WH Smith

We visited this store yesterday and it has a good selection of magazines — but compared to the Waterstone’s store at the same mall, the book selection isn’t nearly as good. Also, the store’s interior is rather crowded and therefore not great for leisurely browsing. However, a friendly woman was working there and she helped me find something.

WHsmith is a large store in the Arndale centre, It has a good selection of products you would associate with the brand and is one of the stores to have Self Service Checkouts.
I like how this store stocks the I newspaper near the Self Service checkout, it makes them look very nice and if you forget to buy a paper they is one right in front of you when you are scanning your items.
Although I understand this store does not make the rules, I am disappointed they do have a fee for bags, It is going to be compulsory for all stores soon but I am still disappointed they are doing it now even though they are priced at around a penny.
The store might not be as good as Waterstones for books which is also located near the store in the Arndale centre but it still has a good selection compared to other stores due to it’s size but still that shouldn’t stop any book lover coming here, when visiting the Manchester Arndale.
Overall, this is a nice, large WHSMITH store located near the exit onto Market Street and The Body Shop, Card Factory and JD Sports.
UPDATE: After a few recent experiences, I feel this store doesn’t deserve 4 stars, and is more deserving of 3 with some of the main reasons for the demotion being issues with queuing, often taking a while, hence the shopping experience can take slightly longer for those needing either lottery or stamps, and the range of this store could be much better considering its’ size, such as introducing a better food range, like at service stations, and making pricing of some items, especially books, more favourable. I still feel this rating is a little generous considering other aspects of the store, with the layout on other floors (the street entrance for example) often not being as nice, and never seeming to have staff there.

There’s something really sad about WH Smith. I think it’s lost its way. In a world where people either favour their local independent or would much rather press a button whilst watching TV, what is a high street chain to do?
The answer, it seems, is to start selling everything. WH Smith has always sold a wide variety of goods, but there’s something quite overwhelming about this main branch. I don’t remember the last time I ventured anywhere but downstairs.
Most recently, this was for a photo album, and I walked away with an album and simple wooden frame due to a buy one get one half price offer. There was very limited choice, especially when it came to the photo albums (a normal, inexpensive, slip in, 6×4 album shouldn’t be this hard to find!) but I was tired of slogging around Manchester on this never-​ending quest.
I paid downstairs due to the upstairs push on using self-​service check outs that always reject my card. Remember to look directly at the person serving you and not around the till-​point as you will be faced with an onslaught of cheap chocolate and sweeties.
Great if you want something quickly and a chocolate orange for £1.

The entrance to WHSmith in Corporation St takes you to the lower ground floor where you can indulge yourself in printing papers, diverse and sundry stationery, and artist’s materials. Take stairs or escalator to the next level — and you are in WHSmith in Arndale Shopping Centre, surrounded by myriads of books, magazines, postcards, wrapping papers, DVDs, and even cameras. This has to be one of the biggest WHSmith stores, if not the biggest, in Manchester; its only rival may be WHSmith in Trafford Centre that stretches across the miles of shop floor…

Most of my fondest WH Smith memories involve my father. He always used to browse the magazine rack in this particular branch and loved the fact that the staff never bothered you about it. He loves his motorbike rags. Basically, the reason I’m reviewing this little gem is because if you’re looking for niche magazines while shopping in Manchester, such as Diva, Black Beauty and Hair or CrossStitcher, this is the place to find them.
WH Smith has always had variety within its walls, and that’s one thing I love about it. This rather large branch stocks everything from cards to home decorations, wrapping paper to stationery, books, DVDs, the works. In fact one of the things I didn’t like about the Waterstone’s in the Arndale Centre was the fact that it is virtually interchangeable with this branch of WH Smith, right down to the Costa Coffee (yup, WH Smith is doing the coffee thang) but without all the extras like the greetings cards or the Christmas lights. Come on, Waterstone’s. Either you want to be a book shop or you want to be WH Smith, there’s no in between.
I’m a big fan of the sales in here as you can pick up some great holiday reading or stationery bits and bobs. It’s fantastic for art supplies as well, my brother, an Art graduate, used to come here all the time for his charcoal and his pencils. The staff are a little surly but they tend to stay behind their tills and refuse to offer you a bag, forcing you to actually request a part in destroying the planet or whatever it is they’re thinking. Aside from this, I’d heartily recommend it.

Now that Borders has gone into administration, I imagine people will probably start shopping at WH Smith again. They don’t have coffee shops in any of their stores yet but they stock the same basics as Borders under one roof. We’re talking aisles of stationary, cards, pens, books, CDs and DVDs.
Admittedly, the books are always more mainstream — we’re talking celebrity memoirs, cookbooks and prize-​winning novels as opposed to Richard Yates, Lorrie Moore and Cormac McCarthy. If the buyers got their act together however, and started expanding their range of fiction and other sections I’m convinced the bigger branches of WH Smith — like this one — could flourish. Given a lick of paint, comfy seats and some freshly smelling java, they would do even better.