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?

Good they are a rip off shit shop!

Our WH Smith’s shut a couple of years ago and they moved the post office into another shop .

Needmorelego, great post. We used to live in a town with a University campus which specialised in textiles and design. The local WHS had a whole stand of magazines devoted to fashion, textiles, textile art/craft - not just Vogue and Simply Crochet, but lots of really interesting sometimes quite niche magazines. I still buy occasional copies of Selvedge purely because I'd seen them in this particular branch. I have seen Selvedge in a few really good magazine /bookshops in Edinburgh and London, but there was a beautiful magazine called Quiltfolk which I have never seen again 😒. (it's a US magazine and postage to the UK is steep.)

The knock on effect on the UK specialist magazine industry may be quite serious

The brand has outlived it's purpose and hasn't adapted. I last went into our city's branch and I couldn't find anyone to serve me. It was dirty, half empty and expensive. When my DS was small we used to spend all day in the city centre and the branch was so busy the escalators were full of people. There still appears to be a lot of people in the city but they cannot be buying much. Which leads to stores closed, less footfall, more stores closing ...

But time moves on and it's more convenient to buy stationery elsewhere. I don't know anyone who buys magazines anymore.

I don't know what the solution could have been. But it reminds me of when Blockbuster refused a deal with Lovefilm and didn't survive.

As a poster up thread said you can buy books at Waterstones and it's pleasant. Ours has a cafe upstairs.

That’s exactly why they are keeping the airport ones. Overpriced and a captive market means big profits.

85% of their profits come from their travel division, and only 15% come from their high street shops.

Ours just looks messy inside, very little thought seems to have gone into the merchandising. I mainly use it for the Post Office, so I hope the PO makes other arrangements if it closes.

The book selection has really gone downhill, it's mainly the same bestsellers you can get much cheaper in the supermarket. Back in the day it was a 'proper' bookshop.

DH and I were talking about this yesterday. He works in a school and a kid came in with some things in a WH Smith bag. Another boy asked him what it said on the bag. When DH told him he said he’d never heard of it. When I was young every 9 year old knew Smiths, even if just for back to school pencil cases and pens.

But thinking about it Smiths don’t do anything special anymore. Readership of magazines and newspapers is through the floor. (A young colleague didn’t believe me when I told her that it was very common for households to get a newspaper delivered every morning back in the 70s and 80s). Stationery can be bought from other places like B&M or Smiggle. Books are from bookshops or online. I’d go to a card shop for cards and Rymans for stationery.

@TheDowagerCountessofPembroke Smiggle - the only place that manages to be more overpriced than WHSmith.

Why wouldn’t you just subscribe anyway, if it’s one you read so regularly that you would miss it if it’s gone?

I'm only surprised they aren't selling more branches.

No staff around when needed.
Complicated offers instead of clear, sensible prices.
Parent's one had even run out of paperclips the other day.
It doesn't have a USP any more. Jack of all trades, master of none.

But thinking about it Smiths don’t do anything special anymore. Readership of magazines and newspapers is through the floor. (A young colleague didn’t believe me when I told her that it was very common for households to get a newspaper delivered every morning back in the 70s and 80s). Stationery can be bought from other places like B&M or Smiggle. Books are from bookshops or online. I’d go to a card shop for cards and Rymans for stationery.

I think they survived so long because most high stresses don't have a Waterstones, Smiggle, Rymans or B&M.

But they have made it a place children want to go to buy stuff. Overpriced or not.

i've never been into a Smiggle, still miss Paperchase.

Suprised they aren’t selling more branches? They are selling their entire high street operation of 500 or so branches.

They are keeping their travel operation (airports / stations / motorway services etc). As that is where 85% of their profits come from, it makes perfect sense.

Ah my mistake. I saw an article listing 17, must have been an old one.

Yet another "Saturday job" employer disappearing from the high Street.
Kids will have even fewer places for part time work.

Maybe try a trial subscription to Readly - they have a 2-month free trial offer at the moment. Tons of magazines from UK, US, and loads of other countries. Just remember to cancel if you don't want to continue to the paid subscription. Loads of hobby and special interest mags, although not every title. They do some newspapers too.

I went to WHS to get some pads of paper with my student daughter a couple of weeks ago. We needed two. They were £9.99 each. I would have paid £6-7 without question but £9.99 seemed very high so I thought I’d see how much they were a few doors down in Rymans. Identical ones were £2.99 and she got a student discount so we ended up getting the two we needed for under £6 and therefore ended saving over £14. I thought at the time how greedy WHS were and vowing never to buy from them again.

sometimes these greedy companies take it too far and end up alienating customers. It reminded me if the time Lurpak put their prices up so height that I just boycotted them. I’ve not bought Lurpak since and now prefer the cheaper (less oily) one that I buy.

It’s not disappearing yet. They are trying to find a buyer, so it may well keep going in some form.

The problem is it doesn’t seem to be a very well loved brand. As the comments on here show, people think it is irrelevant, overpriced and are surprised it is still going. So I’m not sure how easy finding a buyer would be.

I wonder (I don't know) how many specialist magazines are bought occasionally, and what proportion of sales they are. Buying one before a long train journey has probably declined already though. Used to be the only time I ever bought the NME.

Mine did, post office had to find new location

It used to be the place for cards, now use mainly whistle fish online, better , cheaper and delivered.
Also Lidl selling greeting cards too

As others have said, there will be a lot of post offices to find new homes for. In a local town to me, it was only a few years ago the post office moved into WH Smiths. Wonder where they will go now? Maybe in the the Spar, as that's where my local one is.

I can't see who would make a success out of WH Smiths? With dying high streets, the outlook isn't great. When a shop closes down, it's often replaced with a charity shop.

I think their strength could be in selling the unusual magazines that people want physical copies of. And books - kindle is great for fiction that you are only going to read once, but there's still a place for children's books and anything which relies on beautiful illustrations, or that you want to enjoy the experience of reading the physical copy/will share with other members of the household.
I think they could still do well, it's just at the moment they sell lots of things that you can get anywhere and for less money!

If they concentrate on the unusual and reduce the prices of the everyday (cards, stationary) they could survive. I still like a physical shop and prefer it to Amazon etc.

Worth keeping in mind that the high street business is still making a profit, just not as much as the travel business.

So there may well be someone who can buy it, tweak the business model and make it even more successful.

It’s a different situation to the likes of Woolworths and Wilko etc, where the business was on it’s knees and collapsed into administration.