To wonder why Boots is so expensive?

[Netcurtainnelly]

I know we need Boots as they do prescriptions, and other services by why are they so expensive?

Was in their the other day. I saw toothpaste for seven pounds. A Johnsons Talcum Powder was 4 pounds.
I refused to pay that and went to Asda and got it for less?

Do any of you use Boots regularly?
Any reason its alot dearer?

Yes their advantage card and own brand make it worth it for deals that you can stack. Their own brands are better than some brands and they do lots of dupes or premium skin care. Their £10 Tuesday is great

But some things are more expensive. Same as anywhere

I suspect they charge more so they can give it back to you in Advantage card points...

I hate the way they've run down their local, smaller shops. They look so tired and as though they're on the verge of being shut down. So sad as they used to be smart shops. Greedy owners.

I believe they were sold to an American private Equity group? So they’ll be asset stripping before pushing it into bankruptcy I suppose.

Dc2 has a Saturday job there, they pay the under 18 staff the same pay as the over 21s. That must cost a bit for a national company.

Dc is always amazed at how much people are buying, but also how many of them are buying 'memory tablets', 'latested health kick'or branded medication when they could be buying own brand.
I think for some its a habit, some people have more confidence in them (especially when your talking about someones health), its convenient and others will just not want to shop around.
I do buy boots own brand vitamin d because dc3 has asd and the dietian told her they would help and named boots so she will only have those but I think theyre a similar price to many others.

Agree. Its like any store, you need to identify the bargain buys from a variety of stores - no one is going to be the complete answer.

Agree that some of Boots own brands are better than elsewhere including medical products. Eg I’ve hydrocortisone cream from elsewhere but only teh Boots own brand seems to do the job without aggravating the skin further or taking forever to clear. They do have expertise behind them.

Their prescription service is terrible, last few times I’ve popped in there rather than my local pharmacy I’ve stood for 20 minutes only to be told they only have half the stuff or none at all.

I never use Boots anymore. The supermarkets sell it all and have pharmacies too.

I can't remember the last time I shopped there.

Unbelievably overpriced. I had to get a prescription from there a year or so ago and good lord, a more disorganised process I've never seen.

Yes I like the advantage card and make good use of the recycling scheme rewards

What was the toothpaste you were buying/looking for? There are some quite specialist toothpastes that are only sold at places like Boots and will be pricey.

Advantage card deals are great.
I also get 10% off boots own products all the time.
I also use their recycling scheme where I get £5 vouchers.
I also get airtime rewards every time I spend in boots too.
You can stack those deals so I can use several at once. My last boots order I got about £30 off and made £7 just in points.

£10 Tuesday definitely worth a look.

Boots & WH Smith (or whatever they're called now) are the two shops I find bizarre that are still going. Most of the stuff they sell is overpriced and can be bought cheaper elsewhere and certainly in my town neither is ever overrun with customers.

Boots is pretty cheap?

I completely agree about Boots and W H Smith (or whatever they're called now).

They used to be lovely, well kept shops that we well stocked and fun to shop in at Christmas or for presents or treats for yourself.

The small shops now are ratty, like someone stopped investing in them a decade ago and the staff have lost interest. They're run down, don't even look clean, are overpriced - you can get everything they sell cheaper elsewhere, slow service, pharmacies are chaos, shop window a state, empty shelves. You also have that thing at the till "And would you like 2,000 money off vouchers? Or three for the price of two if you sign up for a card? Or a chocolate orange for a quid? Do you have a loyalty card? Can I email you your receipt?

There's a twitter page purely to make fun of the state of the carpets in W H Smith - dirty, holey, held together by gaffer tape.

Whsmith is nowT J Jones

What is Boots Tuesday deal??

If you shop on a Tuesday they only charge you twice the price of everywhere else instead of three times the price.

With regards to £10 Tuesday. There are 100’s of offers at £10 i.e Soap and Glory full size body scrub, body wash and body butter for all three. Lots of No 7 at often less than half price.

Add to that that you can often get double points on Advantage Card.

Definitely worth checking out.

Our local boots is good - large, modern, feels quite high end so the premium prices kind of make sense, and I like the no7 range.

In contrast, the next closest is awful! Small, shabby, and as others have said feels like a WHSmith ‘given up’ vibe.

So I can definitely see that if the boots near you is the shabby time the prices seem insane.

Unless you have a wild hankering to spend your time on earth handing over your personal data, juggling multiple price points and strange purchase combinations, as opposed to just going to a shop and buying what you want, there's no reason to go into Boots now.

No skin off the nose of its owner, who will happily strip it to the ground and pocket any incidental profits it can make from sky high pricing in the process.

It's certainly not because they're paying loads of staff.

I popped into my local Boots the other day, there was only one till open and only person serving at the pharmacy counter. Both had massive queues, to the point where it was hard to navigate the aisles. It shuts at 4.30pm and closes for an hour at lunchtime, so if you work locally you're lucky to get in there at all!

There are 3 independent pharmacies in town, but none of them are close to the main shopping area. Only one of them has parking nearby, the other two are on double yellow lines, and the nearest supermarket pharmacy is 10 miles away.

Is it more expensive, or are other stores cheaper?

I buy cheaper things in Superdrug, but same brands tend to be similar. I don't see much difference with items bought in my supermarkets.

My local Boots stocks a lot more "higher" brands too, which are obviously more expensive.

Boots own brand medicine is quite cheap.

Boots are the only place local to me that sell "premium" brands.

I like some of their No7 stuff. I also find the people on the No7 concession are realistic and approachable. I just wish they'd just price it properly instead of creating masses of paper waste with vouchers for permanent offers.

Unfortunately they have made everything except the pharmacy counter self service and there are never any staff about when you need someone to approve an offer. I have abandoned my shopping so many times.

I'm also having trouble with my advantage card that they seem unable/unwilling to sort.

They used to do nice sandwiches but don't anymore.