High street retailer WHSmith has succumbed to pressures from MPs to lower the prices in its branches located in and around hospitals. This comes as a result of the recent revelation that the retailer had been raising its prices in hospital outlets, which was seen by many as an immoral attempt to profit from sick patients and their families.
A spokesman for WHSmith said “We had a productive meeting with Paula Sherriff MP and demonstrated to her that the vast majority of our products are the same price in both our hospital and high street stores”.
To prevent a recurrence of the inflated prices, WHSmith has promised to establish a monitoring system to maintain food and drink costs and ensure that they do not exceed high street prices by more than a 1-2% margin.
“Going forward, our high street stationery promotions will always be available in our hospital stores and we will continue to monitor average selling prices across all ranges to ensure they remain aligned.” the spokesman continued.
Ms Sheriff, the Labour MP who described the price differences as “fundamentally wrong”, said she was pleased with the retailer’s recent amendments.
“This is a welcome first step for NHS patients, visitors and staff, who were frankly being exploited to boost the bottom line of some of Britain’s biggest businesses while the government looks the other way”.
Talya Misiri
