John Lewis

[ECCOnoob 1,020]

4 hours ago, Lex Luthor said:

As per my previous post, JL are now second to most, in my experience.

Well that's a shame because that certainly isn't my experience of them.

 

They are nearly always my first port of call particularly when buying household and electrical goods.

 

I hate the often indifferent and sometimes surly service I get from the the out-of-town warehouse electrical stores.  I never feel any of that when I go to JL who generally have the decency to fake interest when I want to buy a product and have some knowledge of what they are talking about.  

 

At the end of the day nothing can always be for everybody.  But JL must have something which has set them apart from the other big department store chains given the fact that, whilst they have suffered some loss, they clearly have been injured slower and with far less impact than other rival stores. 

[Lex Luthor 10]

56 minutes ago, ECCOnoob said:

Well that's a shame because that certainly isn't my experience of them.

 

They are nearly always my first port of call particularly when buying household and electrical goods.

 

I hate the often indifferent and sometimes surly service I get from the the out-of-town warehouse electrical stores.  I never feel any of that when I go to JL who generally have the decency to fake interest when I want to buy a product and have some knowledge of what they are talking about.  

 

At the end of the day nothing can always be for everybody.  But JL must have something which has set them apart from the other big department store chains given the fact that, whilst they have suffered some loss, they clearly have been injured slower and with far less impact than other rival stores. 

Based on my recent experience of purchasing electrical goods, they are obviously trading on their previous reputation.

[DerbyTup 10]

It's still the best department store in Sheffield imo, with the best range of quality merchandise and competitive prices.  The standards of service are generally good, but not excellent as they were before.

 

Part of the reason for that is the way the store is now organised.   At one time there were specific departments, each with their own dedicated staff and pay points on each department.  The staff were highly trained before being let loose on the shop floor with customers, and once they began working in a department they generally remained within that department, learning about the merchandise and building up expert knowledge on the same.  So, you could go in there, find someone to speak to about the merchandise and get great advice. 

 

There was also a strict dress code for the staff too, so you could easily spot them.  For the ladies it was navy skirt, with John Lewis navy and white patterned blouse.  For the gents it was a navy, or dark grey, suit (absolutely no other colour was allowed), white or pale blue shirt, and a "sober" tie.  (A little "splash" of colour was allowed).  There was  even a strict hygiene code.  Staff were told to shower or bath daily, wear deodorant, do not come to work with greasy hair, dirty shoes, or unshaven, etc.  

 

How things have changed!  

 

When you go in there now, all the departments sort of merge into one, with one major paypoint on each floor.  The staff appear to be fewer and distributed all around the place, so few of them have any in-depth knowledge about the merchandise they are selling.  They can only tell you what it says on the ticket.  They employ people whose job it is to carry a clipboard to provide a form of "retail triage".  Essentially they are paid to spot customers who look like they might need some help - but they can't help them themselves, they are just there to make the customer feel that they are being dealt with, whilst they rush off and try and find the one person on that bit of shop floor who has some modicum of knowledge to be able to serve the customer.

 

They are allowed to wear, more or less, what they like by the look of it?  It's not easy to spot them, as it was before.  And they don't need to worry too much about their appearance, it's o.k. to come to work unshaven for the blokes and look like you just crawled out of bed.  

 

I worked there in the 70's and it's been very surprising and disappointing to see how standards have slipped.  And then of course, there's the building itself which has been badly maintained.

 

But for all it's faults, it's still the best department store in Sheffield and one of the few reasons why anyone would go into the city centre to shop.

[iansheff 86]

I buy electrical goods from JL purely because  of the warranty, I know I could get the same product at either Argos or PC World a lot easier but without the 5 year warranty. I have a TV that has started playing up, that is 4 years 8 months old and although was a pain getting through to JL tech support due to the virus and staffing, they arranged to send an engineer to look at the problem. Had it been Argos or PC World I would probably have had to put up with the problem, or take it somewhere for repair or replace it. Whatever you can get from PC World or Argos, you can probably get from JL and they will price match products.

[Baron99 778]

On 08/07/2020 at 20:17, chris101 said:

Just read Sheffield City council are planning to buy the lease of the land the store stands on. Rent it back to John Lewis on a turnover based rent & contribute to the stores refurbishment.

 

Just watching the BBC news.  They're done a piece about retail & have highlighted the JL store in the centre of Watford.  JL have decided to close this store, mainly because of the changing nature of how customers are purchasing goods, increasingly online. 

 

JL weren't even paying any rent on the site, right in the middle of Watford but are still closing. 

[Guest busdriver1]

16 hours ago, Baron99 said:

Just watching the BBC news.  They're done a piece about retail & have highlighted the JL store in the centre of Watford.  JL have decided to close this store, mainly because of the changing nature of how customers are purchasing goods, increasingly online. 

 

JL weren't even paying any rent on the site, right in the middle of Watford but are still closing. 

If they cant make Watford work then Sheffield has no chance.

[ECCOnoob 1,020]

46 minutes ago, busdriver1 said:

If they cant make Watford work then Sheffield has no chance.

Because.......?

[Guest busdriver1]

40 minutes ago, ECCOnoob said:

Because.......?

Watford is a well off area, with a bigger potential market from a bigger local population in the area that uses that town for its main shopping Centre.

People travel from many of the surrounding villages and smaller towns and is a thriving centre. They even travel from the outer reaches of greater London. I lived there for a long time and if you couldnt get something in Watford its probably because it wasnt made.

It draws from A wide area and is seen as a local hub for shopping any social life.

If you cant make it there , you cant make it anywhere.

[ECCOnoob 1,020]

Fair enough. But whatever it was like and whatever the draw  back when you were living there - something has got to have changed.

 

There is clearly a reason why JL has decided to close Watford despite leaving open Welwyn Garden City, Reading, High Wycombe and Brent Cross branches.  

 

Maybe that Greater London and Home Counties crowd just has too many branches in too little area.   

 

Edited July 25, 2020 by ECCOnoob

[Guest busdriver1]

3 hours ago, ECCOnoob said:

Fair enough. But whatever it was like and whatever the draw  back when you were living there - something has got to have changed.

 

There is clearly a reason why JL has decided to close Watford despite leaving open Welwyn Garden City, Reading, High Wycombe and Brent Cross branches.  

 

Maybe that Greater London and Home Counties crowd just has too many branches in too little area.   

 

If you knew the area like I do, you would realise that those other stores are not accessible to the vast amount of Watford customers, and that also is just for now. Who knows?

[ormester 11]

On 25/07/2020 at 09:35, busdriver1 said:

If they cant make Watford work then Sheffield has no chance.

Watford has London on its door stop 

[Guest busdriver1]

5 hours ago, ormester said:

Watford has London on its door stop 

See comments above.