[News] WHSmith

[The Clamp]

When they came for Woolworths you didn’t speak up…

 

[Greg Bobkin]

I suspect people will still refer to their local branch as "Smiths" anyway.

Just like Bejam and Key Markets

 

[Brovion]

I suspect people will still refer to their local branch as "Smiths" anyway.

Yeah, rolls of the tongue easier that 'Joneses'.

Not sure why they've changed the name, especially to a made-up one. It's not as if 'Smiths' was a bad brand, quite the opposite I'd have said; and there only so much 'sexing up' you can do to a stationers.

 

[Frutos]

Just like Bejam and Key Markets

There's a bus stop in Newhaven which is still referred to as being "round the back of Woolworths" all these years later.

 

[vegster]

They sold everything but nothing. Whatever you wanted you could get better, cheaper or a better range elsewhere.

 

[Tubby Mondays]

Must have been the only sales that album got then!

I’d forgotten they sold records (and so did boots come to that)!

Think I bought the who live at Leeds from Tunbridge wells WH Smith.

 

[GJN1]

I’d forgotten they sold records (and so did boots come to that)!

Think I bought the who live at Leeds from Tunbridge wells WH Smith.

The last record I bought from WH Smith was the 12" of Interesting Drug by Morrissey on the day it came out in 1989. It was in the branch near my nan's in Aldershot.

 

[Han Solo]

Mildly disappointed that this thread isn't about Will Smith today releasing his first record in 20 years.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

Sussex Stationers / British Bookshops was far better than WHS but didn’t last.

 

[Pavilionaire]

The thing about the new name T G Jones is that even though it is new it already feels outdated. It is too reminiscent of WH Smith. I fear the new store is doomed before it even started - sometimes you need a clean break.

This is the mistake MK Dons made. All reference to the old Wimbledon should been removed the moment AFC Wimbledon formed. MK has 287,000 people, yet in 20 years the club has achieved precisely nothing other than producing a young Dele Alli.

 

[Frutos]

Sussex Stationers / British Bookshops was far better than WHS but didn’t last.

And was bought by WHS in the end.

 

[Bob!]

Yeah, rolls of the tongue easier that 'Joneses'.

Not sure why they've changed the name, especially to a made-up one. It's not as if 'Smiths' was a bad brand, quite the opposite I'd have said; and there only so much 'sexing up' you can do to a stationers.

Because the current owners of WHSmith have retained the name for the shops they still have in stations, airports etc.

 

[Tubby Mondays]

Because the current owners of WHSmith have retained the name for the shops they still have in stations, airports etc.

So really the new owners have been sold a pup.

Gone within 2 years.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

And was bought by WHS in the end.

Didn’t know that

 

[Frutos]

Didn’t know that

Yep, WHS took over in 2011.

 

[Shirty]

I suspect people will still refer to their local branch as "Smiths" anyway.

Its hard to keep up, isnt it.

 

[Mellotron]

I'm sure it's been mentioned in here by others, but I am BAFFLED that WH Smiths is still going in 20525.

TG Jones sounds EVEN shitter and I see no chance of that surviving more than a couple years.

 

[jcdenton08]

Sussex Stationers / British Bookshops was far better than WHS but didn’t last.

We have one in Seaford, about 20ft from WH Smiths. I have no idea how that even works for them, both stores are always dead

 

[Hovegull]

The record section was the top floor of the old Smiths in Churchill square.
The Nicholas Lyndhurst adverts were the last time Smiths had any relevance.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Maybe their airport branches have helped them limp along. The last-minute buyers of books and magazines just before a flight must account for a chunk of their revenues, I know I've done it often enough in the past. Although not any more now I've got a Kindle.

Or the £17 for a bottle of water to replace the bottle you had to dump just before security. And on that note - why do you need a boarding pass to buy a bottle of water ?