written by Shopaholic666 on 29/07/2014
Having previously worked for this company in the past, I have both an employee and a consumer opinion of it. I'm going to start with the consumer opinion first.
Every single time I go into the stores, regardless if they are at the airport, my local shops or in a big city, the employees are smarmy, rude and unqualified. If you ask for help they can give you a vague recollection of where the book, item of stationary or type of card you're looking for may be but in short they do not want to help. Most of the time they have little in stock and when it comes to books they tend to repurchase the same one, for example a book series I used to read stocked the first volume from the first season of it and stocked the entire of the second season, they would restock V1 from S1 and V5 from S1 but never anything else, when I asked why they said that's just what's on the system. I find you never get such a good selection, even in large centres. They have little choice for the highest price possible and only seem to care about selling the overpriced chocolates around the till you can buy cheaper at the pound shop.
As an employee. They treat you like you are filth, they are rude, they don't allow you to wear certain items of clothing and they air condition the store all year round so you are shivering and unable to get warm. They do not give more training than a half hour video when you first start and they don't answer your questions. After finishing working there I went back a couple of years later for an interview, they were trying to hand me the job on the spot as they were struggling to fill the position, they said I would hear back and they are "not a poor type of company that ignores people" they completely ignored me and were so rude on the phone.
I avoid this store if I can help it much preferring Waterstones for better customer service, choice and quality. WHSmith are overprice, underpaid and the environment is unpleasant at best.