High Street newsagent chain WH Smith has been named as the worst store on Britain’s high streets in a new Which? consumer survey of 105 shoppers.
The dated retailer was pilloried for its ‘messy and expensive’ offer that saw it plunge to the bottom of the rankings, contrasting sharply with the flash offer of Apple’s flagship stores – which topped the list.
The retailer has not lacked critics in the past with retail adviser Mary Portas labelling its stores as ‘dumps’ which she ‘truly hates’ spending time in.
Despite these criticisms WH Smith has actually managed to increase its profits by five per cent to £69m, by cutting costs and benefiting from its strong position in major train stations.
Commenting on its list Which? said: “We are used to seeing the newsagent in the lower reaches of our list, and this year it props up the rest of our top 100.
“Our research shows that 81 per cent of shoppers worry about the decline of the high street and 88 per cent don’t like seeing established stalwarts fail.”
A WH Smith spokesperson said: “This is unrepresentative of the 12 million customers who enter our stores each week, and conflicts with our ongoing independent customer satisfaction survey of over a thousand customers each year, who consistently rate us highly on the things that matter to them.
“Customers vote with their feet, as evidenced by our continuing strong performance and the number of new stores that we are opening in the UK this year to support the UK high street.”
Also in the relegation zone were mobile phone chain EE and the budget clothing firms TK Maxx and Millets.