Wat er store!!!!! (Waterstone's)

Member Name: pania22

Product:	Waterstone's
Date:	15/07/09 (67 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: you can immerse yourself in literary heaven for as long as is required.

Disadvantages: They boot me out when they close :o(

Throughout my childhood I was bought up with books and the importance of reading being drummed into me. As a result I have a life-long love of books of many types and varieties and I love having nice books out on display in a case for people to pick up and look through. Even today my favoured method of relaxing is to curl up with a book and a cup of tea. I have frequently been known, on a day where I have nought else to do (very rare nowadays!) to read a book cover to cover in one sitting. The BBC Wildlife photography competition books are my absolute favourite and the Terry Pratchett "police" books come very high up my list of favoured reads.
I had a Massive collection of my lovely books until I had the financial skids a few years ago now when virtually the whole lot went onto Amazon, which broke my lil heart...

But now I am able to slowly and steadily re-build my book collection again with the help of my favourite shop ever invented. Waterstones!!

Now as we all know Waterstone's is a bookstore. A big bookstore. A "few branches in every city" bookstore. Jim Waterstone opened the store in 1982 after being fired from his job with WH Smith. The store went from strength to strength and became a major competitor to the WH Smith chain. In 1989 Jim Waterstone sold the company to WH Smith for an insane amount of money. How's that for a belated redundancy payment!

Waterstone's stock a massive volume of books and always have 2 for 1 offers or buy one get one free, so it is always a good idea to keep an eye on the books that you are after and wait for them to all into one of the offer categories.

Unlike many other stores, Waterstone's actively encourages their customers to have a good peruse of their books prior to purchase by the provision of soft seated "reading areas." It is in this manner that I have frequently and unwittingly spent 2 ½ hours in one Waterstone's store lost in a literary heaven! For the book weary the larger stores are often home to a Costa coffee chain where you can dump your mother/respective other/best shopping friend while you peruse at your leisure without feeling guilty whilst they enjoy a hot beverage... and another... and another...

At the conclusion of the entire Waterstones shopping experience I frequently look down and find my arms full of 7 or 8 books that I have "collected" on my way around. With the sudden realisation dawning that never in my wildest dreams could I afford all the books I then spend another half an hour choosing which books to put back!! But that's all part of the shopping excitement right?

Waterstone's also run a website, however, despite much coercion by various friends I have never managed to persuade myself to give up on the "in store" experience. To me, choosing the book is as much fun as reading the book.

I would highly recommend the Waterstone's chain for any literary purchases. The offers make the prices much more reasonable than paying full price for your book elsewhere. I am lead to believe that further discounts may be available on-line also.
Waterstone's also recently launched a reward card, very similar to that of a clubcard that works on a points system with the price of the book purchased. This then gives you further discounts off your next purchases and I have to say I have always found this to be very generous and can certainly make an impact on the price of your books. A card can be picked up at any store.
The stores also offer an ordering system for any books currently in print. I have never waited longer than 5 days for a call from the store to say that my purchase has arrived.

I know that lots of people shy away from high street chains for purchases nowadays but in this case it is certainly worthwhile to utilise the Waterstone's experience.

Summary: I bet WH Smith rue the day they fired him!