Do W.H. Smith sell Blu-rays in store?

[Albatross365]

As the title says.

My aunt forgot it was my birthday until my sister reminded her the day she was going on holiday so as a result I have a gift card for Smith's she bought at Heathrow.

Tried my local one but they only sell a poor selection of DVDs. They used to sell them.

Anyone know if they do sell them in stores?

I don't know if I can actually find £25 worth of books, cds, dvds or stationery worth buying in Smith's these days.

Please give me some hope...

[Jezza]

Smiths seem to be veering away from Blu-rays and DVDs, all three of my local stores no longer sell any, which has become a big nuisance because I used to use them a lot.

Even when they were selling DVDs in masses they only had a very, very small quantities of Blu-rays, but they were always around the £20-£25 mark.

[BigNickUK]

For fear of stating the obvious you could just call them

http://www.whsmith.co.uk/support/storefinder.aspx

[Mitsubishi Burning]

They don't in my local one. They sell DVD's, but no Blu-rays.

[Kurgen1975]

Originally Posted by Mitsubishi Burning

They don't in my local one. They sell DVD's, but no Blu-rays.

Same for my local

[PK22]

Trafford Centre has a limited selection all over priced though.

[DJJez]

Originally Posted by Mitsubishi Burning

They don't in my local one. They sell DVD's, but no Blu-rays.

same in reading

[Sky_Captain]

They sold them all off, in my local one, starting from £3. That was the only time I actually bought anything in there, they were usually hilariously priced.

[Mitsubishi Burning]

It's not suprising really why HMV tried to get away with charging so much for theirs instore. There was no real competition on the highstreet itself. A few of the larger supermarkets have started to sell them now, but in Solihull for example which is my local town, if you physically want to buy a blu-ray in a shop whilst you are in town your only choice is HMV.

Seen a lot cheaper titles in store lately though, I think they have started to realise that selling more at a cheaper price is better than selling virtually none at a higher price.

[DJJez]

Originally Posted by Mitsubishi Burning

It's not suprising really why HMV tried to get away with charging so much for theirs instore. There was no real competition on the highstreet itself. A few of the larger supermarkets have started to sell them now, but in Solihull for example which is my local town, if you physically want to buy a blu-ray in a shop whilst you are in town your only choice is HMV.

Seen a lot cheaper titles in store lately though, I think they have started to realise that selling more at a cheaper price is better than selling virtually none at a higher price.

i go into hmv once a week and the prices are coming down for sure. some things are still ridiculously priced though. rocky boxset = £60 in my local HMV

[Nitroes]

I see WH Smith has gone from online and on the high street.

Sold to some bank robbers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TGJones who halved their offer with days to go.

I only noticed walking by their shop last week.

[From my detailed files] Last item I bought online from them was:

15 February 2021 (they had a nice £10 off voucher).

Before that:

Never.


Not sure how that scumbag company can make money unless they start selling cannabis and swap out the passport photo booths for sex webcam booths.

[The Hornets]

Thread’s a blast from the past as our local one gave up entertainment in the early days of DVD so must be 20 years ago.

The new owners plan to close over half the stores. All are on very short leases so there is limited cost as they will be closed as lease expire with only cost of redundancies to pay and that won’t be much as stores now operate on a skeleton staff.

The plan is to only keep stores with a Post Office (ours does at the back of the store) or a Toys R Us concession. Readers may remember Toys R Us went bust in the U.K. decades ago but someone recently has licenced the name from the US owners to open a chain of toy shops via these concessions.

Toy Shops seem a growth area on the high street based upon numbers round here and recent openings, probably because parents and grandparents still like browsing amongst actual toys to buy gifts for children.

[wabrit]

WH Smith fuelled my childhood obsessions back in the 60s and 70s - singles & tapes, Dennis Wheatley books, horror movie tie-in paperbacks, Alan Frank horror guides.
And I used to read bits of The Oxford Companion to Film in the shop, which is really how years later I ended up here.

Sad to see it all go, but times move on.

[bladelia]

WH Smith hasn't gone completely from the high st. I walked past one yesterday in St Pancras.

[DTSBOY]

Originally Posted by bladelia

WH Smith hasn't gone completely from the high st. I walked past one yesterday in St Pancras.

They're keeping the name in airports and railway stations.

[The Hornets]

Originally Posted by DTSBOY

They're keeping the name in airports and railway stations.

Plus hospitals and service stations.

That’s their travel business which is all that left and is keeping the name, where they sell over priced sandwiches and drinks to travellers and captive customers. It’s very profitable, whereas the high street was a basket case, hence getting rid of if.

[Babu93]

The WH Smith on my high street was a great place when I was a kid. It's where I'd save up my money to buy Doctor Who VHS tapes.

Top floor - books and art supplies, middle floor - magazines and stationary, and the whole bottom floor was dedicated to entertainment.

Now it looks like a crack den.

[Nitroes]

I think they need to apply for planning permission with a lot of store front livery especially in posh areas so the name may be around for some months.


WH Smith definitely done DVDs circa 1998 but I don't think I ever bought them as their prices were silly. Never seen the point of them really for buying anything else either. Maybe the blue rinse brigade and NIMBYs liked them for the pen selection.

I seem to recall the muppet David Cameron 'saved' them a few years back by guaranteeing a government loan or something. WH Smith were greedy buying up all sorts of garbage (and some good things like the John Menzies stores here in Scotland but done nothing with it apart from rebrand).

Looking at their financials just in the last few months (£400m debt + a new loan in March for £200m) they have no money and never will. That's why they let that part of their business go it was probably the most costly.

Selling England Britain by the pound.

[Nitroes]

...talking about dodgy loans...



That was 13 April 1885.

It's amazing what's on Google.

[petermaverick]

Originally Posted by Albatross365

As the title says.

My aunt forgot it was my birthday until my sister reminded her the day she was going on holiday so as a result I have a gift card for Smith's she bought at Heathrow.

Tried my local one but they only sell a poor selection of DVDs. They used to sell them.

Anyone know if they do sell them in stores?

I don't know if I can actually find £25 worth of books, cds, dvds or stationery worth buying in Smith's these days.

Please give me some hope...

I don't know exact details but there are websites where people trade unwanted gift cards