Smiffs at bottom of poll for customer satisfaction

[Pennine MC]

'Nuff said

 

(for now anyway - probably my least favourite shop)

[F-UnitMad]

Well I only ever use it to browse all the Railway & Aircraft (& sometimes Truck) Mags, though I rarely buy any of them... not sure where I'd be without them for that......

[Guest stuartp]

 

But Dr Jonathan Reynolds...suggests its current tactic of offering extra products at the till is also "not going down too well with consumers".

 

 

Too right. If I wanted chocolate I'd have picked some up, it's not like they hide the stuff. In fairness I have to say I've never had bad (as opposed to slightly annoying) service in either of the two branches I use.

 

 

[JohnR]

Having said that, only 171 people out of the 14,500 who responded expressed any comment on WHS. ON such a small sample its not meaningful. Smiths arnt that bad, but they're not what they were.

[Hammer]

I still mourn the loss of John Menzies. Now there was a stationery chain...

[Kris]

The only shop I have ever been in where the staff can call you forward from the queue, allow someone else to jump it then accuse you of jumping the queue. Admittedly this was only one shop but how did that member of staff ever get a job? Gave me the impression that the standards required must be very low or they were desperate.

[Colin]

They're the only newsagent of any size where I live so I'm stuck with them. Staff are very variable (some very helpful, others really hopeless numpties) but I suppose the shop itself could be a whole lot worse (at least you're not hassled while browsing, unlike one or two of the smaller shops). My big beef is the shop floor layout - it's a poorly lit and claustrophobic place with narrow aisles where you seem to be constantly saying "excuse me" or "sorry".

[Robert]

I would have to agree that they are not as good as they used to be. My visits to the UK usually include one visit to Smiths - but rarely for anything that I couldn't get somewhere else. Their range of magazines is usually better than anywhere else (at least that's the case in my former home town) but there are better bookshops elsewhere in town.

 

As a kid, I was in Smiths pretty much every weekend - to spend my pocket money on books or computer games.

 

Like many stores, I feel they have tried to diversify, but have lost their way somewhat. Probably not as badly as Woolies did - but they will have to be careful not to go the same way.

[pointstaken]

My local branch is not as bad as it could be, but only use it for magazines. Taking half the old magazine space for sweets and cramming them up against the checkout does not improve customers temper or patience, especially when staff are trying to push half-price tokens on to you and there is a long queue (not that the staff can be blamed for either).

Last year, tried to order a set of DVD's that my wife wanted from their mail order arm, but "didn't know when they would be in stock" according to the member of staff on the phone. Ordered them from a reputable seller on Ebay, got them 5 days later, and at 50% of Smiffs prices.

The whole business (not necessarily the staff) needs a thundering good shake-up, and reminding that customers can go elsewhere.

 

Dennis

[John M Upton]

Some branches are better than others. The Bognor Regis branch is large, spacious and keeps a good selection of the railway mags, contrast however with the Chichester branch which is pokey, badly laid out and the magazine section looks like an explosion in a jumble sale whilst the laughable books section seems to have been tacked on as an afterthought.

 

Well remember back in the late 1980's and early 1990's Smiths transport section of books often contained dog eared copies of fleetlists and Platform 5 volumes that were ten years out of date!

 

However, Chichester's branch of Sussex Stations (you elsewhere may know them as British Bookshops or similar) three doors down the road has just had a complete strip down and refurb and now has a well stocked magazine section including all the railway titles so I may be taking my business there in future as they seem to have far more oil in their lamp than Smiths.

 

The London Victoria branch of Smiths is a disaster area with the Post Office style queueing system that the foreign visitors seem completely unable to understand plus there is usually a French bloke who I have seen on a couple of occasions who comes in, reads Le Figaro from cover to cover having placed it on the shelf using it like a reading desk, then half an hour later, folds it back up and places back on the shelf before leaving!!

 

Add to that the three muddled and cluttered exits and one bored looking store security guard who could have a brass band carting half the stock with them march past and he would not notice and you can see why I despair at the place.

 

Mind you if you want to see pokey and cramped, take a look and try not to laugh at the London Bridge station branch which thanks to the building works for the glass white elephant has been reduced to a sort of broom cupboard, you won't be able to actually go in to have a look though as you literally cannot swing a cat in there.

 

And what is it with WHSmiths constantly trying to flog cheap chocolate? Have they been landed with a warehouse full of the stuff or something?

 

Smiths is on my 'Dead Pool' of store chains who I expect to see flounder sooner or later (along with Curry's Digital and Superdrugs, now there is a 'closing down sale' presented style shambles if ever I have seen one) and when you remember that I predicted Woolworths sudden demise six months before it actually happened...

[pinzaboy]

Yes, the continual pushing of chocolate, water or Haribos at the till really gets on my nerves but not as much as the people they position near the doors and everytime you go in or out try to sell you a new phone network or gas provider.

[Bernard Lamb]

Just you wait till they put a post office upstairs as they have done in my local branch. You can only browse with one eye as you need to keep a sharp look out for the shopping scooter brigade with the other.

Pleased to see that Julian Richer's outfit came out with flying colours.

Bernard

[S.A.C Martin]

Rather fed up of the Loughborough one this week - I don't mind so much the pushing of chocolate ONCE when paying, but the chap behind the counter went through each of the brands in turn - without blinking!

 

I do feel that Smiths is a dying brand, insomuch they will insist on setting out their shops with really tiny, narrow aisles. Everyone always bumps past each other. It's always dingy lighting at best, and everything is just massively crowded. Supermarkets don't cram in nearly so much product into the same area of space, I swear...!

[Mucky Duck]

The Kings Cross station branch has been reduced in size, presumably whilst the rest of it is being refurbished. It is the most vile,

over-populated place on earth… well, slight exaggeration but I just had to get out immediately on discovering there was no MRJ.

 

Never really had a problem with other branches although I preferred Borders… while it lasted!

[D605Eagle]

Yes, the continual pushing of chocolate, water or Haribos at the till really gets on my nerves but not as much as the people they position near the doors and everytime you go in or out try to sell you a new phone network or gas provider.

I think sometimes I should get a teeshirt printed with "no I don't want any of your effin chocolate!" on it LOL

[298]

I think sometimes I should get a teeshirt printed with "no I don't want any of your effin chocolate!" on it LOL

 

 

Just like Halfrauds at the moment, call me a comedian but every time i'm in there (which means going back a number of times for maximum effect), they tell me i'm entitled to buy a bottle of Turtle Wax for £1.99....

 

 

 

Try "But that's more expensive (by volume) than the big container of the stuff I brought last time", or:

 

 

"But I haven't got a Turtle"....

[Lady_Ava_Hay]

Smiths is like a lot of chain stores in that a lot of it's market has succumbed to changes in the market place that it services. Newspapers sell somewhat less papers than hitherto and are very often available online at no cost. I think that people buy a newspaper because there is something that they want in it rather than to be informed of the news as a matter of course. 24 hour TV news and Internet home pages have taken care of that.

 

Magazines have become too numerous for people to be loyal to any one so Smiths are forced to stock a lot more which go in and out of fashion too fast. it has to be said though that magazines value the Smiths stocking and this avenue outranks subscription although subs are the favourite of the monthly magazines that reflect our hobby. I believe that Smiths will only stock some types of magazine on sale or return. Presumably these decisions are based on publishers 'readership' figures and actual sales each month. I suspect that the recent growth in our hobby has sustained a growth in overall model railway magazine sales.

 

Stationery and book sales have succumbed to the Internet and have been declining for years except for schoolkids. Having said that Smith's computer printer paper range is excellent but again, outclassed by the bulk Internet mail order companies. Still useful for the small user (like me) to whom the price is less important.

[John M Upton]

Kings Cross station branch has been reduced in size, presumably whilst the rest of it is being refurbished. It is the most vile,

over-populated place on earth…

Fixed it for you...

 

But in all seriousness with regards to Smiths, I think there must be a certain element of local management that affects how a particular branch is presented. Eastbourne, Brighton (not the crap station one) and one or two others are actually not bad at all. Many of the rest however, especially what should be their mainline station flagship stores suffer from the cram it all in the smallest space possible problem.

 

Whenever a blatant rip off celebratory season such as mothers day, Easter, Christmas etc turns up, instead of rearranging the store to accommodate the seasonal cards, teddy bears and assorted other tat, they just shove it in big bins in the middle of the aisles cramping the place even further.

[John M Upton]

And it gets worse...

 

The main London Victoria Station branch which had an appalling Post Office style queueing system that frequently failed to work has now managed to make things EVEN WORSE by shoving all the tills up, completely trashing any resemblance of a queue system, this to bring us that most horrific service - SELF SERVICE TILLS.

 

I was in there the other night, throw into the mix Victoria's usual clientèle* and it was a farcical scene of total and utter chaos.

 

I will see if things have improved with running in on Friday morning but if not (and let's be honest I am not hopeful) they will be losing my regular custom.

 

 

 

*(Tired commuters, confused overseas tourists with no grasp of English whatsoever, queue jumpers, 'Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells or Chichester' types bemoaning the good old days of customer service in loud voice and a French bloke who spends hours in there reading all the French language papers cover to cover before replacing on the shelf and walking out!!)

[wamwig]

Well I have a theory about Smiffs decline, back in the 60s, 70s and 80s they stocked almost every magazine under the sun, including those with rather limited interests, and the railway station and airport branches had great stocks of all transport books (its where I always got my Ian Allan ABC's) and so you also had a tendency to buy other things there as well, nowadays though they are just like every other newsagent, stocking basically womens interest and 'celebrity' mags (ie those that tend to sell well) so there is no need to visit them above say one of the supermarkets, although the Stevenage branch (which overall in my view seems to be one of the better ones) does still sell 'After the Battle' as does one of my local newsagents.

[RedgateModels]

Well I have a theory about Smiffs decline, back in the 60s, 70s and 80s they stocked almost every magazine under the sun, including those with rather limited interests, and the railway station and airport branches had great stocks of all transport books (its where I always got my Ian Allan ABC's) and so you also had a tendency to buy other things there as well, nowadays though they are just like every other newsagent, stocking basically womens interest and 'celebrity' mags (ie those that tend to sell well) so there is no need to visit them above say one of the supermarkets, although the Stevenage branch (which overall in my view seems to be one of the better ones) does still sell 'After the Battle' as does one of my local newsagents.

 

Agreed, the Mansfield smiffs doesn't stock Hornby Mag (or at least it didn't used to) so that's why I buy two from my local newsy at work, one for me and one for disco-dave of this parish

[Edwin_m]

I wonder if it is down to local management to make their own decisions about stock. Certainly the one in central Nottingham always seems to have all the model rail mags, and the one at the station also has a selection of rail books including Quail maps. It's even been known for MRJ to appear!

[The Stationmaster]

Conversely (or so it seems) our local branch of WHS stocks all the principal British railway modelling mags (including MRJ - although it only appeared after I asked if they stocked it!) plus 'Model Railroader' and all the regular British prototype mags plus various 'specials' - and all seem to sell. The local branch of Tesco started to sell the 'Railway Modeller' a few months back and now have it regularly and they had the most recent edition of 'British Railway Modelling' on their shelves as well.

Must be something in the water

[DaveF]

WHS seems to vary enormously from shop to shop. The other day my local branch had 31 different magazines and one offs covering prototype and model railways, including MRJ, BRILL etc. The next nearest, about 10 miles away has very few, just stocking the most popular.

 

David

[Robert]

the one at the station also has a selection of rail books including Quail maps. It's even been known for MRJ to appear!

 

Good heavens! Quail maps are rarer than hen's teeth in my old neck of the woods. I searched high and low for my copies and eventually found some at the Spa Valley Railway. I wasn't able to cover the whole country though!