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For the 4,087th year in a row, WH Smith is voted UK's worst retailer.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48433692

I just don't get it.

The prices are sky high. The staff have as much motivation as a condemned man. The stores are grubby and dark. The store layout is like a car boot sale, and the selection varies wildly from dodgy cookbooks to felt tip pens you thought they stopped making years ago

Most people I see in there spend 40 mins reading a magazine to save themselves having to buy it. C'mon we've all done this, but even so...

Whilst the rest of the UK high street dies a slow death, with other chain stores picked off one by one, WH Smith hangs around. In my local town, it's the WH Smith, and empty shops either side of it.

I'm convinced that if the bombs hit Britain, it's rats, cockroaches and a train station WH Smith that are the only things that will survive...

I just don't get how they survive. Are they bullet proof? Please somebody explain?

Could they be a front for laundering money?

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Could they be a front for laundering money?

I would not be surprised.

To non-Brit dakka members, WH Smith has been a British institution for decades. I remember the golden days of yesteryear

when they used to sell anything and everything. ZX Spectrum games, C64 games. brings a tear to the eye

It was a time when a man could walk into a British shop, buy a Mars Bars, a tin of coca cola, some cripss, hand over £1 and still get some change back.

God dman, I miss those days

but now, WH Smith is an utter car crash.

I suppose no one else does what they do on the high street and people still want to buy a paper or whatever on their lunch break.

nfe wrote:
I suppose no one else does what they do on the high street and people still want to buy a paper or whatever on their lunch break.

Plenty of corner shops for that - some pretty good one's at that.

Momentum from having being around for so long, and doing a bit of everything. They're on about closing our local main Post Office and having a counter in Smiths instead...

A lot of it probably comes from tourists at Victoria, St Pancras, Euston and the like, who aren't aware of the monumental markups and that they can get cheaper good literally just outside the station.

beast_gts wrote:
Momentum from having being around for so long, and doing a bit of everything. They're on about closing our local main Post Office and having a counter in Smiths instead...

They did that to us as well. I keep forgetting that Smiths cornered the Post office market.

Damn their eyes!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Valkyrie wrote:
A lot of it probably comes from tourists at Victoria, St Pancras, Euston and the like, who aren't aware of the monumental markups and that they can get cheaper good literally just outside the station.

To be fair to them, and this was a one-off mega sale, I managed to get Antony Beevor's Battle of the Bulge book brand new for £6 after it had been reduced heavily from £25.

That was a good day

 Valkyrie wrote:
A lot of it probably comes from tourists at Victoria, St Pancras, Euston and the like, who aren't aware of the monumental markups and that they can get cheaper good literally just outside the station.

WHSmith Travel that runs these and airports is a different company run differently to WHSmith proper. Weird but true.

Monumental markups? A copy of the times, private eye or economist is the same whether I buy it in a Smith's or in a slightly dingy corner shop. The fact remains that there no other high Street newsagents chain, and they've branched out into post offices quite successfully to boot. They also sell a decent range of stationary for when you're not visiting a rymans or something but need better then what Tesco will spot you.

Likely depends on what you get. A packet of Rizla is usually 30-35p, in Smiths you won't get much change back from a quid.

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:

nfe wrote:
I suppose no one else does what they do on the high street and people still want to buy a paper or whatever on their lunch break.

Plenty of corner shops for that - some pretty good one's at that.

I believe a lot of those smaller shops are supplied by WHSmiths wholesaler arm. If you want to be circulated widely you want WHSmiths to stock your paper/magazine because then it’s available to many other retailers.

From this side of the pond, I often mind myself wondering how EA is still making money despite being (easily) one of the most hated companies in America.

I feel your confusion. The only answer I can come up with is either 1) I'm just an donkey-cave who judges things too harshly, or 2) everyone else has painfully low standards

I haven't lived in Britain since 2012 and even I know that WH Smith is very, very, very, very, very far from the U.K.'s only newsagent chain.

It's not even the only one in the (tiny, rural) village I grew up in. Boston Spa, if anyone's interested. Had a Londis, a Costcutter's and two other independent newsagents to boot.

I suspect that the wholesale arm and the travel arm have a big part to play. Travel being the only option in many cases for sweets and a book before you fly or in many stations and wholesale supplies a lot of smaller newsagents. Quite possibly the main smiths is just scraping along enough to be worth keeping open.

 LordofHats wrote:
From this side of the pond, I often mind myself wondering how EA is still making money despite being (easily) one of the most hated companies in America.

I feel your confusion. The only answer I can come up with is either 1) I'm just an donkey-cave who judges things too harshly, or 2) everyone else has painfully low standards

EA sports. People who play the FIFA, Madden, NHL & NBA games are often not “gamers” and don’t care about the rest of the market. They just want this years fix with this years players. Plus the battlefield franchise.

That and EA do make some good games, just handle some very poorly and handle it poorly when things go wrong. Titanfall 2 was/is brilliant and I would recommend it to anyone.

Steve has summed up how EA survives - heck my brother has bought/had gifted Football Manager almost every single year around Christmas for the last 20ish (it feels like it) years. EA Sports has for years being EA's secret weapon in being able to not only tap into a large non-gamer market (well before many other game niches explodeded into the general population); but also to generate reliable steady sales every single year. A known block of income and profit which allowed them to weather the typical storms that most companies experience which can often shut them down.

Heck even big names like Westwood who sold solid popular games fell to financial troubles and were bought out. EA was there with ready cash and knowledge that even if their investment didn't work out they would still have next years profits from their sports games.


And yeah EA isn't "that evil" they just most buy up niche franchises and slap a more casual game onto the market with them.




As for Smiths I suspect they are old enough to own many of the stores they operate from, which reduces their rent outgoing. Plus the highstreets are on their knees being pulled apart. A lot of the little corner shops are simply not there any more and those which are I often notice are owned by older owners who bought the site years ago when times were far better (pre-internet and pre-insane inflation of business rates and rents and tax).
That said I think contracts like train station and airport retail spots provides them a big markup investment opportunity and a corner of supply that the internet can't replace. When you're on the trains you can't often leave the station, esp if you don't know the area. So the Smiths is there to supply what you need in basic food and reading material.

Even if its a separate firm its still under the same overall umbrella in being part of the chain setup.




As for the highstreet stores, I think they are doggedly hanging on. Even when Woolworths closed down there were a range of stores that sprung up offering basically the exact same market options - lots of casual gardening and general household stuff at low prices.

 Ketara wrote:
Monumental markups? A copy of the times, private eye or economist is the same whether I buy it in a Smith's or in a slightly dingy corner shop. The fact remains that there no other high Street newsagents chain, and they've branched out into post offices quite successfully to boot. They also sell a decent range of stationary for when you're not visiting a rymans or something but need better then what Tesco will spot you.

Does anybody buy magazine from Smiths, though? When I go in, there's a line of people reading the stuff, and very little of it being bought.

And I came across wargaming magazines missing the free miniature.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Overread wrote:
Steve has summed up how EA survives - heck my brother has bought/had gifted Football Manager almost every single year around Christmas for the last 20ish (it feels like it) years. EA Sports has for years being EA's secret weapon in being able to not only tap into a large non-gamer market (well before many other game niches explodeded into the general population); but also to generate reliable steady sales every single year. A known block of income and profit which allowed them to weather the typical storms that most companies experience which can often shut them down.

Heck even big names like Westwood who sold solid popular games fell to financial troubles and were bought out. EA was there with ready cash and knowledge that even if their investment didn't work out they would still have next years profits from their sports games.


And yeah EA isn't "that evil" they just most buy up niche franchises and slap a more casual game onto the market with them.




As for Smiths I suspect they are old enough to own many of the stores they operate from, which reduces their rent outgoing. Plus the highstreets are on their knees being pulled apart. A lot of the little corner shops are simply not there any more and those which are I often notice are owned by older owners who bought the site years ago when times were far better (pre-internet and pre-insane inflation of business rates and rents and tax).
That said I think contracts like train station and airport retail spots provides them a big markup investment opportunity and a corner of supply that the internet can't replace. When you're on the trains you can't often leave the station, esp if you don't know the area. So the Smiths is there to supply what you need in basic food and reading material.

Even if its a separate firm its still under the same overall umbrella in being part of the chain setup.




As for the highstreet stores, I think they are doggedly hanging on. Even when Woolworths closed down there were a range of stores that sprung up offering basically the exact same market options - lots of casual gardening and general household stuff at low prices.

Yeah, I've been stung by Smith's before at the train station. I needed some water, they were the only option, and the got me for £2

I think they prey on people in these situations.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Valkyrie wrote:
Likely depends on what you get. A packet of Rizla is usually 30-35p, in Smiths you won't get much change back from a quid.

Yeah, but you will get somebody at the counter trying to offload Cadbury's chocolate on you

 Ketara wrote:
They've branched out into post offices quite successfully to boot. They also sell a decent range of stationary for when you're not visiting a rymans or something but need better then what Tesco will spot you.

Your definition of successfully is a lot different to mine. When I lived in a smallish town the local Post Office was in a Smith's and it was an utter disaster. Self service machines that didn't work most of the time and a single staff member at the counter led to ridiculous queues and it also had shorter opening times than the Smith's it was situated in, which was aggravating.

I think they continue to survive because they sell a lot of different stuff in one place. Last time I needed padded envelopes I went there, for example. Or a small fireproof box to store insurance documents or stuff relating to my mortgage and legal papers. Not sure how that keeps them in business though. They also have a solid presence at rail stations, airports and motorway services where they charge huge mark-ups to captive audiences.

If anyone wants a laugh check out the whs_carpet twitter account. It's hilarious.

My local Smiths has been redone recently and it's rather nice how. I no longer feel my will to live draining away when I go in.

They have a large range of magazines, which is about the only thing they do which you can't get elsewhere fairly easily.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
My local Smiths has been redone recently and it's rather nice how. I no longer feel my will to live draining away when I go in.

They have a large range of magazines, which is about the only thing they do which you can't get elsewhere fairly easily.

Magazines have suffered terribly in the wake of the internet from what I can gather; though it likely hasn't helped that many corner newsagents have also closed up. You can tell as many magazines are almost 50% advertisements (sometimes more), though I blame it partly on them as good few I've seen have got into the rut of mostly producing the same articles each year for new customers and providing very little for established customers (ergo long term fans). Many of the issues that White Dwarf once went through itself (though many times worse).

So, as mentioned, it's been seven years since I was in Britain but when I was there was no difficulty whatsoever getting The Grauniad, Private Eye, The Economist, even Sound on Sound delivered to my door by my local indy corner-shop.

Has the landscape really changed that much in only seven years? A brief perusal of Google Maps shows that the tiny village I grew up in retains all the newsagents it once had, bar one which closed before I left. They're also trying to turn a former pub into a Tesco Express.

In fact, pubs seems to be the only major difference in Boston Spa between then and now. There used to be four; now there's only two and both are Samuel Smith's. So no sports, or music, or laughing, or talking...

 Excommunicatus wrote:
So, as mentioned, it's been seven years since I was in Britain but when I was there was no difficulty whatsoever getting The Grauniad, Private Eye, The Economist, even Sound on Sound delivered to my door by my local indy corner-shop.

Has the landscape really changed that much in only seven years? A brief perusal of Google Maps shows that the tiny village I grew up in retains all the newsagents it once had, bar one which closed before I left. They're also trying to turn a former pub into a Tesco Express.

In fact, pubs seems to be the only major difference in Boston Spa between then and now. There used to be four; now there's only two and both are Samuel Smith's. So no sports, or music, or laughing, or talking...

I've not noticed any significant decline in newsagents in the UK in the last 10 years or so. What I will say is WH Smith is pretty much the only place you can get a full range of specialist magazines on the UK high street. A decent newsagent will stock the Economist, Private Eye etc, but you're not likely to get that model railway magazine you're after, or your tennis magazine. For that you'll likely need Smiths. But then the magazine market is shrinking fast as the internet replaces it so I'm not sure that explains the continued success of Smiths either.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
So, as mentioned, it's been seven years since I was in Britain but when I was there was no difficulty whatsoever getting The Grauniad, Private Eye, The Economist, even Sound on Sound delivered to my door by my local indy corner-shop.

Has the landscape really changed that much in only seven years? A brief perusal of Google Maps shows that the tiny village I grew up in retains all the newsagents it once had, bar one which closed before I left. They're also trying to turn a former pub into a Tesco Express.

In fact, pubs seems to be the only major difference in Boston Spa between then and now. There used to be four; now there's only two and both are Samuel Smith's. So no sports, or music, or laughing, or talking...

It wouldn't even occur to me to go to a (non Railway Station) WH Smiths for a newspaper. Local Newsagents and Supermarkets would cover that need.

However, for a specific magazine I'd be straight there, and the one in my city centre has a fantastic range of stationery, so is my first choice for that!

My local didn't stock Sound on Sound - which is fairly specialist - as a matter of routine, but they could order it no problem.

Are you talking about the one on Land's Lane? The multi-storey effort?

 Excommunicatus wrote:
My local didn't stock Sound on Sound - which is fairly specialist - as a matter of routine, but they could order it no problem.

Are you talking about the one on Land's Lane? The multi-storey effort?

That's the one.

We also have Eason’s over here. Much nicer and brighter.

So my local smiths has been in the same place for god knows how long, there’s always boxes on the floor that the staff have half unpacked and appears to have just left them, and needs a better layout for sure.

But they are the only place in town where i can go to get my shooting magazines. And such.

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:

nfe wrote:
I suppose no one else does what they do on the high street and people still want to buy a paper or whatever on their lunch break.

Plenty of corner shops for that - some pretty good one's at that.

Not on high streets, rarely with the selection, and never with the brand recognition.

 Overread wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
My local Smiths has been redone recently and it's rather nice how. I no longer feel my will to live draining away when I go in.

They have a large range of magazines, which is about the only thing they do which you can't get elsewhere fairly easily.

Magazines have suffered terribly in the wake of the internet from what I can gather; though it likely hasn't helped that many corner newsagents have also closed up. You can tell as many magazines are almost 50% advertisements (sometimes more), though I blame it partly on them as good few I've seen have got into the rut of mostly producing the same articles each year for new customers and providing very little for established customers (ergo long term fans). Many of the issues that White Dwarf once went through itself (though many times worse).

Some have, others haven't. Lad's mags have been obliterated by online, but if you go to a big Smiths you can find at least half a dozen titles about tattooing and piercing. There are loads of boat, aircraft and railways mags too. Not all these are being bought by 50+ year olds, especially the tattoo stuff.

 Kilkrazy wrote:

 Overread wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
My local Smiths has been redone recently and it's rather nice how. I no longer feel my will to live draining away when I go in.

They have a large range of magazines, which is about the only thing they do which you can't get elsewhere fairly easily.

Magazines have suffered terribly in the wake of the internet from what I can gather; though it likely hasn't helped that many corner newsagents have also closed up. You can tell as many magazines are almost 50% advertisements (sometimes more), though I blame it partly on them as good few I've seen have got into the rut of mostly producing the same articles each year for new customers and providing very little for established customers (ergo long term fans). Many of the issues that White Dwarf once went through itself (though many times worse).

Some have, others haven't. Lad's mags have been obliterated by online, but if you go to a big Smiths you can find at least half a dozen titles about tattooing and piercing. There are loads of boat, aircraft and railways mags too. Not all these are being bought by 50+ year olds, especially the tattoo stuff.

I know a few journos, editors, and a couple publishers of music and tattoo magazines. They've definitely suffered a lot, many have folded, and lots have gone to less frequent issues, but they definitely still have a bit of a foothold. Likewise all the hobby magazines, guitar mags, hifi and music production mags etc. And there are few places you can buy them, and fewer where you buy your lunch or snacks for the train or a flight without having to carry them far, too...