Holland & Barrett Opinions (UK only)

+1 for the expensive, and they are becoming like DFS for perpetual Sale promotions.

Useful high street outlet for those wanting to dabble in alternative remedies and the like. Not competitive online.

It was like that even fifteen years ago when I worked there. Especially in markets where there was a nearby GNC store. Their own-brand supplements were always very aggressively discounted in those markets, which should tell you something about the markups on shelf prices.

When I buy fuel, I know it will do what it says, and I'll know very quickly if it does not.

When I buy a book, I know what I'm getting and I'll know quickly if what I receive cannot be read or contains no words.

When you buy herbals you are getting a lot of 'may help with's and 'could be beneficial's. 90% of it is bunk.

All great points and we are also delving into morality. The claims of the product or salesperson may be false. In fact, it could be a downright lie, ie that raspberry ketones cause weight loss. When we protest against a store selling raspberry ketones this is us making a moral statement, as well as scientific if we reject the hypothesis, when we claim it is "bunk" (cool word by the way, it's like a combination of bollocks and junk!). A similar moral argument can be put towards the oil companies. The Deepwater BP oil spill caused 11 deaths and BP was guilty of manslaughter and lying in court. Now if BP turns around and says something like "We are committed to the safety of our workers and the environment as well as the desire to fulfil our legal obligations" we might claim it to be bunk, but chances are we would still we'd still buy their products.

But anyway that's a different issue because I agree with you. Some products should be removed from the market and people should not have to deal with such nonsense.

While I agree with what you are saying, you could say that about almost all companies. Gas, energy, oil companies get a ridiculous profit on most of their 'products'. The same goes for other supplement companies, coffee companies and clothing companies (and in fact, there was an article in the BBC about workers in Bangladesh protesting about wanting an increase in their wages: to around £68 a month!)

Might want to check your margins. Gas, Energy and Oil companies have a ridiculously small profit margin compared to most other companies. Vitamins and supplements are almost pure profit. We just tend to buy more of one than the other

To some more positive and/or useful points for OP:

H&B know their market very well, and are very successful at selling into it.
They know their main competitor - GNC - and aggressively cut costs where stores are close together.
They have a very aggressive expansion plan, 500 stores nationwide and growing.
They keep costs low, and have a good handle on exactly how much staff a store needs hour by hour. Sucks for the staff, and managers of small stores often alone. But good for the bottom line.
They stock the stores intelligently, and this helps the store managers minimize shrink.
They have a very centralized beaurocracy. During my time there even low level hiring decisions had to be signed off on by the MD (back then Barry Vickers, now Peter Aldis, who I believe was finance director back in the day). Seriously, I couldn't hire a Saturday girl without submitting through the chain for approval.
While I don't believe in the efficacy of herbals, I do believe that you get what it says on the jar. I believe the 'guaranteed extract' products do provide a guaranteed quantity of the active ingredient. I also believe the non guaranteed extract product to be no better or worse than just chewing on a piece of the root in question (or royal jelly, or whatever).

And one last negative -

People in head office were generally condescending *kitten* to anyone working in the field. Store managers were pretty much treated as bottom of the pile (despite the fact that we were the ones generating the revenue), with store staff barely even worthy of recognition as living, breathing human beings. I would not go back to working in an H&B store for anything.