WH Smiths to Sell all their Stores (to become TG Jones)
 

Yes sadly Job Loses
on a New Announcement on Monday.


[WH Smith 'to sell ALL of its High Street shops'
in a massive deal 233 years after
opening flagship store]

[WH Smith is in talks to sell its
entire high street business in Britain
after 233 years.
The retailer, which is said to have a
total market value of almost £1.5 billion,
has secretly been in talks with
prospective buyers for weeks,
Sky News reports.

WH Smith, which sells stationary, books,
and is home to many UK post offices,
has around 500 stores in Britain and employs
5,000 people across the country.]


https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01...7801300382.jpg

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...eet-shops.html


Complex Sale
because the Post Office
is inside many stores.


Life in The City.

Its a shame and it was a fave shop of mine for years but their stock is stuck in the 90s and no one bothers with high streets so much as stupid councils charge shoppers for parking. Also who ever thought the who PO thing was a good idea is a twat

WHS was my first employer….a Saturday job when I turned 16 at Brent Cross.

All gone to pot for Smiths since I left a few years ago :omgno:

But the writing has been on the wall for a while unfortunately. Even just in my time I went through three rounds of redundancies. They were constantly cutting investment and reducing staff which allowed them to stay profitable - just - but wasn't sustainable.

Also the current CEO Carl Cowling has been pretty clear for a while that he doesn't care about the high street and only cares about the cash cow of travel stores. I think there was a chance for Smiths to be a bit better but they let competitors squeeze them out of pretty much every product category. Magazines are probably the only thing they lead on these days but there's no margin there. The store standards slipped so much as well because of the lack of investment but the prices didn't so it became a second rate retailer with premium prices.

It's sad because I still feel a lot of affection for the company. Even now whenever I go to a new town I have to check out the Smiths and those small shops in old buildings in traditional market towns can still be very charming places. Too many clowns running the show though

i used to love shopping there but it just didn't move with the times

But they did put in Many Post Offices
which are needed by the public

not in town centres where idiot couicils charge to park

There are a few in some Towns

there isn't a single smiths within 100 miles of me that has a post office in the shop, so i think it's an exception if they have a post office

my smiths with a po is 1.8 miles from me

I think maybe about a quarter to a third had them, mainly larger stores in bigger towns. Most Smiths weren't really set up to have a lot of space taken over by a post office

Even still the post offices were busy but there's not much money in them. And they were generally run terribly

I mean have Post Offices had a good 10 years?

:skull:

Shame, it was a shop I loved, but now will only visit if I am at the airport

Train Station WH Smiths are more Busy

I stole my first magazine from Smiths

:sad:

We Find out the Full details on Monday.

Naughty Kids

Yes,
but many still need the Post Office.
It is all some old folks have


Rachel Reeves is on the 2 Shows
on Sunday Morning

Very true with all the banks closing. I think they will just move into other retailers though like some of the other supermarkets and convenience stores

I think a bigger impact will be all the magazines folding as Smiths is pretty much the only place which sells a lot of mags.

Of course they might yet find a buyer and all the shops stay open

i used to buy tons of magazines.I buy none now

Yes Banks Closing

That's why many need the Post Office

on your tippy toes reaching the top shelf?

It used to be John Menzies where I live.

I used to buy a lot of magazines too.

I was in one recently and was quite surprised how little it, and it's stock has changed over the years.

I used to love back to school stationary shopping there.

my guess is it will shrink to being a feature at airports and train stations. That's where the serious cash was earned. High street real estate is just too expensive these days with terrible footfall