Or are WHSmith ridiculously overpriced?

[ImCatbug]

Needed to buy some postage boxes and bubblewrap to post some Christmas presents today, and since I couldn't get to my usual shopping centre to buy some gift boxes I popped into the WHSmiths down the road from me.
£4.29 for 3m of bubblewrap??? £4.49 for a smallish medium postage box with a whole page of instructions just to assemble it?? I usually buy £2 gift boxes and bubblewrap from the pound shop. I actually found a 5m roll of bubblewrap in Sainsburys right afterwards and returned the expensive stuff to WHSmith.
I also had a look at the wrapping paper while I was in there and it's £4.49 a roll? Even the non-'luxury' stuff is £3.50 or so. And £8.99 for a pack of Christmas cards? Again, I found cheaper (and nicer) stuff in Sainsburys literally down the road.
I was going to buy a can of energy drink in there too don't judge me but it was about £2.40 a can, or 2 for £2.50. RRP for those drinks is £1.19 so even on offer they're more expensive in WHS than anywhere else.
The only time I see people in there is in the integrated Post Office upstairs. There is nothing in there that you can't get for the same price or much cheaper elsewhere.
I know IABU because I don't have to shop there but I just don't understand why they keep their prices so high.

WHSmith is truly the most bizarre shop on our high street. Where else can you go in and buy a dictionary for double the price of every other book shop and face a maze of 1kg bars of Galaxy, a straw and wood scarecrow ornament the size of a rotund toddler and an assortment of tin letters filled with barley sugar?

@WHS_carpet is worth a Twitter follow.

Yes! I have always thought that. Amazed they are still going, actually.

And their magazine classifications make me cross - often see The Economist in "Men's Interest" section and all home decor stuff in "Women's".

AND... No I DON'T want to buy whichever massive chocolate bar / bag of sweets you're forcing your staff to push at me when I get to the till.

AND... No I DON'T want to buy whichever massive chocolate bar / bag of sweets you're forcing your staff to push at me when I get to the till.

yes, that is so annoying! Every effing time I go in there :|

I usually get my rollwrap from card factory or clintons. I swear even M&S is less expensive sometimes!

I'm constantly baffled that my local WHS is still going when all around it other shops are closing.

Now our post office is about to move in there?!

Don't even get me started on the number of receipts/vouchers that get foisted on you with every purchase.

Forgot to say the 5m bubble wrap I got in Sainsburys was £1! Compared to £4.29 for 3m in WHS.

I also thought the packaging I was buying was on 3 for 2 because the shelf said that, but at the till the woman informed me that was only on Jiffy bags and 'there's a sign that says that' but you can't see said sign because all the stock is piled haphazardly around and in front of the shelves rather than on it! I had to fish the postage boxes out of a crack down the side of the shelf where they had been roughly shoved.

I think WHS are still in business because they have a nationwide monopoly on newspaper distribution don't they? Don't they supply everyone else with newspapers?

I am very much in a minority here but I love WH Smith!

I buy my magazines, pens and books there (as well as in Waterstones) I'm on a very limited budget, but I absolutely adore my trips to WH Smith, I'd be truly lost without them.

To all those who say they hate the staff pushing chocolate at the tills, I work in a shop (not WH Smith!) and we can be disciplined if we don't ask every single customer. So I either say Yes Please, or No Thankyou as it's just part of the cashier's job to ask

WholeL0ttaRosie a Filofax diary insert was what I went into WHSmiths for this morning. I usually get them from Rymans but the one in our town closed down a few months ago so I had no choice.

Even the bloody self service till tries to push chocolate at you, a chocolate orange came up on the screen and I had to select yes or no before I could go any further.

I am shocked they are still going but agree that the ones in prime locations like airports must keep the others open. they have always been overpriced but our big one is always busy so they must still sell things people want ( or cant be bothered to buy in the pound store or somewhere cheaper) it is a mystery.

WHS appears to sell everything at RRP whereas we have all got used to discounts and deals.

I went there last year I bought some stationary stuff on some sort of deal, I paid with my card and didn't take any notice until I looked at the receipt later on and I realised I had been overcharged. I looked at the deal sticker and it turned out the deal had some sort of small print which canceled it out, it was my mistake but I still felt like I was mugged for paying their full prices.

Zukie

We get it that it asking every customer to buy choc bars is a cuntfaced management tactic - I hope no-one is rude to staff - but we don't have to like it. I am so glad I don't have to work in retail any more.

WHSmiths is a sweetshop that also happens to do stationary!!

at a chocolate orange came up on the screen - now that's a hard sell!

I don't even register the 'would you like to buy some chocolate?' any more so it doesn't bother me. It's just a meaningless part of the social interaction like when you say thank you at three different points.

Dingy, dusty, depressing shop. I wouldn't miss it from the high street which is a shame, I used to love it years ago.

I'm sure when this question was asked on here before, somebody knowledgable said that they make millions from newspaper & magazine distribution so have no need to offer the discounts other retailers offer. They are also clearly "in bed" with the Post Office, as so many are now located in their stores. This must make them money I imagine.

That said, there is literally nothing for sale in there that isn't available cheaper elsewhere. You'd think they'd still want to shift stock wouldn't you? Whether they are doing OK or not .

Ours is inbetween Poundworld & Card Factory. Needless to say I only go in for the Post Office!

WHSmith's prices are outrageous! I went in there to buy a 'Canon 8ml Black Ink 545 cartridge' for my printer. Their price £34.00. I went up to Tesco & got it for £20.
Come on WHSmith, I'm sure you can do better

I always feel sorry for people who are not familiar with internet, too far from a decent supermarket, and who have to buy from WH Smiths. Even Amazon is way cheaper, the prices in Smiths are insane.

I guess things don't seem to have changed in the 6.5 years since this was first posted.

They're still in business though.

Isn't there rumour that toys r us are coming back inside whsmiths?

If there wasn't, there is now 😜