Talk to me about the whole John Lewis thing

[notreallyuponJL]

As per the title, and inspired by another thread where someone was asking about the JL experience.

It's never been a place I would think of going to, not least because there wasn't one in my city until recent years, although other "posh" department stores very much existed. However, that store has now closed, as has the "JL At Home" which opened in 2011 and closed in 2020, and with a shift towards online shopping from a seemingly endless choice of retailers, I have to ask what the advantages of the likes of JL are.

I only ever knew one person who was a devout JL shopper, and it certainly tied into his overall arrogance & delusions of grandeur which applied to other aspects of his life...certainly the connotations (whether real or imagined) about shopping in Argos were ingrained in his mindset, principally because it came with a catalogue, which in itself had connotations of being for people who couldn't afford to buy what they wanted, and not helped that Argos was launched on the back of the success of the Greenshield stamp scheme.

My question comes from a place of genuine curiosity and not reverse snobbery, having only ordered from JL once, online, and it being an experience as good as any other right up to the point where they couldn't get stock to fulfill said order. Their customer service was horrific, and I've never used them since.

Given current trends and the uniformity that is the internet (not to mention how crowded and noisy it is), are some retailers (like JL) still able to stand out from the rest? If so, how and why?

I love my nearest one. Plenty of parking, closest set of big shops to me and usually has whatever it is I'm looking for. Order online, pick up in store. It's just a pleasant shopping experience.

My "local" store is the former Bainbridge store in Newcastle. It's neat and orderly and a very pleasant shopping experience and rarely unpleasantly busy. Most of the stock is good quality for the price point and they carry a lot of stuff that you can no longer get anywhere else on the high street. We still have a small but useful haberdashery that I always take a spin around.

And they seem to treat their staff a lot better than the jumble sale that is Fenwick's, just next door.

I don’t know if JL still offer it, but purchase assembly was / is brilliant - you buy what you want and then go to collect the whole lot in one go.
The clothing staff there will also help you when you need to find what you want but don’t have any specific items in mind, regardless of brand.
Of course, their price match also helps to promote them as a good place to shop as well.

It's an experience as well as generally being excellent quality.
I don't go shopping much but if I do I head for JL. Clean, calm, nice knowledgeable staff, no pressure, fab changing rooms.

Shopping or browsing is so dreary now, on the highstreet. Online has sucked all the fun and customer experience out of shopping. JL makes it a pleasure, even if I don't find what I want.

My nearest one is next to an Argos so no distinction between shopping at one or the other.

She carried the shoes to the till for me and arranged to leave them there while I mooched so I didn’t have to lug them round. So nice!

They also so that in Sports Direct, so you don't knick the trainers.

I recently had to furnish a room in my mother’s house (she has Alzheimers) for possible overnight carers/guests. I had already bought a few bits from Dunhelm and Homesense. I needed a load of bedding so headed for JL. I was absolutely exhausted that day, and feeling overwhelmed. An extremely kind assistant could see I was struggling and came to my rescue, pushing the trolley and helped me buy everything well within our budget. I really rate this shop highly. It is also somewhere I take my mother for a little outing as the staff are very understanding of her needs, and she enjoys a little treat in their café. I find the quality of the stock to be of a good standard, their ‘everyday range’ included. My parents shopped here in the 1970s.

I wonder if we live in the same region. Google rewards app always asks me if I've been in Argos when I've been in JL as they overlap each other.

Their no quibble returns and civil, informed staff. Sadly, I think this is what is considered "posh" in retail now.

I've always liked John Lewis but in the last few years, we had massive issues with a sofa we bought from there and just today, DH gave me a bracelet from there that he bought for my birthday "from the DC" and it has completely broken on the very first day of wearing. So im not feeling that enamoured to go back again at the minute.

Oo, maybe.

Oh, just read your earlier message and, no, not the same region

Weird post

Gosh this took me back, it had just opened in eldon square went I started as a student at university there..loved it as we didn’t have one back at home

@ChristPleaseJustStop I think she might mean that if she is going to buy a brand name product (Apple Ipad, Shark Hoover, Lego set, Morphy Richards Kettle etc etc) then it doesn't make the slightest difference if it's bought from Argos or JL.
Because it's exactly the same product that would have come from the exactly the same factory.
(apologies to @SwedishEdith if that's not what you meant🙂)

Yes it was. I think you should remove it. You really don't want to put that impression of yourself forward, do you?

No it’s not weird…two businesses are working on completely different business models…JL is about quality and customer experience in store…limited selected goods that offer quality ( albeit at a price) .
argos is about selling goods cheaply, high turner over at minimum overheads…customers fend for themselves, staff are in effect warehouse operators. Shopping experience is meant to be brief, perfunctory

both have their place, if that’s what you meant in your posts, but they are entirely different

It’s like buying food at M&S over somewhere else. It’s just a bit better? Not super fancy, but just reliably good quality. A nice shopping experience and in my experience good customer service.

Have heard they have very good staff retainment, which must mean staff are treated well. They have good CSR policies and have a long standing reputation for being reliable and efficient. What’s not to like.

Isn't it just. I took it that the point you were making was that there was nothing to choose between them, not that you couldn't see which was which.

@Limehawkmoth yet they frequently sell exactly the same products.

Our John Lewis closed after lockdown and I miss it so, so much. I work close to the building, and it was my soothing lunchtime mooch around. The beauty hall, the clothes, the candle section - and the Christmas shop!

I think JL is a bit of a generational thing. And therefore not posh really- more upmarket than posh.
When I was younger they stocked items you wouldn’t see elsewhere in terms of quality …they also had a bigger range generally in some departments like furniture ( bear in mind no ikeas, Argos didn’t sell furniture, no dunelm) … massive haberdashery including where we went to buy all dress fabric as likes of internet didn’t exist. But smaller electronics…no computers then 🤣😱. I loved the glass and china ware…outside of London only place you could wander round to see beautiful stuff to dream about. Sadly haberdashery now is pants, and useless…but down to sewers like me that mainly go online now.
they had the price match, and excellent customer service so you knew if you found what you wanted there you didn’t need to go further, or shop around

I also learnt from early age via my mum, that it’s great if you have multiple things to get…they are card system where they take your purchases and send to pick up and you collect later so not dragging stuff around the store…we’d shove our coats into the bags with first purchases!

I think it’s changed now, not least by people like me who buy on internet and haven’t been into an actual shop for years now…though nearest JL is about 30 miles away .

It's just a nice experience. I grew up close to a small traditional one (gone now). Sadly our local one has also closed now and the nearest is 45 mins drive away in a city I never go to. But FIL lives close to a big one and I go there when visiting. I spent a couple of hours in the Oxford St one today and it was a haven of peace and calm (perhaps because it was Monday), helpful, friendly staff, well laid out, airy and bright, huge ranges of goods (I was in the tech and beauty departments most of the time).

Some of same products. Certainly electronics. But Argos don’t sell JL type of furniture or the more upmarket kitchen, dining ware, or clothes etc.
it depends on what you’re shopping for.