Showing posts with label W.H.Smith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label W.H.Smith. Show all posts

Saturday 17 August 2019

Smiths and Cake Slice.


By accident I happened to wander into W.H.Smiths today and exchange a small book token given me when I was thrown out of the museum.  I entered, reasonably smartly dressed, browsed, passed the manager checking perfectly stacked books near me, watching what I was doing as if I were a thief,  and found no books worth buying.  typically for this area the vast majority of books are junk novels.  However I found a shelf I had never noticed before containing these books, and more beside, a novel occurrence in here to find books I think I'd like.
Ignoring the Cement Freud lookalike manager who strutted around as if he was important and not the customer, I paid the new young lass at the desk, in spite of the machinery falling apart worrying her, and took my prizes home to join others awaiting on the shelf.
Am I becoming obsessed I wondered feeling the book jackets and petting them like you would a dog or cat?  I failed to come up with an answer as it was feeding time and soon I took a book into my hand and fell asleep...

  
First World problems!
Greggs the Bakers have upset fans of their 'Custard slice' by halving the size and retaining the £1 price tag.  Greggs claim this is part of the 'war on sugar' and the cake is 20 grams less in sugar and better for customers.
Fans are not happy!

"It's a national favourite that's been completely ruined."
"I am disgusted...."
"It is clearly to boost their profits."

I have never been in Greggs.  
I suspect it is about 20 years since I went into such a shop, maybe less and then for bread not cake.
All a little over the top in my view, but just wait until after Brexit and there is no sugar available!
Just wait till you see the slices then!


Thursday 9 February 2017

Books Again...


Instead of my misgivings about the local W.H.Smith shop I ventured in there this morning on the basis that being Thursday half day closing it would be quiet, and so it was.  Clutching tightly in my mitts was a £10 Book Token from my delightful and best looking niece way up north in an uncivilised part of the world, West Lothian!  I strolled along the limited shelves searching out the great book that I was waiting for and as always failed to find it.  However two useful books were discovered.
'The Railways' looks a decent history of rail in the UK and at £9:99 it fitted the book token.  However I was left with a dilemma!  Buying this book meant there was a penny left over and I then decided to add to my purchase a hardback book 'The First World War on the Home Front' produced by the Imperial War Museum (IWM).  Now I am not keen on the complicated IWM website and a couple of their books I have read before were not to my liking either knowledgeable though they were  but as this book was only £5 I took it, the paperback version was also £5 for some reason so I got the hardback.  I'm like that.  This means that to avoid losing a penny I spent a further £4:99, what does this indicate about my thinking processes....?
The books have been added to the 'To read' pile and by astute use of the remaining Amazon Book Token I might well add more before the day is out.  Of course all this may mean I have no time today to actually read any of these literary works but at least they are there in the moments when I am free!


I was irked again this week, occasionally I am irked, this time I was irked by the phrase 'Moving forward!'  What does it mean?  Variations of the theme can be 'Going forward'  but this does not help me.  I mean where are they going?  Football teams often use the phrase, "We want to be moving forward with the club," they say, why?  Can they not say "We are developing the club" or "Life goes on and there is nothing we can do about it!"  Is anybody actually moving when they move forward?  I mean what is this woman going on about, "Food is ever-changing and ever moving forward and getting more and more complex." Alexandra Guarnaschelli.  Food is moving forward?  If my food was moving forward it could be that is because of the green stuff growing on the side of it!
Possibly black olives falling off the plate are 'moving forward?'  I don't know, maybe that's because I keep moving backwards...

Friday 7 November 2014

Is This the Worst Big Shop in the High Street?



Much against my better judgement I ventured into this overcrowded mess that is W.H.Smiths and sought Christmas cards.  Usually I buy cards from the St Columba's Hospice in Edinburgh where my sister died but there are one or two folks I like to send specific cards to.  These are usually less than serious cards, the sentimental or unbiblical Christmas ones are not for me so give them a giggle I say, if you can afford the prices!  
I chose some, wandered through the rather dim, overcrowded shelves and made my way to the checkout.  Here the girl was keen to sell me things I din't want, forget to charge the correct price, and then waited until I failed to pick up the merchandise to ask if I wanted a bag.  Several cards ought to be an automatic bag, it is in all other shops, yet for years Smiths have failed to offer them.  This is a small but mean policy disguised as saving the world but really to cut their costs down.  Of course I wished a bag as it was likely that as the yuletide approached I may be going into other shops, and one was produced but I had to pay a penny for it!  A penny?  How much does the bag cost?  Smiths use billions a year and the customer now pays a penny for it?  In some places plastic bags are now taxed at 5 pence for 'green' reasons, however with Smiths it is to increase their massive profits and rob the customer. Fifteen years ago when working nearby I often bought a paper and had to stop the dead assistant putting it in a plastic bag automatically.  Why a man requires such a bog for a paper I know not but she appeared not to care or indeed actually be alive.  Now to save cash we pay a penny for a bag we must demand! 
W.H. Smiths have for several years been regarded as one of the worst shops in the High Street, this year again it came out as the very worst and that is no surprise.  Sales in shop fell by 5 percent apparently but profits grew 5 percent also, probably because people prefer to shop online rather than visit the dump! Sadly however our last local newsagent closed down and this tragic shop remains open. What a rubbish shop, I feel for those who work there who actually care.  I wonder what Smith himself would say if he could look on at what his successful business has become?  His standards were higher than the grasping directors of today.

  
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