AIBU to never shop at WHSmiths again?

[Rollermum]

I get they are trying to broaden their product base in the face of online competition but I feel they have gone way too far with crowding stores out to the point where getting around them is a headache, even without a pushchair or wheelchair.

I went to my local one which has narrow aisles, and for Christmas they have put little semi circle stands of gift wrap and sweets at every corner. I did have a pushchair but even without would have found trying especially I didn't happen to be the only one in there.

Their policy of a self service checkout in the ways of the normal till (seen in several branches, not just this one), piles of sugary crap teetering around the till and endless not very useful vouchers just gives me the rage.

AIBU to want to never shop there again even though I try to support the high street? And I feel sorry for their staff (peering out from piles of sweets, proffering vouchers).

I hate WH smiths and this is probably the reason. Feels like it's going the same way as woolworths, stock so much of everything but nothing in the end that anyone wants or can't get cheaper somewhere else!

I always seem to get offered a giant bar of chocolate for £1. Absolutely the last thing I need or should be eating.

Apart from a magazine at the airport last weekend, I haven't felt the need to go into WHS for years. There is nothing they sell that I can't get elsewhere, either cheaper Irvin s nicer shop. Or online of course.

The vouchers are terrible. Not ones you'd want at all: "come back within the next two weeks and another item like the one you just did."

Rude unhelpful staff, crowded aisles, untidy stock and shelves, pricey stock, pressure to buy sugary crap at till.

What's not to love.

I rarely use ours now not least because they have people on the door trying to sell you stuff. When you are going in for a newspaper being pestered about over priced make up sets or threading drives me mad. Also hate how they try and shove chocolate and sweets on you and the self serve tills have an assistant on them to help you whereas if she got behind a till and served people instead service would be so much faster.

Its murder with blocked aisles, it must be a nightmare for wheelchair users as well as buggies. No wonder more people shop online now.
The goods are cheaper elsewhere too.
Would be a shame if they go the way of Woolies but they need a bit of an overhaul i think. Our one in town has more self service tills than staff!

It is a shame they're going the way they are but agree the shops are insanely overcrowded and it's never a pleasant experience. Our local ones never seem particularly clean, either - there's a grubbiness to them. I don't know how they've survived this long.

They are shit. I can't understand how they are still in business

I hate WH Smiths with a passion. Especially now that they insist you use the crappy self service tills even if you don't want to. I had a couple of items to buy the other day, and a 20% off voucher to spend so thought it would be easier to use normal till ( there was no queue ). Man behind till took my items and then walked over to the self serve till with them and made me use that one - would have been way quicker to just serve me at the normal till.
Also ended up realising that the item I'd bought in there for £27.99 ( about £22 with my 20% off voucher ) was being sold for £14.99 everywhere else - the robbing dogs.
Won't make the mistake of going in there again.

Hate ours. The ground floor is full of crap and tat, it is overpriced, messy and you can't find either the thing you want or a member of staff to direct you. Downstairs (in the basement!) now contains the main post office for a town of almost 100,000 people. The part which isn't taken up by the post office is occupied by half-empty shelves or the overflow of tat from the ground floor. And they have the world's slowest lift to transport buggies, wheelchairs and the elderly to the post office part.

I can't get into our WH Smiths without being asked to join the AA, I can't get around it without falling over stuff/getting stuck behind pushchairs and I can't get out without being asked to buy stamps/chocolate/other shit I don't want. I now don't go at all they have nothing in there worth the he'll of negotiating all the above.

Yes they are all dirty overcrowded hell holes. The ones in the airports are marginally better, seem a bit less crowded.

I detest my local WH Smith. Getting down the aisles with a buggy is like a task from The Krypton Factor and no matter what time of day or actual day I go there (I only ever go there for books for my little boy) they have a sodding great heavy, immovable roll cage dumped in front of the books I want to get to.

I do however know why they try to push £1 bars of chocolate and Haribo on you at the tills. It's because they take so bloody long to serve you that you need something to get your blood sugar back up again.

Oh, and why do they persist in putting pregnancy magazines on the lowest shelf? When I was heavily pregnant, once I'd squatted down I couldn't get back up and was floundering about until I eventually got someone to help me back up.

I hate whsmiths they're always dirty, run down, shambolic and the staff are always scruffy and rude

How they are still open I don't know

I can't understand how they're still in business. Cramped, dreary, dirty shops. Vastly overpriced goods, and not enough staff. It's a mystery.

I never go in now, who knows how many bodies of poor lost souls there are under the avalanche of crap at the till.

In all seriousness though they must be in breach of several accessibility rules with all the shit they block the shop with.

yes yes and yes then they decided to ram the post office in the back of ours bedlam on pension day i avoid it it wouldn't be as bad with the self service checkouts BUT THEY TRY AND FLOG YOU SHIT TOO! would you like a bottle of water today? no a bag? no! perhaps some chocolate? WHERE IS THE FUCK OFF LET ME PAY BUTTON!

i was in there today never again!

Cramped, dreary, dirty shops

Yes. And another thing I don't like is the full height shelves so you can't see where you need to go and it feels really claustrophobic.

I used to love WH Smith as a kid though, the Brent Cross one was huge on 2 floors

I complained to a manager last Christmas after trying to manoeuvre round one of their stores with a friend who is a wheelchair user - she needed something in particular up a long aisle, struggled to get down because it was so narrow and then couldn't get out the other end because they had it blocked off with those cage things full of chocolate. We couldn't turn because of the sticky out advertising boards attached to the shelves at face height. Shop staff just gave a shrug of the shoulders and the manager was much the same so they haven't been graced with mine or my friends presence since.

I think they stay in business by massively overpricing in their airport/ train station shops. This has led to my hatred of them.

At least on the high street you can choose to ignore them. In airports they have a captive audience for their overpriced crap

I love them, am I really the only person feeling the love? Books, sweets, games, chocolate, cards, sweets, stationary, chocolate and lots more - it's great. Will be sad when it disappears from the high street.

I don't understand how they're still going either, but they must be doing ok - ours has just moved into new premises.

thon they are breaking the law (Disability Discrimination Act).