W.h.smith (Voted Worst High St Retailer)

[redman41]

Rip Off Merchants. Waterstones beats them hands down for Books. Rymans is far better for Stationery. The Works is very good for bargain Books, and some of the Stationery.
How the so called 'mighty' have fallen.

[MallyJ]

IMO it tries too hard to be all things to all people....if it stuck to reading material it might do better but sweets, toys, dvds, artists materials, pens, pencils, etc, lottery and now post offices makes it miss the spot on any one thing.

[Prudie]

I can't remember the last time I went in one, years and years. When I was a young it was the best place for books and music, I used to trawl round it for hours, usually to spend gifted vouchers.

[Cloverjo]

I used to like WHS for magazines and bits and pieces I couldn't find anywhere else. I still quite like their airport shops.
Now, their high street shop in my nearest town is grim in every way. I hate being offered a massive bar of chocolate when I'm paying for a magazine. No!
Can this be the next high street chain to go?

[redman41]

Rely too much on Self Check-ins. Not enough Staff, too many Customers. Hate their Shops

[Peter Pedant]

yeah I went in an asked for le Monde and she looked at me as though I was French or something

she looked at me as tho I had asked for a French letter .....

[pastafreak]

I only ever go in there for magazines as they carry the widest variety here in town. But their shops are a mess. Mally took the words right out of my mouth when she said they were trying to be all things to all people.
But, I had to use the post office there the other day, and it was a lot easier than using the old main post office... which closed and is now a restaurant.

[redman41]

On the Plus side,if they run Post Office Counters in some of their Shops,they can be very efficient

[atalanta]

They never have enough people on the checkouts, so you have to queue for ages to get served. I avoid WH Smith if at all possible

[Zacs-Master]

Well, the one in City Walks, Dubai was excellent. The lady shop assistant let us drink our water in the cool of the shop AND disposed of the empty bottles.

[Lie-in King]

We used to have a Post Office & another counter in WH Smith. The counter was shut down & the shop expanded. The PO then closed down & a new (bigger) PO section/counter appeared back in the shop.

The PO staff are brilliant. The Smith's staff aren't - anything's too much trouble. I use British Bookshops/Sussex Stationers (cheap-ish [certainly comparable to Smith's] & fantastic staff) for pretty much everything stationery & book-wise.

[Eve]

I still go in for books quite often and the staff in our one have always been nice and helpful. They are good for nicer cards as well. More for special ones due to the price. The range of magazines too.

[Denton]

At least,out of a population of 65 million,approx,A sum total of 114 people responded. A fair reflection.?

[gingejbee]

denton....the population of the country has nothing to do with a survey, it's the number of random people who are approached to give their views.
Since WHSmith has been in the bottom two of the Which?Best and Worst Shops survey for the past eight years....then I think it IS a fair reflection of how poor they are.

[jno]

their big shops still have the best selection of magazines. As for stationery, it depends what you want: they have different stuff from Ryman's.

[Canary42]

I used to work for them - they went downhill after I left (in 1979!)