WH Smith Post Office

Ugh. Don’t bother. I was here to send bits off to DVLA and it just ended up nowhere. It’s such a miserable place to be! Who likes snake queues anyway?

everyones is lovely and helpful but as with all post offices the queue is is awful im too scared to actually use it unless its so vital i have no other option

W. H Smiths has gotten to be really disappointing these days. It’s not really a bookshop anymore, its just a place to buy rubbish novels to read on long train journeys. Even in the larger branches its difficult to locate interesting magazines as diversity has increasingly given way to ordering copies of ‘Maxim’ in bulk. The classification system of magazines in this shop is something that instills fury in me everytime I shop because they still have a womens section in which they file magazines about crochet, doing up your house and other crap that clearly only women are interested in, leaving men free to enjoy music, travel, motoring, design, computers, naked ladies and news. They also sell crap chocolate, vats of water on 2 for 1 offers that you can’t bear to carry anywhere because you’ll put your back out and bedraggled copies of the telegraph because its the only thing left. Staff frequently have no idea what your talking about and don’t give a monkeys.

Am very much in agreement with Sarah-​Jane B. on this one — I’ve never not seen the place rammed, with a long queue of miserable looking customers. I’d really reccomend you avoid it if you have any choice about it! I personally use the St James’ Street branch, and I know there’s one on Western Road too. St James’ Street’s Post Office is never too busy and the staff are refreshingly chilled out and happy to help. Even if I’m in W H Smiths to get some stationary and just have to walk past this particular Po branch, it makes me feel claustophobic, stressed, and depressed — eeek, don’t bother!

Whose idea was it to relocate Brighton’s central Post Office into Churchill Square Shopping Centre?
A few years ago, the main branch was in a lovely building in the Lanes. Now on the lower ground floor of WHSmith, it resembles a dole centre. Squashed into the corner of Smiths, next to the stairs and escalators, it’s void of life and sunlight — except for a long snake of disgruntled looking customers. I’ve had the misfortune to be stuck in the queue several times with parcels to post and believe me, the atmosphere sucks. How-​ever many people are serving, you usually have to wait 5 to 10 minutes and at busy times, like the run-​up to Christmas, you can wait as long as half an hour.
Even the TV screen playing post office adverts on rotation can’t distract from the fact, this is a horrible Post Office to visit at any time.

What is WHSmiths?
Well this shop to me is like a box of chocolates in that I like all of the products. It always reminds me of a newsagent in store form.
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Where are they located?
If you go into any town or city you should be able to find a WHSmiths lurking about somewhere. They are distinguishable by the big bright blue sign they associate with themselves. I have yet to find a store located in a village but let me know if I am wrong.
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What do they sell?
In these stores you can expect to find the following;
Books There is a good range of books stretching over a lot of categories. When you are in the store you will be able to locate them by searching for the particular genre you are after. All of the stores by me have a great selection stretching from fiction to non-​fiction and children’s to horror. Also the stores do tend to have a lot of offers on the books quite frequently. Today the offer is take some money off the price of the book so about 1 or 2 pounds or you can have 3 books for the price of 2. I always find the book I am after.
DVDs A decent range of DVDs can be seen. This stretches from new chart releases to older releases and to TV DVD box sets. Also the store occasionally will have special DVDs such as sets with the film and soundtrack included. Today I saw sets with the film and the film adapted edition of the book for a few films for £9.99. I was so tempted but managed to resist. Also they go one step better than HMV with their 3 DVDs for £18 sale. It is easy to find the DVD you are after because you either look in the chart in the alphabetically ordered DVD section or the TV DVD section. The DVDs they have in store always seem to be a good selection.
CDs To be honest the CD section is the only one I will have a little moan about as in all of the stores by me they have not really got a great collection. They have all of the music that is in the chart at present which is the most important I suppose but I always find that CDs are hard to locate and the selection of non-​chart music is always a bit pants. Saying that the prices on the CDs are generally fantastic and you can get some right bargains like I found I’m warning you not to laugh straight away an old Britney Spears album there for £3. Now I know you are all going to start saying well her music is only worth that but I like her and that is a bargain and an example of what you can find if you look hard enough.
Magazines They have a very good Range of magazines from women’s to men’s. I am pretty confident that you will be able to find the one that you are after. I buy around 5 magazines a week and I get them all from WHSmith.
Board games I am not saying they have a great collection but you can buy some board games here. They sell the popular ones such as Monopoly and Cluedo. You can also find travel board games; you know the little magnetic ones so Smiths is always a good shop to go to before you go on holiday.
PC and console games Again the selection really depends on the size of the store but in Birmingham you can find all of the games in the current chart and quite a few older ones to.
Stationary WHSmith excels itself on its stationary selection. You can choose from the cheap stationary, you know what I mean the 99p folders and 49p clear pencil cases but then you can go one better. They sell really nice ring binders with themes such as bright colours or silky textures. These are around £2.99. They also do themes such as stationary with Blue on the cover or Harry Potter. As well as folders you will be able to find the usual such as pens, pencils, pencil cases and mathematic sets. Calculators and I know it’s not exactly stationary but things such as briefcases and storage boxes can be bought from here to at reasonable prices. I bought a really nice set of 3 clear boxes for £4.99 about 3 weeks ago and they are of a very good quality.
Cards Any occasion they will have a selection for it. I am talking Birthdays, weddings, valentines and Christmas (when the time comes round) you should be able to find a good selection. All of the cards are price coded with letters and the prices are generally the same as you would find in places like Clintons.
Gifts Gifts are there to buy all year round but especially at Christmas. I have seen oil burners, candle making sets, magazine subscriptions and photo frames. The best gift I have ever had from there was WHSmiths own version of the red letter day. It was £59 for a quick drives gift which you could choose from Quad biking, rally driving or a fast car ride. I cannot tell you what it was like yet as my stupid boyfriend keeps forgetting to organise it, I must nag him about that tonight. Also in these days you can get stuff like cinema tickets and hot air balloon rides.
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What are the prices like?
To be honest WHSmith are reasonably priced. Music and films generally can be found to be the same price as everywhere else and the games are quite

This famous bookstore consists of 2 floors for books and magazines and other gifts. the book selection is massive and the staff are happy to help you locate a particular book. there are also 2 entrances into this WHsmith, which means you wont miss it when shopping in Churchill square! the only bad thing is, when it gets busy, the queue goes on forever.