Ryman is an absolute rip off - insane high street prices!

[PrestoTresto]

I try to use my high street as much as possible, however increasingly I am turning to online because of the cost of goods - not just a couple of pounds difference - but astronomical amounts.

Doing the back to school shopping today, I took my children to WHSmith (TGJones 🙄). £10+ for pencil cases… the exact same ones you can get from Temu for £1. Ditto lunchboxes, stationery etc.

Next, I had some documents to scan, approximately 100 pages. I usually use my local printer and scanning shop, which would cost me no more than £10 for the scan and PDF email, however they are closed for the bank holiday. I went into Ryman to be quoted £2.50 + 65p per page… bringing the total to around £68 for SCANNING documents in. This involves almost no cost to them - no paper, no ink, simply a few minutes scanning and sending the pdf to my email address. I couldn’t believe the price and told the worker that it was an absolutely insane price - I appreciate the worker doesn’t care less - but I honestly couldn’t believe it. Are there genuinely people paying these sorts of prices or is Ryman (and much of the rest of the high street) just going to go bust in the next few years?

You're local library when open and if you have one much cheaper.

That is totally nuts. I second going to the library for printing scanning etc

YANBU. I think I went there once in the 90s and never went back.

Could you scan your documents at your local library?

That's madness. I don't often use the high street due to similar things plus the fact it's often impossible to actually get what I want locally.

As a thought have you tried your local library, they may have a scanner

I’m going to go to my local shop tomorrow - it will be no more than £10 - I don’t mind that sort of price to support an independent business. I wouldn’t have minded paying a little extra to Ryman to get it done today, but £68 is insane. I don’t see how they will stay open with these sorts of prices (unless they have some customers who don’t know any better and will just pay that?!)

If you can be arsed there are scanning apps you can get for your phone...

You don’t even need an app on an iPhone. Just start a new Note and click the paper clip icon and it gives you the option to scan a document and save it.

Probably not to be honest - I can’t be arsed doing it one page at a time at home. It’s not an issue normally as I have a shop 2 minutes down the road that does it. I just don’t see how the high street can survive when there are these sorts of disparity with prices. The pencil case example, I’m sure most people wouldn’t mind a couple of pounds extra, but when you can get the exact same thing for 90% cheaper on Temu, more and more people are just not going to bother with the high street.

Library is an option, as suggested by others.

But also local computer repair shops. In London, there are quite a few of these trading under the Macgicians moniker. They charge about 20 pence per page.

The Ryman pricing structure will be based on their typical customer scanning a few documents (or possibly just 1).

They wouldn't be able to offer the service if they priced like your normal place.

100 scans wouldn't be their typical customer.

I thought Ryman went bust years ago!