WH Smith Hard Sell

[Steve Green]

Apologies for the rant...

Ive just been in to WHS and lately they've been trying to flog junk at the checkout. (You've bought a newspaper therefore you must want a huge fuckoff chocolate bar, do you want to order the latest Harry Potter that sort of thing)

Lately they've been trying to sell me cheap backpacks for some inexplicable reason, and today all the staff on the tills are wearing them.

Unfortunately this means that they can't sit up straight.

I mean FFS what is going on? Is there some sort of demented Del Boy buying job lots of tat and flogging it off? I don't know why they think that having someone on the till at WHS wearing a fucking backpack is likely to sell more of the things.

Just curious if this is a nationwide thing, or the backpack-wearing is just the work of the branch manager.

I half-expect to next see the staff with a cheapo DVD player strapped to their head next time.

Grrr.

- Steve (No I don't want a meal, and I don't want to go large - no not supersize either)

[Satanist]

I think I might pop into Smiths on the way home, just to laugh at them mind, not to buy a backpack.

[Tweak72]

lalala la la lalalalala la lalala la lahttp://www.kidsera.com/images/0430.jpg">

[Steve Green]

Sorry - meant for this to go in Off-topic.

God, I hope no-one who was involved in the London bombings goes in to WHS, they'll think they're taking the piss.

- Steve

[House of Usher]

Delete 'involved in', subsitute 'affected/injured by'.

[House of Usher]

I worked in WHSmith 5 years ago, and I can state that these promotions are pretty much nationwide, and it was pretty loathsome to be expected to try to sell customers things they hadn't come in for.

"A father's day card? Did you know, if you're buying one of those you can get a dad-sized toblerone with 'happy father's day' packaging for just ?1.00 instead of the usual ?1.59?"

The store manager's enthusiasm to persue some of the offers was downright barmy. e.g. the 'fourth book free' offer. If the customer has bought 2 books, they have to fork over another ?3.99 and choose 2 more books to get the benefit of the offer. If they've chosen 3 books already, making them use the offer when they haven't seen it amounts to giving money away. Of course, the staff were only too happy to give customers the fourth book free when it didn't amount to asking the customers to buy anything extra. And the manager would still count the third book as an extra sale even if we had to remind customers to go and choose themselves a free one.

A really crap offer was if you buy any chart video, you could buy Black Beauty for ?2.99.

[LARF]

"A really crap offer was if you buy any chart video, you could buy Black Beauty for ?2.99."

Wow, bargain, a whole horse for ?2.99!

Fantastic.

[Dudley]

However, there was one really good offer on last time I went in there.  Buy one copy of Heat magazine (which my wife was doing anyway), and you get the Independent for free plus 5p off the cost of the magazine.

So they'll pay you 5p to take the Independent off their hands.

[Quirkafleeg]

"A really crap offer was if you buy any chart video, you could buy Black Beauty for ?2.99."

Not the pr0n film I take it....


Most of the offers seem to involve buying the Daily Mail so I manage to escape most of these though I got suckered with the fat-bastard chocolate once. I usually use the 'do I look mad' look when the try it one.

Oh and they've changed the rule with the club card too (spend zillion pounds, get tenpence of something) "With the new tills you have to give us the card first"

Still it's an ok place to pass a few mins browsing the mags

[GordonR]

"Still it's an ok place to pass a few mins browsing the mags"

You seem to have accidentally missed out the word 'jizz' in that sentence there, gary...

[Quirkafleeg]

>You seem to have accidentally missed out the word 'jizz' in that sentence there, gary...

Didnt Smith ban all geniune 'gentlemen's literature' ages ago. Althouhg there's still plenty semi-pr0n lads mags. And all the gay stuff that aways seems to be shelved next to SFX. I'm sure it was Interzone that had some letter by a barking mad bloke who that it was all a big conspiracy to turn sf in to gays.

[Mangamax]

Do they still have jizz these days?
My browsing tends to be the likes of SFX and Total Film which always ends with "bollocks, i'm not forking out that much for that tosh"

[Conexus]

I always browse the simpsons and futurama comics, over two quid for one story, no thanks. It resats easy on my conscence, as i do buy the better value for money TPBs

[Dudley]

it was all a big conspiracy to turn sf in to gays.

Surely turn gays on to SF?  If SFX could get an audience the size of Attitude's they'd be well happy.

[Steve Green]

I do wonder if that's the reason they half-cover the title so it looks like SEX in the vain hope that someone might buy it by mistake and increase their readership marginally.

- Steve