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Original poster

Is it me or is 'Boots' going to be the next 'Woolworths'?

195 replies

GillyT · 02/01/2011 19:58

Just wondering if I'm the only person who wouldn't be surprised to see Boots 'go under' this year if they continue their policy of not spending Points & Gift Cards online.

I've got a total of £30 to spend at Boots (and have had for 3 months!) and simply haven't found a way to spend it. I looked at perfumes - cheaper to buy at The Perfume Shop though; I looked at hairdryers to no avail; I created a Photobook online - only to discover that I can't use my Points & Giftcards online to pay for it!

I've a feeling they have finally lost me as a customer altogether - 20 years ago, a week wouldn't have passed by without me buying something from Boots...not any more, I'm sad to say :(

OP posts:
jessiealbright · 03/01/2011 19:42

Well, a WHSmith assistant told me they were withdrawing the card and there were notices all over my local branch.

Now I feel paranoid that everyone else but me is stacking up points...

jessiealbright · 03/01/2011 19:56

fortunately, I still have my WHSmith card. Not that I'm going to be in there tomorrow, at the crack of dawn, demanding An Explanation, or anything. Honest.

5Foot5 · 03/01/2011 20:02

I agree with all the criticisms on this thread about WH Smith. I actually came on here in the first place to express my opinion that if there was one High Street chain that is surely doomed it must be them.

I did wander whether it was just our local one that was so hopeless but apparently not. There display of magazines is an absolute disgrace. I have often seen magazines that are weeks out of date that they simply haven't bothered to remove.

About the Boots Advantagepoints - I have loads that I must get round to spending some time but I hadn't realised that about not spending online. What annoyed me was that you can't use the points towards the cost of an item and then make up the rest by some other payment method, you have to have sufficient points for the whole item. I once tried to use mine towards the cost of a spa day for my sister's 50th but I was told i couldn't do that and, unfortunately, the spa day was just too expensive for me to buy her without using the Advantage points.

You know though, don't you, that the whole Advantage scheme is just there so that they can gather marketing information about you and then use it to better direct their mailing shots?

5Foot5 · 03/01/2011 20:04

zukiecat"GetOrf What's wrong with Clintons? I buy all my cards, gift wrap sellotape etc from there. Don't like the cheap and nasty card shops springing up where I live"

I used to go in to Clintons alot. But then we had a number of the "cheap and nasty" card shops open and I found I could buy cards there which were every bit as nice but a fraction of the cost of Clintons. No contest.

zukiecat · 03/01/2011 21:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Janos · 03/01/2011 21:11

Well I really like Boots, meal deals are great - good quality and selection I think. Much better than rivals. They do some good deals too IMO.

mssoul, I know where you mean, lovely story :)

HATE those bloody adverts though. HATE them. Partic the latest one.

loola2snowshus · 03/01/2011 21:19

Sorry if this has been done as I haven't read past 1st page....

Is it still their policy to only let you use points in store if your purchase is less than the amount of points you have? ie purchasing something for £20 but only have £10 points... could you pay part cash part points?

loola2snowshus · 03/01/2011 21:21

Ooops sorry 5foot I have just found my answer Wink

hephaestus · 03/01/2011 21:27

Before anyone asks, that has always been the policy. You have never been able to use part points, part cash - had a great deal of trouble explaining this to some people who insisted that it used to be that way. One started swearing at me. Hmm

You also cannot earn/use points against formula milk, that was another earful of abuse received...

PhishFoodAddiction · 03/01/2011 21:39

I love boots, I spend a fortune in there. Blush [spendthrift emoticon]

I know it's expensive, but it's the only place I go to for make-up and skin care. And I bought a mooncup too last time I was in there and very glad I did.

I can't believe the OP can't spend £30 in there! You could treat yourself to something half price now- you know like the christmas sets of bath stuff or make up.

I'm still getting through all the sanctuary spa stuff I got half price last New Year with my Christmas vouchers!

loola2snowshus · 03/01/2011 21:44

I agree phish I love Boots, but I didn't know you could get mooncups in Boots as ridiculous as that sounds.... off to search out some old mooncup threads to see if its worth investing!

PhishFoodAddiction · 03/01/2011 21:54

Yeah I spotted them last time I was in, and had heard good things so thought I'd give it a try. I really like it, it's very comfy and no leaks, but it did make me feel a bit squeamish at first.

plainjanesuperbrain · 03/01/2011 22:16

Well I could spend £30 in boots easily!

onadietcokebreak · 03/01/2011 22:33

Well I have £110 in points.....and no I havent spent that much in there - I just take full "advantage" of the extra points!

TaffyandTeenyTaffy · 03/01/2011 22:51

We bought a cooker from boots online recently - over £20 cheaper than anywhere else and we got about £20 of Advantage points too - fab customer service, phoned to confirm the order and again to enquire about the snow in our area and rang/texted the night before and on the day with delivery info.

PurpleCrazyHorse · 03/01/2011 23:05

Not being able to spend gift cards online (for most shops) is very annoying but I've come to accept it. I was lucky enough to get quite a lot of money on a Boots gift card and will spend it on perfume and make-up. It might be slightly more expensive but it's a treat (and a gift) from others so I'm not going to quibble about the extra.

I do find their children's clothes very good and our local store is quite nice. I do look for good offers though and their sale items. Just bought DD some half price Brio online making it pretty good value for money.

donkeyderby · 03/01/2011 23:20

I was going to start a thread about how woeful WHSmiths is. Overpriced books and stationary, low staffing levels and queuing for ages only to have chocolate pushed at you at the till (why chocolate?).

Another shop that needs a boot up the arse is C&H Fabrics. It's like shopping in 1950

confuddledDOTcom · 04/01/2011 00:10

Maybe they have then. I said something once to an assistant about a shame they don't still have a card and she said they do but it's not advertised anymore. No one ever asked me for it but I always got points if I handed it over. I lost it when I moved house just over a year ago so haven't used it since.

loola, I wasn't sure about a mooncup but I've found myself becoming more and more crunchy since I had my eldest and as I am not able to put out recycling where I live I have become aware of everything I throw away so I decided to go for it. I'm very glad I did now - was particularly useful when I went on a 12 week period and losing 100ml a day, I wouldn't have known that otherwise and was able to get a referral because it's excessive (GP reaction was funny "are you using contraception, apart from your cup?" took ages to get her head around!)

4andnotout · 04/01/2011 11:11

I'm really pleased with Boots today as an order I placed online yesterday is being delivered today, it's fantastic service and I couldn't get to my local store for the price of the delivery charge!!

mippy · 04/01/2011 12:30

Superdrug annoys me - the make-up counters are always badly stocked and dirty (I bought something from there once and returned it as I opened the box to find a tester inside) and half their stores don't have a pharmacy in them but it's never clear from the outside so I end up wasting time trying to get my prescription. They've also 'lost' my prescription in the past.

Boots sells make-up I really like which is even better hwen there's a 3-for-2 on something like Urban Decay which is normally expensive.

Smiths is pretty much the only choice for specialist magazines these days since Borders went under, but for everything else it is SO expensive. And most of the shop assistants border on rude.

mippy · 04/01/2011 12:32

"People marketing main stream books only really have two customers - Amazon and WH Smith."

Tesco are one of the biggest booksellers in the country.

My mum lives in a 100k population town. The choice for books there is a small WH Smith and a branch of The Works.

MackerelOfFact · 04/01/2011 14:24

Surely Waterstones are a big book retailer too? My local WHSmith seems devote most of its expansive floorspace to rubbish cook book compendiums which are all rehashes of one another, some odd and overpriced 'gifts' with Science Museum and Coronation Street branding, and precious little else really. The shops just feel so shabby.

I thought Boots owned lots of major health and beauty brands though - E45, Nurofen, etc? Or have I made that up?

mippy · 04/01/2011 14:57

Yeah, the Smiths where my mum lives only stocked the top 10 bestsellers, the books you describe and some misery memoirs. Maybe people just don't read there, but the British Heart Foundation had a better selection.

Quenelle · 04/01/2011 15:06

Virtually everything I've bought in Boots recently I've found cheaper in Waitrose.

Agree about WH Smith being awful. Our local branch looks like a pound shop now.

5Foot5 · 04/01/2011 19:27

Actually I have just thought of a couple of Boots products from their sanitary range that I have been very dissatisfied with .

I usually buy Tampax a well-known brand of applicator tampon from the supermarket. However, sometime in the last year or so I happened to need some more and Boots were nearby so I went in there and bought their own brand of tampon. They looked just the same so I wasn't expecting any problems. I found though that most of them simply were unusable. To put it bluntly I could not get them in! After inserting the thick end of the tube I then tried to push the thinner end of the tube up inside and, in many cases, it simply wouldn't budge. I tried changing the angle, wriggling them around, taking them out and trying again but, with up to 50% of them, I had to give up, throw it away and use another one. In nearly 30 years of using the aforementioned well-known brand I don't think I have ever had this problem.

The other item is disposable sanitary bags. Normally I get little opaque purple ones, once again from the supermarket. They make a good job of disguising the contents so that I have a discreet little bundle to place in the bin. But one day I bought a box of Boots disposal bags. When I opened them I found they were vaguely opaque but had almost no colour apart from a slight hint of blue. Why does this matter? Well because they do nothing to hide the contents so that you can quite clearly see the soiled items inside. Maybe I am being a bit squeamish but frankly I would rather that me or the next person going to put something in the bin didn't have quite such an unobscured view of my used sanitary items!

I wonder if the team designing these bags gave any thought at all to this issue? Did this team have any women on it? Did they do any market research? I would be tempted to think that the answer to some, if not all, of these questions is "No".