Waterstones Reviews Summary

Store Atmosphere

Pros:

• "There's something about being surrounded by books. Gives me a nice warm cosy feeling 🙂 Waterstones is just such a place."
• "Lovely, calm, joyful and exciting place to visit with modern facilities."
• "Waterstones always has a relaxed and calm atmosphere in their stores."
• "It's very quiet and peaceful."
• "Absolutely love popping in here every now and again for a good book, and they never disappoint."
• "The last of the great bookstores. Get lost in the pages found on each of the floors of this gigantic store."
• "It's a great place to while away an hour or two, just browsing, and, hopefully, buying books!"

Cons:

• "I just wish the ever-present religious preachers would proselytize elsewhere so you might browse in peace without Arabic blasting from a PA system by the front door."
• "What could be a very pleasant experience in a shop I love is ruined by a stall outside using a very loud amplification system urging a calling to prayer."
• "I got an uncomfortable feeling when there was one employee waiting at the door already and then several of them were standing throughout the store as well (theft problems I'm guessing),"
• "Mice! They have mice running around the cafe."

Product Selection

Pros:

• "The sci-fi fantasy selection and the comic selection is pretty good here,"
• "they have quite a selection of fiction and travel books,"
• "Amazing options for all ages. Books, games, manga and even a cafe!"
• "Very wide selection of books including classics, sci-fi, philosophy, maps, self-help, children’s, and board games as well."
• "A massive and well picked selection of books on every topic you might think of."
• "They have a large range collection of books."
• "Really great bookstore. Excellent range of books and graphic novels."

Cons:

• "I can't recommend buying books from here, they're crazy overpriced."
• "I'd rather stick to Amazon for my books."
• "Unfortunately that one I wanted had been moved online, disappointing."
• "I was looking for intermediate-level German textbooks but could only find more rudimentary books."

Customer Service

Pros:

• "As ever the staff are helpful, enthusiastic and knowledgeable."
• "Brilliant customer service from Adam."
• "more importantly the staff are super helpful."
• "The staff are always so friendly and helpful and it's good to hear friendly staff who are enthusiastic about books engaging with customers about what they are buying!"
• "Booksellers very friendly and knowledgeable."
• "Staff are very friendly and ultra helpful."
• "The staff is so helpful and always ready to help look around if we are looking for something specific."

Cons:

• "Arrived 30 minutes before the store was due to close and was told by Rose (apparently the manager) that she was not going to open the store."
• "Rose displayed rude behavior when asked why Waterstones was closing early."
• "1 Star as I am disappointed the way manager dealt with the situation."

Cafe Experience

Pros:

• "I really recommend the nice café (also very cheap) at the first floor."
• "The cafe has some really nice cakes and it's nice to just sit and chill in there."
• "Pleasant cafe with very reasonably priced drinks and light sandwiches for lunch."
• "Fantastic cafe upstairs with a view out across the central area of Birmingham and the outside of the bullring."
• "The cafe was nice with different choices and you can play a board game while you are in the cafe too."
• "Lovely coffee shop to peruse your purchases."
• "Coffee shop good too to recuperate."

Cons:

• "The mini cake was rock hard and with absolutely no flavour."
• "The Café is not worth your money at all."
• "Yesterday the coffee machine was out of order - unforgivable."
• "The cafe was a bit messy and they didn’t seem to keep attention to the tables left off from other customers unfortunately."
• "Unfortunately the cake in the cafe has gone down hill and I gather from staff today that they have abandoned their policy of sourcing from local suppliers in favour of a large wholesaler."
• "The brownie was incredibly disappointing especially considering how much you pay for it."

Facilities & Accessibility

Pros:

• "A very spacious store with multiple floors."
• "Divided across a number of floors, each section has its own 3D sign attached to the bookcases."
• "There is a lift between floors."
• "It consists of several floors with a staircase and a lift to assist those in need."
• "Can be a challenge for people who have difficulty with stairs, but there is an elevator in the store which services all floor."
• "Very large store on several levels, but easy to navigate."
• "The store is well stocked and has good facilities (toilets, cafés, reading corners, children zones)."

Cons:

• "the lift is broke so you will have to walk up the stairs if you need top floor bad luck because when you get to the top you will be egsorted,"
• "Only disappointment were the public toilets - definitely in need of some TLC - lick of paint would work wonders."
• "However, I have two complaints: the bathroom is not very clean or pleasant to use, and some of the sandwiches are quite bland."
• "The toilet on the fourth floor was broken and the only one working was the woman's toilets which sucked."
• "Chairs and tables have been removed from some floors possibly to discourage the homeless."