One member of staff told the Guardian: \u201cThey are removing the area of the shop that John Lewis claims they stand for.\u201d<\/p>\n
They said they were handling queries \u201con a daily basis\u201d after John Lewis\u2019s call centre was not able to provide customers with the help required.<\/p>\n
Shop floor workers who will take on the extra work of handling queries and offering gift wrapping at tills are \u201calready overworked, overwhelmed with responsibilities and short staffed\u201d, according to the staff member.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for John Lewis rejected the criticism, saying its independently measured customer satisfaction and loyalty scores had all improved year on year, as had its staff satisfaction levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou will see from today\u2019s UK Customer Service Institute scores \u2013 that John Lewis score moved from third to second overall \u2013 and we remain the top retailer in the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the plans are confirmed, John Lewis customers will be able to order currency online and arrange home delivery or pick up items in stores.<\/p>\n
The spokesperson added: \u201cOur customers are increasingly buying the broad range of currencies we offer online, and enjoying the convenience of having this delivered directly to their home or collecting it at one of our shops.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we focus on modernising this proposition to meet our customers\u2019 changing needs, we\u2019re proposing to close our in-store foreign exchange bureaux as well as our gift wrapping service.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result, we\u2019re regretfully consulting with partners who currently deliver these services.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Every weekday<\/p>\n Sign up to Business Today<\/p>\n Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t a decision we\u2019ve taken lightly, and we will support impacted partners throughout the consultation process and support redeployment where possible.\u201d<\/p>\n It is understood the customer service desk areas will be repurposed for other uses, and John Lewis said the vast majority of queries were already handled by shop floor assistants, who would continue doing so if the proposed closures went ahead.<\/p>\n In March the John Lewis Partnership, which runs Waitrose<\/a> supermarkets as well as the department store chain, said it would continue to seek ways of operating more efficiently this year, including through more use of electronic shelf labels and AI, but it would not comment on whether more jobs could go.<\/p>\n Last year the parent group cut 3,300 jobs, taking its total down to 65,700. About 1,500 of those roles were cut from John Lewis department stores.<\/p>\n The company \u2013 which has closed stores, cut jobs and ditched plans to build and rent out homes<\/a> above its stores in order to trim costs \u2013 paid an annual bonus<\/a> to workers in March for the first time in four years after underlying profits rose by 6%. Each worker, including the chair, received a bonus equivalent to 2% of salary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Lewis has put 200 jobs at risk as it plans to shut down desks operating gift wrapping…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-679390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/500.jpg\")
<\/p>\n