Snooty (John Lewis)

Member Name: jennikitten

Product:	John Lewis
Date:	02/02/09 (108 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice environment

Disadvantages: Rude staff

John Lewis is an upmarket department store with various locations across the country. It sells a wide range of things from homeware to clothes to gifts to toys to electronics.

Personally I find that John Lewis is too expensive for me to shop in these days - I used to go quite a bit when I lived at home because there was one near us, but I don't really have reason to shop there any more! Mainly because we used to buy some stationery and school uniform bits from there...but now there's no need.

A lot of things they sell like toys, board games and banded stuff can be found much cheaper elsewhere. In some cases even other department stores like House of Fraser can be much cheaper. I'd assume it's only frequented by the richer these days, because who wants to pay more for exactly the same thing? Today when I walked through I noticed a ton of sale signs (with quite rubbishy discounts) - I guess they are feeling the pinch too.

John Lewis stores are generally well presented, with wide aisles and lovely displays, especially around Christmas time. Even the architecture itself can be impressive, for example the one in Reading town centre features a large clock on the outside and looks really nice.

One major disadvantage for me is that some of the salespeople can be really snooty. I'm 22 and look younger, and they are often very suspicious, rude and arrogant, even when you're at the cash register paying for something. I don't want to generalise or stereotype, but it's often the older, female cashiers who are like this, and for that reason I don't feel welcomed in John Lewis. I do feel that an air of professionalism is required in any shop. For example, I've been into Comet and Land of Leather on my own and spent £300 on a fridge freezer and £750 on a sofa respectively, and the salespeople were nothing but smiling, helpful and polite throughout. However, sometimes buying a £5 set of pens in John Lewis I get raised eyebrows and sniffs and the 'you can't afford things from here' looks which are just plain rude.

Overall John Lewis is an ok place to shop. It's better for gifts than anything else in my opinion.

Summary: Not too bad