I worked at Brighton Station Smiths in the early 80s and for a while at the store in Churchill Square. The business was a joke then so what it must very like these days.
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[News] WHSmith
- Thread starter Frutos
- Start date
I understand that these "travel" shops will stay because they make money, just the high street shops will close.
Durlston
"You plonker, Rodney!"
Where will I be able to buy my copy of When Saturday Comes every month?
Hardly any football fanzines have survived the internet age. It's the perfect bog read and focusing on the bread-and-butter teams like Leyton Orient and Colchester United.
Hardly any football fanzines have survived the internet age. It's the perfect bog read and focusing on the bread-and-butter teams like Leyton Orient and Colchester United.
- Oct 17, 2008
- 15,692
They have funded the high street stores for years - maybe decades. Whoever signed the deal to put them in stations and airports saved a company which would’ve done under many, many years ago if they hadn’t.
Slum_Wolf
Well-known member
- May 3, 2021
- 832
BrightonCottager
Well-known member
I'm a regular customer of the London Road WHS and have noticed the decline in the number and commitment of assistants over the last few years. I've watched shoplifters filling carirer bags with newspapers and walking out.
Nevertheless, it'll be a sad loss to the London Road as it's the last place to buy magazines, books, pens and pencils, games, off the shelf wills, filofax inserts and many of the other essentials of life.
Nevertheless, it'll be a sad loss to the London Road as it's the last place to buy magazines, books, pens and pencils, games, off the shelf wills, filofax inserts and many of the other essentials of life.
SkirlieWirlie
Well-known member
- Jan 6, 2024
- 331
I find the decline of the high street really sad, as a customer and also having worked in retail for several years.
Used to enjoy browsing things of interest in Woolies, John Menzies, Boots, Smiths, etc, but the reality is many of the products they once sold are now available more easily and cheaply via Amazon and the wealth gets accumulated by fewer and fewer giant corporations, leaving the day to day basics or impulse buys which isn't sustainable.
Retail needs to be an essential service or a destination/experience and the likes of Smiths just isn't
Used to enjoy browsing things of interest in Woolies, John Menzies, Boots, Smiths, etc, but the reality is many of the products they once sold are now available more easily and cheaply via Amazon and the wealth gets accumulated by fewer and fewer giant corporations, leaving the day to day basics or impulse buys which isn't sustainable.
Retail needs to be an essential service or a destination/experience and the likes of Smiths just isn't
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Pevenseagull
meh
- Jul 20, 2003
- 21,031
The police have used a psychological profiler and are looking for an ex paper boy with PTSD who keeps submitting unsolicited paper mache figures of Rupert Murdoch to Lewes Bonfire societies.
- Aug 7, 2003
- 8,198
Unless I’m imagining it, I used to buy LP’s from WHS in Churchill Square in the 70’s when they had a downstairs record dept.
The Maharajah of Sydney
Well-known member
Yeah they did. Bought my first album there, Aladdin Sane.
I may be wrong but wasn't that a separate little WHSmith record shop just opposite (next to where Natwest is now)? Wasn't the top floor of the main shop books, downstairs magazines, games, cards etc and then you had to walk out the back door and across to the record, VHS etc part of the shop? Or maybe there was another floor that I've forgotten about?
Anger
Well-known member
- Jul 21, 2017
- 721
No. That will never work, sorry.
Timely thread this.
I bought a single pack of Trevor soft mints yesterday at London.victoria station and got charged £2 ... I just had a look and it should have been around 70p... How do they get away with this ? Back in the day most shops charged the same for sweets etc didn't they?
Anyway there was one assistant there who was on her phone, walked past, smiled and nodded, then went to the furthest aisle, I thought at the time she was just telling me to nick what I wanted.
.....and I wish I had now.
Filofax inserts? No wonder they’re struggling if they’re trying to flog those.
Anger
Well-known member
- Jul 21, 2017
- 721
You should have bought Trebor Soft Mints.
Trevor Soft Mints are £2, but Trebor are only 70p.
Annoyingly they are virtually indistinguishable and usually placed side-by-side on the shelf to catch the odd unaware customer.
Lol damn
Bish Bosh
Active member
Your memory is good. Ground floor depts (from front to back) were: news, stationery, fancy goods - yes really- and cards. Upstairs books and downstairs records. Woe betide budding shoplifters in stationery, a real-life Miss Marple worked there!
LANGDON SEAGULL
Well-known member
Being a teacher, I needed a red pen to use for my onslaught of Sunday morning marking. Only sold them in packs of 10 for £9.99. Only wanted one. And had no When Saturday Comes. Did get a Guardian though and was bombarded with extra products I might want to purchase on the self service till.