For British Institutions In Changing Times : Let's Chat As A Reader About W H Smith

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

A few days back I read online an article that bothered me. It said that of all the shops in the high street W H Smith was the rudest and less customer friendly.

So let me say at the outside that I've never experienced anything in terms of the people working there other than staff trying their best to help in the best customer friendly manner possible.

It does not mean however that W H Smith is not without it's problems.

Whilst it never solely sold books for most people in the seventies and eighties and even so now the closest thing you would have to a bookshop near you was W H Smith. For a bookworm like me it opened up a whole world of literature growing up. Starting with the stuff for kids then moving on to more adult fare.

And whether it was the classics, modern works or pure unadulterated bestseller fare like Arthur Hailey there was a good chance that W H Smith would have it, or at the very least was capable of ordering it for you.

Now however something is wrong. If we judge things purely on books then it has suffered obviously from the likes of Amazon online. Also when it comes bestseller type books the entrance of the big supermarket chains damaged them as well. They are therefore squeezed between the two.

When you walk into the shop now it looks like a bazaar in the way they try to sell books with bargains. Thing is they are for the most part not that cheap for new books compared to their competitors.

So it's not a surprise that they diversify far more than they used to. The space for books is gradually reducing for other things so what W H Smith is no longer is a place where you would automatically enter the world of books. It just battles in the High Street with the rest of them.

And it's important. For in most towns W H Smith is the only place where you could anything close to a range of books. Should the choice continue to lessen then the effect on the love of reading could be damaging for future generations.

Until the next time.