to spend doesn’t make it a rip off.
ti make a product with people being paid the correct wage, transport it, pay tax on it, dispose of all packaging ethically etc… costs more than a couple of pence,

nett profitability of retail is tiny it’s literally make or lose millions - the likes of Tesco Sainos, Asda etc will be on single figure margins. We seem to have a huge issue with British tax paying business’ making profits … if they don’t win as a country we don’t win! Smiths has been off for years and sells low profit product ..: so are travel sites more expensive - yes - does it cost more to get product there, pass security etc and also staff- yes. So as customers … that cost gets passed on,
and btw brexit made it all x10 more

I think POs just relocate, ours was in Wilkos and it moved to another shop.

They get returned to the distributor or publisher.
Many magazines are then sold as back issues directly from the publisher or they will be recycled.
They don't end up in the bin.

We have a specialist magazine shop that sells absolutely every magazine I'm sure and it often looks fairly busy, though that might be people just nosing.

I have to say that my local branch (another with a PO in) is dingy but it has vastly better selections of cards, magazines, stationery than anywhere else in town including the big Sainsbury's which has small sections for each. I will miss it if it goes but won't be surprised.

Tell me your a 90s child without telling me your a 90s child!