WHSmith hits out at claims it has the worst shops in the country

Today, consumer organisation Which? revealed a study that found that WHSmith, along with Currys Digital, was the worst place to shop in the UK.

But WHSmith has claimed the survey asked a small number of people and unfairly compared the retailer with entertainment chains. WHSmith has been reducing its entertainment category for the last few years as it favours higher margin products.

In a statement WHSmith said: “We are, of course, disappointed in the score the Which? survey gave us as the survey does not accurately reflect our business categories of books, stationery and magazines.  The Which? survey ranks us in the ‘Home Entertainment’ category which includes CD, DVD and Games categories as well as Books, and makes no mention of our other core categories.

“Our successful strategy of moving away from entertainment products over the past 4 years has been well documented and we therefore feel the comparison is unrepresentative of our offer in store today.

“Our independently conducted customer satisfaction survey has a significantly larger sample size, judges our service and offer in all of our main categories and the latest results continue to benchmark our satisfaction ratings very favourably.

“We score particularly well for and are proud of the service our colleagues offer in store. The Which? survey rating WHSmith was conducted with only 171 people.”