Marks and Spencer have fallen, part III; we’re gonna need a bigger boat

Also @Needmoresleep I think Stuart Rose is about to preside over a massive double whammy. M&S is so not a replacement for Waitrose on Ocado, I think that was a problem to start with. (Waitrose is for people who like cooking very much, M&S is for those who can't be arsed). But now, it's a double boycott...

I clicked on SirVix's link and it came up in English.

@littlecabbage Again, uniqlo, or H&M who do really good basic jogging trousers and leggings.

River island Is good for boys jeans and joggers with slim waists

SirVixofVixhall

Thank you for putting up the GF Lebkucken site.
It is in German... I am doing my best. Hopefully I will also be ordering the gingerbread and some other tasty looking treats.

BTW Do you read German or is there a way to translate?

I bought DD a pair of Zara jeans (from eBay so I don't know how they compare price wise) that seem to be quite slim fitting on the waist.

Any suggestions for where to buy kids’ jeans and jogging trousers now that M&S and Next are out? I tend to find the waists too baggy on supermarket ones for my kids. Do JL do a “basics” type range for these? And have we clarified their changing room position yet?

The thing about boycotting Marks & Spencer's is that it is entirely genuine.

Women absolutely do not want to share lingerie changing rooms with men.

They won't do it.

There aren't enough durs in the world to convey my incredulity that they don't get this.

They won't do it.

It was the mention of Stuart Rose at Ocado that intrigued me.

Stuart Rose ran M&S until about 2011. He became chair of Ocado in 2013, who a year or so ago, famously lobbied a billboard company to remove Posie's Woman = Adult Human Female poster and then bragged about it. From the New Year Ocado will deliver for M&S instead of Waitrose.

There were some terrific Ocado threads last year. Essentially it seemed that Ocado assumed that nothing would come of alienating its core affluent middle class female customer base. Not dissimilar to the way M&S are behaving now. I wonder if Rose, having been through it before, is providing guidance on how to "tough it out".

Too late for me. M&S has become a shop I don't go into. In the way that I never visited McDonald's again after watching the film "Supersize Me", or indeed stopped shopping at Benetton after their provocative ads decades ago. (I was not particularly offended, I just did not like being manipulated into buying a sweater.) I may be uniquely stubborn, but I suspect not, whilst the memory of those kinky on-line reviews will stay with me for a long time.

A few thoughts from me:

@YourOpinionIsNoted - you are spot on. They've got an algorithm thats says 'already wrote to that email address, take no further action'.

On the hamper and gluten questions - try your local garden centre. There are some very innovative retailers in that market segment. Some might also do online or delivery services. Try this one. There is actually a GF hamper. www.notcutts.co.uk/

I'm an 'expat' - only been here 22 years. . I've always thought that M&S food was poor value for money. And the focus is prepared food, not ingredients for cooking.

One door closes, another door opens. There are so many other retailers and etailers out there competing for our busines.

Does a leopard change it's spots? The M&S senior lawyer & board member was previously in charge of this
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3743307-CPS-official-unofficial-policy-on-rape-conviction-rate

So many high street shops are closing thy ese says dye to poor turnover. Someone hasn’t thought it through!

Thanks for GF recommendations! I want to buy some German Xmas cakes now.

SingingLily I sent mine last Friday (and one to the Green Party candidate & Lib Dem candidate, no reply either) and I’ve been diligently checking my emails, including the junk file. ‘Tis most peculiar. I peak M&s’d screwfix earlier this week-amazing how it can come up in any old conversation...

Any techy types out there?

What's the likelihood that after receiving our original emails, we've been "blocked" so any subsequent emails from that address are shuffled off to a folder labelled 'nasty women' and left unread?

If that is likely to be the case, I'll set up a new burner email every week so that someone has to go to the actual trouble of reading my email before ignoring me. But I don't want to do all that if I'm just being paranoid.

www.violey.com/en/hammermuehle-organic-dark-chocolate-gingerbread-gluten-free-3-pack_p_19670.html
Here. That is the gingerbread, but they have lebkuchen and those delicious little iced stars. I am about to order everything....! I have looked everywhere for GF Lebkuchen .

SirVixoVixHall

Please share where did you find GF lebkuchen?

am needing to buy some..TIA

Morrisons have a surprisingly large gluten free range, i was impressed last time I went in, and Waitrose have some nice things too.
Local health shops often have gluten free biscuits and Booja Booja GF chocolates, and I have just found somewhere online that sells gluten free lebkuchen ( those delicious little German Christmas spiced cake/biscuit things ) .

Oh, they deleted it. But someone got a screenshot
twitter.com/AidenWells19/status/1194984907447160833

They haven’t replied to my follow up email either. Odd...

Nor mine. It was sent yesterday.

Today, I managed to peak-M&S another two people. They are horrified. One of them is prepared to stand with me just outside an M&S store next week so that we can idly chat about the changing room policy. Loudly.

If anyone from M&S is reading this thread, do you have any idea of the reputational damage this is doing? Do the names Ratner and Perrier mean anything to you?

ANyone else seen this crazy innappropriate comment between J&L and M&S about Christmas adverts?

"Good to see Christmas has given you the horn too!"

:twitter.com/marksandspencer/status/1194978156186423296

Has someone gone rogue on the Twitter team?

If anyone is looking for hampers for gifts and doesn't mind buying online (or lives in Whitby) - I can recommend Bothams
www.botham.co.uk/bakery/bothams-whitby-hampers.html.
Husband sent elderly relatives a Christmas hamper from them last year and it was happily received.

sainsburys have quite a big range of gluten free stuff. I only pay attention in that I am looking for the not gluten free free from stuff without egg and nuts so not an expert.

MOrrisons have a decent sized shelf space of free from stuff too.

I have family members who are gluten intolerant, what would be a good alternative place to buy gluten-free cakes and biscuits?

It's more work but handmade hampers are nicer as you can choose better items and in my experience significantly cheaper!

We have bought the items in the past and neither DH or I are confident enough in our ability to make homemade items on the first attempt

If you go to the Christmas board there are hamper suggestions from independent websites plus some other retailers