Yesterday marked the end of the first half of the financial year at WH Smith plc. Lately, analysts have been firing off cheery notes about the success of its strategy. But what exactly is its strategy? To be the most overpriced retailer in the UK?
Peer through the shop window and that would seem to be the case. At its Stansted Airport store, you’ll have to fork out a whopping £10 for a bottle of water and a large chocolate bar. In fact, the cost of chocolate and crisps is as much as three times the price of comparable products at major supermarkets, while bottled water is ten times dearer.
Hold on, you might say. The comparison is unfair because airport stores always charge a premium. But head over to the Wetherspoon across the way at Stansted, and £10 will get you a breakfast of baked beans, two scrambled eggs, two rashers of bacon, two hash browns and a cappuccino, which, er, sounds rather more filling than water and a chocolate bar.
But to be fair to WHSmith there are a (vanishingly small) number of places that are more expensive. Take Knightsbridge’s Nusr Et, for example – one of the world’s priciest restaurants where a meal for two can top £1,000. There, bottled mineral water does in fact cost a few pennies more, per 100ml, than at WHSmith – though you do get it served to you in a glass with ice and a sprinkling of Himalayan salt.
Head to Piccadilly’s poshest food shop, Fortnum and Mason, and you will find that its best cut of sirloin steak, at £5.35 per 100g, is a little more expensive than WHSmith’s chocolate buttons, at £4.46 per 100g. Mind you, the crisps there are still cheaper.
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