Metropol

MattM wrote:While it's not that apparent to the regular customer, Smith's business models has been altered significantly and costs have been cut literally wherever possible (pop into your local branch and see if you can spot anything weird about the lighting).

Not to mention the extra revenue from, Photo Machines, The Post Office, DHL, JML (although they've gone now) , Random makeup people/Photo people, plus the TPC wonderwall of chocolate and haribo.

Despite that I know some stores were hit hard by EUK going under, lots of stores in my area don't do Ents but mine does, we had an auful lot of out of stock stuff, still do really. The good thing from WHS point of view is that, unlike Zavvi, they sell other things.

Whataday wrote:So some Woolworths stores are to remain open for at least an extra day as there is still stock to shift. Aparently they have always been notorious for keeping ancient stock in their stockrooms, which explains some items now available which were intended for sale over 10 years ago.

That might be one of their problems then, having stock sitting around and not being turned into cash.

Apparently that's one of the issues Jessops has had - they bought lots of cameras which were soon made obsolete and were/sitting around not being sold

MattM wrote:One of the big differences between WHSmith and Woolies is that Smith's doesn't have any debts, whereas Woolies were in the red by millions. While it's not that apparent to the regular customer, Smith's business models has been altered significantly and costs have been cut literally wherever possible (pop into your local branch and see if you can spot anything weird about the lighting).

The other thing about Smiths is that everyone knows exactly what it's for - it's a newsagents and the bigger ones also do books and AV. Essentially they sell anything that is flat!

They're also ubiquitous at stations and airports - both captive audiences

Inspector Sands wrote:

MattM wrote:One of the big differences between WHSmith and Woolies is that Smith's doesn't have any debts, whereas Woolies were in the red by millions. While it's not that apparent to the regular customer, Smith's business models has been altered significantly and costs have been cut literally wherever possible (pop into your local branch and see if you can spot anything weird about the lighting).

The other thing about Smiths is that everyone knows exactly what it's for - it's a newsagents and the bigger ones also do books and AV. Essentially they sell anything that is flat!

They're also ubiquitous at stations and airports - both captive audiences

Ah but they're WHS Travel stores, which aren't connected with the High Street version at all so even if the high street ones did die, they would remain.

Bail wrote:

Inspector Sands wrote:

MattM wrote:One of the big differences between WHSmith and Woolies is that Smith's doesn't have any debts, whereas Woolies were in the red by millions. While it's not that apparent to the regular customer, Smith's business models has been altered significantly and costs have been cut literally wherever possible (pop into your local branch and see if you can spot anything weird about the lighting).

The other thing about Smiths is that everyone knows exactly what it's for - it's a newsagents and the bigger ones also do books and AV. Essentially they sell anything that is flat!

They're also ubiquitous at stations and airports - both captive audiences

Ah but they're WHS Travel stores, which aren't connected with the High Street version at all so even if the high street ones did die, they would remain.

They are totally connected, just a different format, like Tesco Metro and Tesco Express.

Bail wrote: Ah but they're WHS Travel stores, which aren't connected with the High Street version at all so even if the high street ones did die, they would remain.

There was a chain of WH Smith travel agents but they've now closed (my local Smiths in the 80's had a branch upstairs). The ones at railway stations, motorway service stations and airports are proper WH Smiths branches

However their distribution arm is now a different company

Inspector Sands wrote:There was a chain of WH Smith travel agents but they've now closed (my local Smiths in the 80's had a branch upstairs). The ones at railway stations, motorway service stations and airports are proper WH Smiths branches

they're a different company within WHS plc.

High street stores are run by WHSmith Retail Ltd, Station ones are run by WHSmith Travel Ltd. In addition their tills and general systems are totally different than those in the retail stores.

There are two different UK arms of WHSmith, WHSmith High Street and WHSmith Travel (and a further division within Travel for stores in Moto service stations). Bail is right. Travel would remain if High Street died as it does quite well.

Not to mention of course that WHSmith recently teamed up with SSP to open five stores in Copenhagen airport (I was shocked to see them on my recent visit) with an aim of opening around 25 more in airports across the world.

However the limited companies are structured, they are still part of WHSmith Plc and I'm sure the one would bail out the other rather than just have the high street branches close.

Makes you think where Woolworths would be now if they focused more along the lines of convenience and tried to secure units in train stations and service stations. I think they are even more at home there than WHSmith. If only they'd spent their money on that rather than those stupid Big W outlets.

WHSmith Travel still exists as a holiday company, of sorts at http://www.whsmithtravel.co.uk

Whataday wrote:However the limited companies are structured, they are still part of WHSmith Plc and I'm sure the one would bail out the other rather than just have the high street branches close.

Makes you think where Woolworths would be now if they focused more along the lines of convenience and tried to secure units in train stations and service stations. I think they are even more at home there than WHSmith. If only they'd spent their money on that rather than those stupid Big W outlets.

WHSmith Travel still exists as a holiday company, of sorts at http://www.whsmithtravel.co.uk

They'd only bail out the High Street if it was feasible though, if it got to the situation where WHSmith retail was struggling they may think it better to concentrate on the travel division. All hypothetical anyway. As for that WHSmith Travel agent, I think its just an independent company who have licensed the name from WHSmith - either way the original travel agents went at the same time as the TV division.

Don't forget WHS' Hospital operations too.