John Lewis has launched a consultation regarding 200 potential redundancies tied to proposals to close bureau de change counters in 30 shops and gift-wrapping services in 25 others.
The department store group said the closures would proceed later this year if confirmed, though no final decision has yet to be made.
An unnamed employee told the Guardian: “They are removing the area of the shop that John Lewis claims they stand for”.
Under the proposals, customers ordering foreign currency would do so online, with the option of home delivery or in-store collection.
The counter space currently used for these services would be converted for alternative purposes.
John Lewis said shop floor staff already dealt with most related enquiries and would continue to do so under the new arrangement.
The staff member said they had been fielding customer questions “on a daily basis” because the John Lewis call centre could not offer adequate support, and characterised shop floor employees taking on these added duties as “already overworked, overwhelmed with responsibilities and short-staffed”.
A John Lewis spokesperson disputed this account, stating that independently measured figures for customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and staff satisfaction had each risen year on year.
According to the report, the retailer reduced its workforce by 3,300 roles in the previous year, bringing total staff numbers to 65,700, with close to 1,500 of those reductions occurring within John Lewis department stores specifically.
Retail Insight Network has approached John Lewis for further comment on the redundancy plans.
The consultation follows other recent structural changes at the group.
In February, John Lewis Partnership, which operates the John Lewis department stores and Waitrose supermarkets, confirmed it would withdraw from its build-to-rent operations, pointing to a “fundamental shift” in the economic backdrop since the venture launched in 2020.
During the same month, the partnership set out plans to commit £108m ($145.9m) toward staff pay, lifting hourly wages for shop floor employees at John Lewis and Waitrose by 6.9% from 1 April.
