the WHSmith POP obstacle course

I went into Smiths on the weekend to buy some of my favourite uni-ball pens.

I found them in the aisle on the far right of the store. There was a good selection and to view them I needed to step back a little from the fixture. Well, I would have done if I could. Instead I almost knocked over a large pop-up holding Sharpie pens which partially blocked the way. In fact, I’m sure it would have constituted a health and safety issue in the event of an evacuation due to fire etc.

So not only could I not view the product display, but no one else could walk up the aisle while I tried to look at the pens. Quite frankly it was a bit of an absurd Monty Python scenario as our pictures show. To add insult to injury, wobblers positioned in the same area reduced the passing space even more as our fetching male model in the picture demonstrates!

Now, I’m not quite sure why WHSmith would want to discourage purchase, but by blocking off areas of their store with traditional POP materials, that’s effectively what they are doing. It’s by far and away the most unusual use we’ve ever seen POP collateral put to.