Private Equity company Modella Capital is who bought #WHSmiths in a deal worth £76 million.

They also bought #Hobbycraft, who I read earlier have been selling kids playsand with asbestos in it but refuse to issue a recall:

(https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/24/childrens-play-sand-hobbycraft-asbestos-removed-recall)

Three things the public loathe and fear: Private Equity, Fascism and Asbestos.

Why do we have to put up with this?

Asbestos found in children’s play sand sold in UK

Hobbycraft removes product from sale after parent sent samples to a lab for testing but declines to issue a recall

The Guardian

Picked up a couple of things from my local #WHSmiths

#AmigaAddict #retrogamer

It's the end of an era 😞

As well as the obligatory buying of Food, Drink, Stationery products & Books in there, I spent many hours as a small kid reading Comics in there, then as a Teenager reading Computer Mags & playing & buying computer games & then as an Adult reading Tech magazines. RIP WH Smith aka WH Smith's aka "I'm just going down to Smith's" 😞 #WHSmith #whsmiths #endofanera

WH Smith name to disappear from High Street after sale

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj3n3en7gppo

WH Smith name to disappear from High Street after sale

The 233-year old chain will be become TGJones but the brand will continue at airports and rail stations.

Other than that incident, though, I'll always have fond memories of #whsmiths, though, and even that was funny, after the fact. 🤣
Bluesky

Bluesky Social
Another was when they used to have computers stocked in there, Sinclair Spectrums and the like. It was hard to resist doing a: 10 PRINT "KEV WAZ HERE!" 20 GOTO 10 🤣 (can't actually remember if you needed the quote marks or not) #whSmiths #whsmithsmemories
Bluesky

Bluesky Social
😢Always loved "Smiths", I have so many rando memories. Although I did once get kicked out of one for reading the computer magazines too long! Best of it is, I'd only been in there about 15 mins, but the battleaxe till lady claimed I'd been in there over 1/2 an hour! 🤣😂🤣 #whSmiths #whsmithsmemories
Bluesky

Bluesky Social

It’s all the end of a slow but very definite fall from grace for #WHSmiths .

I don’t know if TG Jones is an existing brand. I’ve been unable to discern that from searching this morning. All I can say is that I don’t recall having ever heard of it m’self. And it doesn’t sound like many others in the UK have either.

Sure, I still use #WHSmiths as my go to place for stationary on the rare occasions I now need it. It’s one of the few physical stores I can still do that in at short notice. But half my local store is now given over to Toys R Us. And the lines stocked as a Smiths are a shadow of their past self.
Back in the 90s and early 2000s I bought movies, TV shows and videogames from #WHSmiths on ye olde physical media. I have a sneaking suspicion that I may have purchased my first DVD from there. Those lines all long gone now.
For people working in traditional publishing, such as genre magazines and those working in UK comics, #WHSmiths frequently frustrated. Publications set out in some truly scattershot fashions. Many publications only ever ordered and displayed if people came in to request them. It’s been an unreliable mess.