M & S Food outlets

Jane

Yes, M&S do food well, but (with the odd exception like your top DB) generally not great in the clothes department. Having said that I've been looking for a tweed jacket that I can dress up or dress down with jeans. The one I liked in Joules was a tad expensive at about £250 but I've seen something that looks reasonable on the M&S website.

At least if it's not what it seems I can always send it back. They are very good about that at least.

That does NOT look like a goonie! It is statement and gorgeous - I just wish I still had the colouring for it

Have you looked at Boden Anya? They were offering a decent discount code recently. (I was lusting over their dusty pink boiled wool coat, but managed to sit on my credit card ??)

I don't fill it out Daphne it sort of stuck out round me in a body shape. Not good.

I'll have a look thanks DB

Jane I wasn't laughing at your picture...by the time my post eventually 'took' we must have crossed posts. I was laughing at you saying it looked like a dressing gown.

Side views are rarely flattering. I get it looked lovely from the front.

I too don't like their clothes much since the trouser lengths varied. We are lucky enough to live near one of their outlets and occasionally they have fab offers, but I'd never pay their regular store prices.
They do need to listen to their customers! I find the staff always polite and helpful at my store.

I think there's a radio phone in tomorrow on Radio 4 about M & S but don't know the details: YOU & YOURS perhaps?

Yes, there is, and You and Yours(R4)is the programme.

I thought about contributing, but then decided, I couldn't be bothered. I do not live near one and rarely shop there, Except for the unemployment, it wouldn't bother me if it closed down.

I'm so glad to see that I'm not the only one who is disillusioned with M&S! I've always gone there for trousers as I'm long legged but the fit/quality control has gone completely to pot! I bought some of the per in a ones with the glitter on the pockets - the fit is ok but the colour has washed out of the black ones really badly down the side seams I tried on about 10 pairs back on Sept and couldn't find a single pair that fitted me. Don't know where I'll go for trousers and jeans if they do go bust ! I've become a big fan of White Stuff for tops and sweaters. Bit pricy but some great bargains on the sales. Also Woolovers, mainly mail order, but lovely sweaters in a variety of natural wool blends, like cashmere and merino, and all machine washable.

Same here, Mirandaf55, have always bought my trousers and jeans from M&S because their 'long' leg length was fine for me.

It still is, but I can rarely find my size either in the local store or online - how can a size be 'out of stock' almost as soon as the line's advertised? (It's not the most popular size btw!)

What particularly irritates about M&S and their inability to stock their stores properly is that back in the 1960s I worked for a big firm of Management Consultants. Every month all the management magazines crossed my desk and a lot of them had articles saying how M&S were pioneers in using the new computer technology to improve their stock control and now stores would no longer run out of popular sizes etc. Then at lunch time I would visit my local M&S and they would never have the size/colour/length I wanted in a garment because my size was a popular size, not a popular size, or the same applied to the colour or skirt length I wanted.

I find it very depressing that nearly 60 years later they still haven't mastered the art of using computers for efficient stock control. That is why I think they might as well go to the wall, they are clearly a company incapable of learning anything from their mistakes.

I have found that their turnover of clothes is rapid. I found some pj's earlier in the year and when I went for another pair 2 weeks later - zippo. Not on line either. Then I visited DS & family in Abu Dhabi and there they were! I like their Heatgen t-shirts as can wear them alone or as a layer.

Oh dear, I do hope they don't close their store in our town but I expect they will because they have another store on one of the shopping malls a mile outside town. Parking there is free whereas the council seems to see raising money from town centre parking / fines for over staying as its only growth industry. We're rapidly turning into one of those small American towns, where there is no work and half the buildings are boarded over.

On the Belgian news this morning that they ARE closing the one here.
Oh no, ok shopping trolley full of tea bags, barley, mature Cheddar and brown sauce for me.
DGS loves their brown sauce
Really surprised are their clothes are very popular with the middle-aged twin set and pearls Belgian ladies.
I have a few local friends who love them.

Yes Paris too felice. I have several French friends who buy cashmere knitwear and simple black shoes and boots there. They find them very stylish.

Marks and Spencer has announced about an hour ago that it will close 30 UK clothing and home shops and convert dozens more into food stores.

Chief executive Steve Rowe's turnaround plans will also see 200 new Simply Food shops open as it shifts away from disappointing clothes sales. With new food stores opening, the company will have more stores overall and "more towns will have an M&S", Mr Rowe told the BBC.

He added that customers still "love" M&S, but that it could do better. However, its half-year results show the problems facing Mr Rowe, who took over in April.

Clothing sales in existing stores fell 5.9%, while its stronger performing food business saw sales drop by 0.9%.

www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/marks-and-spencer-stores-to-close-turnaround-plan-a7403976.html

It also plans to shut 53 international stores, including all 10 in China, half of its stores in France and all its shops in Belgium, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

I do like Per Una clothing and M&S is one of the few decent stores here as I live in the back of beyond! I'll be gutted if they close here.

DD just commented, are they pre-empting Brexit and having to pay export and import duties.
SIL is gutted I think there will be a run on cotton T shirts in the near future.

I think that gradually M&S have just lost their way, by trying to appeal to ALL ages.That never works, They should have stuck to clothes that appealed to middle aged and older people, who are their core.

The only time I went into a UK branch was 5 years ago on a visit to Edinburgh. I got the grill pan I wanted and had to ask for directions twice to get out of the shop.
I kept ending up on mezzanine floors going nowhere.

Teetime
I hear what you say - I buy most of my clothes from M+S but some of their colour choices this year have been poor. Some weeks I see nothing I could actually wear. For instance, earlier in the year, all their new stock in the store I go to seemed to be navy. I grabbed a manager at some point and said why not other core colours, other than navy?
Also their clothing seems to be as cheap a material, slithery polyester that they can find in often lurid colours. What happened to M+S doing classics as well as high fashion? Stuff women can wear to work for instance? Also, items being made out of as little fabric as possible?
I live in an area where it rains like hell most of the year and is very cold in winter - but M+S are missing something as none of their raincoats reach mid hip level and their coats arent designed for keeping a body warm. Coats with no fastening at the front, of halfway sleeves.
Their range of £18 cardies this winter are lovely - and in a range of colours. But will they last like the 2009 set of their jumpers I bought which are still very wearable unlike stuff I bought 3 years ago which have bobbled and are not good quality.

The last time I ventured into M&S was to avoid a thunderstorm. I had a leisurely look around the clothing but was unimpressed. What really was an eye opener to me and very worrying was all the cook/chill stuff they sell. Just could not believe how things had changed

I don't find their cashmere to be the best quality - despite careful washing it has bobbled especially on the arms and has shrunk a bit, whereas a Johnstons cashmere jumper I have had for longer still looks new.
And in fact a much older M&S cashmere jumper I have is still fine, so the quality has gone down.

Loved the M & S Café, their scones and butter, special lunches and their coffee. Great service and cleanliness. I'd give 'the world' if my other half was still here to do it again.