W H Smith

I grew up loving WH Smiths stores, but I find they’re going downhill a touch and this Bracknell branch is a prime example of this decline.
Yes, they have a fantastic magazine and greeting card section. The other sections of the shop suffer somewhat though, in my opinion. The book department is average and can’t compare to Waterstone’s. The toy department can be messy and most board games are the full RRP, so you’d go elsewhere. Same with their music and computer games. Unwanted old items, or popular things at the full RRP.
Now, I’ve always found the staff lovely, happy and cheery. But the poor staff are victim of the shop’s biggest problem. Which is…
Why, oh, why can we not simply pay for an item at WH Smith’s without the staff begging us to buy some reduced price chocolate bar? Would you like to buy a half-​price bar of chocolate, sir? They ask this while pointing at the tired old boxes of chocolate swarming all over their counter. For a start, it looks a mess. Secondly, it’s irritating. And most of all, it’s a cheek because more often than not, the same items are cheaper (without pretending to be on offer) at Sainsbury’s just several paces away.
So, please, WH Smith managment, stop embarrassing your staff and your customers by desperately hawking chocolate bars for a quid, reduced from two quid, that are 90p anyway at Sainsbury’s right by your shop.
Clear the counters, grow up, and take pride in the stuff you sell well. Great magazine and card departments. Friendly bright staff. Stupid and insulting attempts to fob us off with dubiously reduced choccy bars.
My opinion, anyway.

Pros This WH Smith is well situated in the centre of the Princess Square shopping complex. It’s quite a large store, and stocks a great selection of newspapers, books and stationery as well as some food and computer items.
When we went, staff were happy to chat through the various memory sticks with us so we could decide which one we wanted.
Cons The shop does get really busy on a Saturday and there are long queues to pay, and often not all of the checkouts are open.

Mid-​sized branch. Has the normal newsagent section with cards, newspapers and magazines, plus a reasonable book section, stationary and dvd’s and cd’s. Can be a bit small for getting around with a pushchair, especially in the magazine section.