Recently WHSmith has announced that stores would start to close across the UK due to poor sales.
Many commentators in the industry have been worried that the loss of these shops will lead to ‘book deserts’ or areas in the UK where you won’t be able to purchase physical books.
Frankly, that’s cobblers. Anyone who thinks that clearly hasn’t been into a WHSmith shop in years.
While the shop used to be a one-stop-shop for all stationary and media, the concept failed once the internet took hold in the early 2000s.
As CDs and DVDs stopped being popular and people started shopping online, WHSmith quickly became obsolete. Longhand writing has also become less important and so WHSmith, which has always been one of the top sellers of Parker Pens and other stationary products, has probably seen sales in this area drop also.
Every WHSmith I’ve been into over the last 5 years hasn’t had much by way of books. Most of the time, it has a small section for bestsellers, which is usually empty, and a few old paperbacks on a few shelves that are usually on sale.
Even when the bestseller section is full, which is usually seen at service stations and airport WHSmith stores, it’s usually behind and doesn’t include the latest books, or several books are usually out of stock. So, buying books from WHSmith is like buying them from a supermarket. You might pick one up on impulse, but it’s not where dedicated bookworms would actively shop for books.
The likes of Waterstones, which focuses on books and trends in reading, have survived and will continue to thrive. From author meetups and signings to cool displays and loyalty programs, big book stores like that have ways of keeping shoppers coming back to their physical stores.
These businesses have also embraced the Internet and social media in particular. WHSmiths has never done this, much like Blockbuster. They aren’t active on social media and WHSmith doesn’t do anything online that everyone else doesn’t already do much better.
That’s why Blockbuster went under and why WHSmith is steadily becoming obsolete. The store has no defining vision and no focus on books or readers.
Without WHSmiths, they’ll be literally no changes to the ways people buy books. I don’t believe many people purchase books from these shops, and while they do sell National Book Tokens, you can buy these from other locations too.
Stores such as Waterstones, secondhand book shops and charity shops remain at the forefront of British book buying. Where books can’t be found in these places, buyers can usually find what they want online and collectors can always go to auctions and antique stores to find what they want.
Anyone who reads on a Kindle or any other ereader don’t need WHSmith, and nor do those who, like me, prefer physical copies of their favorite novels.
So, anyone who’s panicking about what the fall of WHSmith and how it will affect book buying in the UK, I honestly wouldn’t worry too much. While it is a shame when any business goes under, and when anyone loses their jobs, I honestly don’t think the loss of WHSmith will have a major affect on how anyone buys books.
