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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to never shop at WHSmiths again?

129 replies

Rollermum · 02/11/2015 19:52

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).

OP posts:
LumelaMme · 02/11/2015 21:53

They should be great, given what they sell... but the gloomy lighting in our local one time-travels me right back to 1975. This, children, is what the Olden Days were like... Though at least then you had lots of tills with real people behind them.

FinestGrundyTurkey · 02/11/2015 21:57

we have an infuriating WHS where our lovely Woolies used to be Sad

Woolies didn't go bust because of selling piles of shit nobody wanted at inflated prices - they went bust because of stupid senior management selling off their property stock & then renting it back at prices they couldn't control (probably doing nicely out of backhanders in the process) Angry

RealHuman · 02/11/2015 21:59

Oh, I tell a lie. I've been in twice in the last two years. The other time was to get a fairly standard replacement inner for my favourite ballpoint pen.

Guess what? They don't carry it. Hmm

kelper · 02/11/2015 21:59

Ds was given a smiths book token a few years ago, we went to buy a book of AA Milne poetry and the girl serving us didn't know who AA Milne was, never mind where we could find the books.....

RealHuman · 02/11/2015 22:00

^in the last year, sorry

MrsEricBana · 02/11/2015 22:00

Totally agree. Tries to be all things to all men and succeeds in being neither. Wrong on so many levels re the £1 chocolate at the till and even if I did want it I'd say no rather than look like a mug. As for the vouchers - useless as they are for something you don't want in a narrow window two weeks away, and the McDonalds vouchers they give out - WTAF? It really had a place when it was the high street store with the best "record department" but don't get it at all now.

ouryve · 02/11/2015 22:00

M&S are just as bad with the aisle clutter, in the run up to Christmas.

WorraLiberty · 02/11/2015 22:02

I've always found them massively over priced.

My DS's school used to give £5 WHS vouchers to the kids as a reward on presentation evenings.

But it always cost us money because we had to add to the voucher, just so he could get some fairly average art pens.

ouryve · 02/11/2015 22:05

Sunderland is going. It's a university city and a WHS store can't manage to be profitable there! (It's about halfway between Wilko and the biggest Poundland I've ever seen, mind!)

marshmallowpies · 02/11/2015 22:09

I went in on 28th or 29th Oct to see what they had in the way of Halloween tat - I was trying to find fake candle tea lights - and there was next to no Halloween stuff, it was all Christmas tat already. I get that it's not a supermarket and they don't necessarily sell the same kind of tat as supermarkets do, but I do think they were missing a trick by not having Halloween decorations in stock 2 days before Halloween!

Pooseyfrumpture · 02/11/2015 22:10

I think I live where Stillunexpected does. It's a tip, the post office is cramped and that fecking lift is a nightmare. It was crap downstairs before they put the PO in, now you can't even walk from one end of the shop out the other end.

LookAtAllThesePhucksIGive · 02/11/2015 22:10

The one in our local shopping centre doesn't open on Sunday's. I hate it and the only reason I ever go in is to access the post office. They lost my business when they dictated how I could spend my gift vouchers.

WhiffyBiffer · 02/11/2015 22:13

I went in with my girls to spend their book tokens, had a buggy as well and we just came straight out again as I couldn't physically get round. The aisles were narrow anyway then there was a staff member putting things on shelves with loads of boxes in the way everywhere. And the kids book section wasn't very appealing and didn't seem to have a great range.

Viviennemary · 02/11/2015 22:13

They're usually a shambles. I read the only thing keeping them afloat is their airport shops. I used to love Smiths. Now avoid it if I can.

RaskolnikovsGarret · 02/11/2015 22:19

I feel sorry for them actually. I think Amazon has destroyed them. They can't afford to keep the stores refurbished now, and are desperate, hence overstocking with tat. Think they will die very soon.

DustingOffTheDynastySuit · 02/11/2015 22:27

Am pretty certain the high street and airport/train franchises are run quite separately - certainly if you want to distribute a magazine via WHSmith's it used to be 2 separate conversations, I assume that's still the same.

Don't really understand how the high street side of the business is making any money at all these days though.

LittleBearPad · 02/11/2015 22:37

They are horrible now and it's such a shame. I used to love going in as a child and buying books there. Now they are messy, dirty and don't know what their point is.

RickRoll · 02/11/2015 22:38

They've let the chuggers in, the fuckers

MuddlingMackem · 02/11/2015 22:41

ouryve Mon 02-Nov-15 22:05:17

Sunderland is going. It's a university city and a WHS store can't manage to be profitable there! (It's about halfway between Wilko and the biggest Poundland I've ever seen, mind!)

IguanaTail · 02/11/2015 22:47

I used to love Smiths as a child. All that stationery and new books.

My local one is small and cramped but it's also smelly all the time. Whereas it should smell like fresh new books it smells of damp and dirt. And the lighting is really yellowy. It's crap. Plus you can get much better deals online. I'd actually pay more if it was nicely presented and had light wide aisles. It does feel like 1986 in there.

alltheworld · 02/11/2015 22:48

I went in once for some notelets and they didn't know what they were.

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeG0es · 02/11/2015 22:53

I still quite like it, the DCs really enjoy browsing there, vastly better selection of stationery than anywhere else in our town, ditto magazines, the staff in ours are friendly enough and only halfheartedly try to flog you the chocolate slabs. It's not big enough to lose anyone in and the aisles aren't especially crowded with clutter.

Books are eye-wateringly expensive in there though, I had a £10 voucher last year and even with £10 off all the cookery books were cheaper on Amazon. I bought a board game in the end.

foragogo · 02/11/2015 22:57

yeah they're a shambles now and massively overpriced, its a shame as it used to be a good shop. Our local one has a bored and surky teenager at the til idly flicking through a magazine and when you go and try to pay, she grunts at the self service machine in the otherwise empty shop and forces you to try and use it. It never works properly and then she begrudgingly deigns to serve you. the self swrvcie checkout were the final straw for me, not because I am against them per se, just because they are so badly implemented.

IguanaTail · 02/11/2015 23:04

Surky. That's a perfect word. Midway between smirk and surly. I'm going to use that!

ObiWanCannoli · 02/11/2015 23:08

Standing up for WHSmiths as they're selling some really nice pocket money toys that are great as stocking fillers. The 3 for 2 on trains is really good value, ours have also got a nice collection of kid colouring books and craft books.

The chocolate always seems good value and they do have good offers on books and Lego.

Agree that you need to be kid free and have time to browse round everything.