WH Smiths at Railway Stations

[Butts]

They might, but their paying higher rent on their premises so need to make more money with less shelf space.

I'm sure the rent in the centre of Edinburgh for a WH Smith is no more proportionately than that at Waverley Station.

Edinburgh City Centre is a "tourist trap" yet charges are lower in the "High Street" than at the Railway station branches.

 

[DelayRepay]

Are some of the station WH Smiths operated by SSP? I ask because in Yorkshire we have a few combines Pumpkin Cafe/WH Smith shops, for example at Doncaster.

 

[strange6]

Here is the proof that they are franchises:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-st...n-food-and-drink-at-stations-115875-23393642/

 

[WatcherZero]

Its much higher at rail stations, Service stations and Airports as you have a captive audience and limited retail supply of retail space.

Here is the proof that they are franchises:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-st...n-food-and-drink-at-stations-115875-23393642/

Your using the Mirror as a source? Its misleading but partially right, the high street stores and the travel stores are completley seperate businesses.

http://www.whsmithplc.co.uk/about_whsmith/

Travel Of the 532 Travel units, 137 are in airports, 117 in railway stations, 119 in motorway service areas (most of which are franchise units), 105 in hospitals and 30 in locations such as bus stations and workplaces. 24 units are in non-UK locations: Republic of Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, India, Australia and Oman. Total 0.4m square feet

High Street The High Street business operates 581 stores with an extensive reach across the UK and a presence on nearly every significant UK high street. At 28 February 2011, High Street operated from a total of 3.0m square feet of selling space, with stores ranging in size from 777 square feet to more than 23,000 square feet.

That makes just under 10% of the total franchise stores (though it only gives an upper limit not an actual count) or 2.6% by floor space.

 

[theblackwatch]

Yes, it was in one of the Sunday papers last weekend about prices at Railway stations and WH Smith themselves stated that railway shops were franchises and out of their control

Strangely looking quickly at their Annual Report, this isn't what WHS say. There are 516 WHS Travel shops, of which 128 are franchises. Of these, to quote the report "119 in motorway service areas (most of which are franchise units)". Assuming that 'most' is 100, that doesn't leave many franchises left for the 117 in at railway stations. It would therefore appear that the Sunday paper has got it wrong - maybe they should do a bit of reasearch, it has taken me 5 minutes to discover what I've posted!

 

[Butts]

Its much higher at rail stations, Service stations and Airports as you have a captive audience and limited retail supply of retail space.

I don't totally agree with that.

Where Tesco and Greggs etc have moved into airports they seem to manage to charge prices closer to the high street than the incumbents.

Slightly off topic with regard to newspapers can you explain why Sunday Newspapers are more expensive than Saturday editions.

A lot of quality titles such as The Independent or Guardian have as much or more content than their Sunday stablemates yet cost less.

 

[strange6]

Your using the Mirror as a source? Its misleading but partially right, the high street stores and the travel stores are completley seperate businesses.

Separate businesses or not, WH Smith have very little say in what these stores charge to customers. I'll email them directly tomorrow to see what they say.

 

[WatcherZero]

I don't totally agree with that.

Where Tesco and Greggs etc have moved into airports they seem to manage to charge prices closer to the high street than the incumbents.

Slightly off topic with regard to newspapers can you explain why Sunday Newspapers are more expensive than Saturday editions.

A lot of quality titles such as The Independent or Guardian have as much or more content than their Sunday stablemates yet cost less.

Partly more content (magazines, tv guides, bulkier), partly they invest more journalistic resources in Sunday stories as they tend to be the big investigative scoops, they consequently cost more to research.

 

[wintonian]

Redcar

They are higher than your supermarket but lower than at railway stations, for reasons already explained above I guess.

For instance, 10 Richmond KS is £3.13 in the supermarket, but £3.30 in the high street branch of WHSmith. On the railway station I have seen them as high as £3.85.

Bournemouth, Southampton and Winchester sell fags on the High Street as well, I think I have seen the in Newport IOW as well.

 

[WatcherZero]

I don't totally agree with that.

Where Tesco and Greggs etc have moved into airports they seem to manage to charge prices closer to the high street than the incumbents.

Looking at their balance sheet, £180m in annual rent, 1/3rd for the 3m square feet of high street floorspace and 2/3rds in rent for the 0.4m of Travel retail space, and thats if it includes the 20% of travel shops which are franchises.

 

[Butts]

Partly more content (magazines, tv guides, bulkier), partly they invest more journalistic resources in Sunday stories as they tend to be the big investigative scoops, they consequently cost more to research.

Well that is not true of The Independent on Sunday - it is crap compared to the Saturday Edition - I only get it because I have vouchers which give you the Saturday and Sunday free (£5 per week)

What about my other point with regard to Greggs and Tesco etc.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Bournemouth, Southampton and Winchester sell fags on the High Street as well, I think I have seen the in Newport IOW as well.

They must have started again then - I remember them stopping a while back-would you concur.

Like Woolworth's they stopped as well long before they went belly up.

 

[WatcherZero]

Dug deeper into their books

The Group’s stores are held mainly under operating leases that are not capitalised and therefore are not included as debt for accounting purposes. The High Street leases are on standard ‘institutional’ lease terms, typically with a 15-year term, subject to five-year upwards-only rent reviews. The Travel stores operate mainly through turnover-related leases, usually with minimum rent guarantees, and generally varying in length from five to ten years.

 

[wintonian]

I know they started to sell them round here about a couple of years ago, didn't know they used to sell them.

 

[Butts]

I know they started to sell them round here about a couple of years ago, didn't know they used to sell them.

They certainly didn't when i worked in your manor....

Ladbroke later Top Rank Club Middlebrooke Street Winchester (near the PO)

 

[WatcherZero]

They dont really break up Property between the divisions in the accounts apart from headline figure, but it looks like roughly 20% of their stores are owned and the rest rented, they are also getting a couple of million income from retail property rented to other companies (either property they no longer wish to use or subleasing long term leases). The main black book item seems to be their still paying £4m a year in rent on US retail properties after they closed down their US division.

 

[Butts]

They dont really break up Property between the divisions in the accounts apart from headline figure, but it looks like roughly 20% of their stores are owned and the rest rented, they are also getting a couple of million income from retail property rented to other companies. The main black book item seems to be their still paying £4m a year in rent on US retail properties after they closed down their US division.

A lot of companies are regretting the day they sold all their freeholds for a short term gain

 

[wintonian]

They certainly didn't when i worked in your manor....

Ladbroke later Top Rank Club Middlebrooke Street Winchester (near the PO)

Not quite (or maybe not anymore) Now also home to the PO since 2005/6.

An old masonic hall I think.

 

[Butts]

Not quite (or maybe not anymore) Now also home to the PO since 2005/6.

An old masonic hall I think.

Is Advocados Restaurant still down by King Alfies Statue ?

 

[wintonian]

Is Advocados Restaurant still down by King Alfies Statue ?

Who?

Think you need to spend some time on Goggle Street View.

 

[jon0844]

Any further information on Newspaper and Magazine prices - is it the price on the cover that stops them profiteering on these ?

They make enough as it is. In my last job, we sold our magazines for £3.95 and only get around 50% back. Okay, so the rest is split between WH Smith and the distributor (owned by the same company as the Daily Mail - urgh!), but that's still a fair bit of money from what is/was their core business - not that you'd know by the other crap they sell within the high street stores (travel is somewhat tidier).

And, you have to pay WH Smith to carry your magazine in a lot of outlets, especially Travel, and are expected to do promotions (sounds rather like Tesco!) regularly - otherwise, come their regular reviews, they'll drop you.

By the way, while you're all here - would you like a slab of Galaxy chocolate for £1?

Newspapers and Magazines are supplied on a Sale or return agency basis (ie unsolds are sent back to the publisher and the retailer only pays them for the actual sales), where the retailer never actually owns the stock he sells and this allows the publisher to dictate the price.

Mostly correct, but smaller publishers probably don't get the unsold issues back (we didn't). They're supposed to be pulped, but I am sure they find their way to other locations - and end up on market stalls!

A publisher can dictate the price, but WH Smith and the supermarkets are making money from each sale and will, erm, 'influence' the price to make as much money as possible. If they aren't making much, especially on a specialist title with a fairly low circulation, they may drop you come their review - or ask, as is more likely, for a fixed payment to keep it on the shelves. If you want a good shelf position, you'll pay more too.

Supermarkets seem to outsell WH Smith for newspaper and magazines now, but travel outlets obviously do well because they have a captive market (especially the airports) and people are bored. However, in the future people will be less bored as they'll read their stuff on a Kindle/iPad and prefer to play Angry Birds and the like than pay £5 for a mag full of adverts!

 

[pmgarvey]

On a slight tangent, something that bothered me but I couldn't bring myself to start a thread on, why do W H Smiths in stations sell "adult-orientated" magazines? Who is buying these to read on trains?

 

[jon0844]

Drivers?

 

[Butts]

On a slight tangent, something that bothered me but I couldn't bring myself to start a thread on, why do W H Smiths in stations sell "adult-orientated" magazines? Who is buying these to read on trains?

When you say "adult orientated" are you referring to Train Enthusiast Publications.

For gods sake don't mention Blondes in Tartan Skirts pictured on an Engine

 

[WestCoast]

I've never seen a Tesco Express in a station or an airport (many, many of them on the streets though!), but I have seen M&S Food and Sainsburys at some larger stations.

Boots and WHSmith are always in airports though.

Wouldn't mind a firm like the CO-OP to expand into that area.

 

[jopsuk]

I think Tesco Express are starting to move into a lot of Railway Stations and Airports now which at least is offering more realistic prices.

Tesco Express, and even more so One Stop (which is owned by Tesco, use their colour scheme/fonts/design etc just not the name) charge more than larger branches of Tesco, regardless of location. Even M&S Food at stations charge more than M&S food at a retail park or the food hall within a big M&S.

 

[142094]

Always amazes me that some people either don't plan ahead and bring a drink/sweets/sandwich etc, and in many cases there is a newsagent within 5 minutes walk.

Have to say the only time I buy anything apart from a newspaper from WHSmiths is when I don't know the area too well or changing trains quickly. For 3 and a half months I was one of the only people to buy a copy of The Northern Echo at York. 45p well spent every day of that commute.

 

[jon0844]

I am sure people do buy local, but by definition there will always be plenty of people who don't know the area well - or have a fear of venturing outside.

Tesco, Sainsbury's etc are usually very close to stations but passengers won't go out - so they will use Whistlestop or M&S (which are both SSP). You can however get your 20% off at the food outlets, Upper Crust etc, which lessens the blow such that I will often use places at stations too.

I rarely buy anything from WH Smith though; expensive with annoying upsell attempts at the counter. Not the fault of staff, mind, who must hate being forced to do it - but some are quite pushy. I'd sooner use an independent newsagent.

 

[junglejames]

Some people just hate it when a British company is succesful...

Oh no, this sounds like the pendys and voyagers again. If someone doesnt like something you do, you have to try and make up a reason for it yourself, something not likely to make your pet company look bad.

Tesco stuff is cheap rubbish. Thats why a lot of people dont like them.
Just so every knows though. I love it when a British company does well. But if they sell cheap rubbish, im not going to like their stores/ products.

 

[dk1]

I only popped in for a daily paper, what makes you think i also wanted a Cadbury's Fruit & Nut bar thats almost too big to get through the door

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Why don't people accept that the W H Smith station outlets are there for the convenience of travellers. Nothing more, nothing less.