John Lewis has begun a redundancy consultation that puts around 200 jobs at risk as it plans to close in-store desks providing gift wrapping and foreign exchange services. The move matters because it touches the kind of hands-on customer service the retailer has long been known for, and it comes just as the chain was ranked second in the UK Customer Satisfaction Index. No final decision has been made, but if confirmed the closures would take place this autumn.

The 36-store chain plans to shut bureau de change desks at 30 stores and specialist gift wrapping at 25 stores, with currency instead ordered online for home delivery or in-store collection. A staff member criticised the plans, warning that already stretched shop-floor workers would absorb the extra queries and gift-wrapping duties, though John Lewis said satisfaction scores had improved and that most queries were already handled on the shop floor. The retailer's parent group, which also owns Waitrose, cut 3,300 jobs last year — about 1,500 from the department stores — while paying its first staff bonus in four years in March after underlying profits rose 6%.