It's sad but not a surprise to hear that W H Smith is in trouble, and will likely vanish from the High Street - My own local store in Pontypridd vanished shortly before Christmas and to be honest has been going down hill for some considerable time. There was a time when I never came out of the store without buying something - a magazine or two, maybe a book or, and it's not that long ago, a discounted DVD box set.
Though over recent years I've boought less and less from the store - some of it is admittedly becuase I could get books cheaper on Amazon, but by far the biggest reason is that Smiths just didn't carry the variety they once did. And as for magazines - well, they were moved about so much that if you were in a rush you didn't have time to find what you wanted. Blame online shopping, blame eBooks, blame what you want but the facts are that Smiths failed to be store worth browsing in. IIt was overly expensive - particularly for stationary and well it wasn't what it once was, but then so few things are.
I can still recall the days when my local town of Pontypridd boasted not only a W H Smith but a John Menzies too - I think Menzies went in the early 90's or thereabouts and now it looks as if good old W H Smith is going the same way.
Both were great bookshops, newsagents and sellers of all sorts of other entertainment - there was a time when they stocked LP Records, cassettes, video tapes, CD's, DVD's as well as having a varied magazine selection. Of course when Menzies went, W H Smith largely acquired their shops but now a few decades later Smiths is also going the way of Mothercare, Woolworths and the dodo.
The High Street these days seems to be charity shops, vape stores and Kebab places.
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