John Lewis in Trouble

[TrainedByCatsToBeScathing]

John Lewis are struggling, even the Waitrose side of things. 11,000 out of a workforce of 80,000 is a lot, I’m sad for their mostly female sales force and there’s many reasons for their problems particularly with them not adapting quickly to the challenge from online sales.

However I was a very regular shopper in my local John Lewis and I stopped completely after their patronising offensive response to my query about single sex changing rooms a few years ago. I’d buy furniture, white goods, kitchenware, electronics, carpet, clothes, toys, haberdashery, cosmetics, shoes even jewellery (I was shocked when I realised how much I defaulted to John Lewis as it took a little while to switch to alternatives some of my loyalty was convenience). Obviously I’m just one shopper but it never seemed a good idea to piss off loyal customers as when trading conditions are challenging you need those customers even more.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13082653/John-Lewis-threatens-staff-disciplinary-action-unacceptable-comments-internal-intranet-retail-giant-considers-cutting-11-000-jobs-bid-recover-230m-losses.html

Agree with everyone else. I used to go into the Edinburgh one often with the DC to look at the toys, probably spend £20 there, then I’d go to the habadasherh and talk to the ladies and get their advice, probably buy something, look at Modern Rarity clothing which I loved. Finish up with all of us having lunch. Now the toys are crap, the habadashery is crap, there’s no modern rarity. We never go any more

I love John Lewis. Rishi sunak will have to prise it from my cold dead fingers.

To put it simply, Joe Public cannot buy shares in John Lewis like you can M&S shares. There was mention of floating it last year and if they did it would be big news.

Same. I’m not a dog hater by any means, but they have no place in a department store (except for guide dogs, obviously). I don’t want to buy stuff that a dog has potentially slobbered on.

And it didn’t work contactlessly in Europe!

I've only ever been to the Oxford circus one, the beauty hall is ok but the womenswear sections always look like they've been pillaged, so messy and unappealing. The staff are always vaguely unpleasant.

Are the fitting rooms mixed sex? I've only seen women there but of course that might be coincidence.

I didn't bother reapplying for the credit card as it was an inferior product they were offering, I just use one of my other credit cards instead

I love JL, and Waitrose!

waitrose is not outrageously expensive for basic foodstuffs.
JL is my starting point for anything and everything I want to buy.

i have no idea why people are asking for free coffee & cake vouchers as the cafes are mediocre. I’d rather go round the corner and pay for decent quality coffee at the Italian independent.

Explains all the emails I'm receiving in the last fortnight
The local store closed a few years ago.

I feel really sorry for the staff (partners?) at John Lewis. They've been royally screwed and I don't want to see people lose their jobs.

The trouble as I see it with JL, is that their corporate centre was allowed (somehow) to become totally detached from their staff and customers. They introduced things like a call centre. Yuk!! I don't want a bloody call centre, I want what they had - what they used to stand for - good, informed, customer service. This goes way back as a problem:

www.theguardian.com/money/2019/apr/03/john-lewis-makeover-customer-service

They've deskilled and devalued their staff, and they (the corporate "they") don't want know when it goes wrong.

I hope they can turn it round. And start hiring the right people for the jobs at the top. Not people with zero expertise who have overseen utter nonsense like activism displayed on badges, all the while forgetting what matters when people are looking to spend money.

It'll take a lot to shrivel my love of Peter Jones but JLP do seem to be giving it their best shot. Slices of cake in the cafes have gone from generous to almost transparent; online orders are haphazard (I've had several invoices printed backwards/on the wrong side so they can't be used as return slips, plus random wrong items); shrinking departments; irritating adverts; constant research emails about financial products and a rental property scheme that sounded a bit culty...

The ANYDAY range felt like a misstep. There's a difference between 'good value' and cheap, and if anyone knows that, it's your core John Lewis shopper.

My Waitrose gripes (I did JL above) are that I’ve had two products from the basic range that were just rubbish. Porridge oats that wouldn’t soften and English mustard as runny as single cream. The local smallish branch went self service at the tills which I hate. I just don’t have enough hands to unpack, pack, pay and hold all the bags I’m carrying. I actually also dislike the lack of human interaction. There’s a fresh bread counter still there but you have to lean over and serve yourself as it’s no longer staffed and the bread is overpriced for what it is.
I used to have a home delivery grocery shop but I stopped using them a couple of months ago because they just aren’t worth the money.

I would welcome positive stories about JL, I really would (and good to hear Sinner's experience upthread). But I've been going to the Oxford St branch for decades and it’s a shadow of what it was.

It fell prey to the dreaded upmarketisation and the disease of branding - you can’t go to Womenswear, say, thinking 'I'm going to buy a coat'. Coats aren’t all in the same place.

If you ask an assistant, they say 'what BRAND are you looking for?' Well, how do I know what brand I want? I don’t care, as long as the coat is nice, warm, fits and is the right price! I then have to trawl round a dozen or more little concessions, trying to find the coats in each one. It’s exhausting and frustrating. But apparently this is how people shop now. Apply that to every JL department and it's just overwhelming and frustrating.

Selfridges did the same thing years ago and it stopped being a usable store, it’s just an aspirational warehouse of random, over-expensive stuff. That’s what JL feels like to me now.

I think they are trying to appeal to a younger audience. Same as British Airways . Future customers.

The shop at Cribbs Causeway has managed to keep most of its good customer service. Really helpful team who go out of their way for customers. I’m not sure one good store can save the brand but it does demonstrate the ethos has not been lost entirely.

@Zeugma I've had the same problem looking for jeans just the other week. They also seem to sell out of the most common sizes and don't restock, I came into the shop because I wanted to try things on not order online and send back!.
@teatime

I always shopped there for white goods/ electronics etc cause of their impeccable customer service.
Now I buy the same fro Amazon or AO.com.
Dunno how AO do it but I had a washing machine delivered, installed and the old one carted off within 24 hrs. Thats the service I need.

A few recent (ish) experiences of mine:

My sister visited early November 2022 with my niece, on their last day we had a coffee in JL Oxford Street, nieces coat broke, wouldn't do up, so we bought a new one there and then.
Fast forward to April 2023, sister washes coat and the teeth of the zip come off. That was the third wash, in a high end washer on the right setting. Yet, when I contacted JL customer service, they made it out like it was my sister's fault. As the coat was bought in store, could I please bring it back to be assessed. Only after pointing out several times that the coat was in Germany did they finally give me a refund, but only at what it would be sold at this point which was £12.50.

Was in the market for a new suitcase, wanted something with good warranty and had intended to spend serious money on it, if needed.
Went to JL Oxoford Street, no help at all, went back a few days later, one guy from Briggs & Riley who was very helpful, but clearly working for his company. He told me that for most part of the day, there wasn't any JL staff in the luggage section, only people working for the various manufacturers. Bought a suitcase (B&R) elsewhere where the sales staff could talk me through the various brands and their pros and cons.

Again Oxford Street, needed a pair of black trousers for an interview as I've shrunken out of my good pair.
Chose a few went to the changing room, none fit quite right, so I gave up, came out of my cubicle and made to leave the changing area the way I came in when a voice behind me shouted "Ma'am, ma'am, OUT this way ONLY" from the other end of the changing room. My response was simply "Okay, but no need to be rude".

Good experience at Peter Jones, though. Still looking for black trousers I went there on Monday night. Staff very helpful and found me a really good pair. The changing room attendant had been working at JL for a long time and was close to retirement. She was honest with what looked good and what looked utterly rubbish on me.
JL need more people like her.

I shopped there a lot, both for myself and for my niece and nephew. There were times when half my suitcase would be full of children's clothes. Now, not so much anymore.

I have very mixed feelings about JL. Still want to love it and still default to it for many things. But often come away disappointed. At my nearest branch for most of the ‘customer service’ I have to approach the tills. Very few ‘floor walkers’ about. I have complained in writing about the systematic reduction of products and services in the haberdashery department. And they’re no longer selling dress fabrics in my branch. There are no knowledgeable staff about and when I had a query about my sewing machine (A Janome model, especially made for JL) I was told the person who knows about sewing machines was ‘only in on a Thursday’. Last time I went half the floor space in that department was given over to sales clothing tat. 😔

In 2019 an elderly friend of mine needed a new dishwasher, had a look around JL, saw something she liked and enquired. Response was "it'll take six weeks, we don't have this one in stock".
Looked up the same model on AO, had it delivered and installed the following day with the old one taken away.

@TeatimeBiscuits I used to love going to the Edinburgh JL, the cafe was great and MIL and I used to meet up for Christmas shopping every year so she could choose things in the toy dept. She doesn't go now as you can't park there anymore as she has mobility problems.
My kids, aged 20-25 would never go there, they don't have home buying on the horizon and would tend to look in IKEA if they did, whereas in my 20s, I did browse and buy the odd nice grown up thing like duvet covers even before I had my own place so it was natural to have wedding lists and buy fridges and prams from there later.
My kids don't seem to mind ordering online and returning things whereas I find it annoying and can't browse properly online!

Surely you just shop the best place for the product you are buying at the time, I bought my Apple Watch from JL as they had the best deal at the time I wanted one, next day delivery to Waitrose and I could trade in my old one. Had they not had a deal on, I would have bought it elsewhere. I also bought some Josef Seibel boots as they had 20% off and were one of the few retailers I could return for free which is very important when buying bulky clothing and footwear that may not fit.

I saw the founder / CEO of AO, John Roberts, on BBC Breakfast the other day. He is a proper philanthropist and all-round good guy. I was very impressed, and will be shopping with them in future.

We always get white goods from AO.

When they die on you, there isn’t time to wait 6 weeks delivery.

https://www.jamesesses.com/p/the-trans-takeover-of-john-lewis

They seem keen on promoting GI.