This weekend has seen one of those free toy offers that crop up in the papers from time to time. On this occasion the toys needed to be collected from branches of Toys'R'Us or W.H. Smith. Yesterday (Saturday) I happened to be in Llandudno and had no problem claiming the toy from W.H. Smith there. Today (Sunday) I happened to be in Bangor. Now Bangor is officially a city, this shop is on the high street (which is even called High Street) so you'd think that a renowned national newsagent would open the doors of a city centre, High Street branch in order to sell the Sunday papers. Well clearly WHS don't think that way because when I got there, after eleven o'clock, I found it closed and with no signs of life inside. Rubbish. I eventually bought my paper in Tesco so the end result was one happy dad and two disappointed and toyless children. read more

WH Smith is an institution. No, not a place of respite for mentally unstable folk an institution in the sense that it is indelibly marked into the public consciousness. Probably with a fairly priced marker pen from their own supply. Smiths is a great stop off point if you need to buy anything from a daily paper, to stationary, to celebrity biographies, to celebrity stationary. I have found that the staff on the tills are very fast and even during busy times you do not have to wait long to get your purchase processed. A legacy that will continue until the end of retailing no doubt. read more