M&S blaming skinny trousers?!?

[Chickenitalia]

Truly read it all today. Poor sales due to men shunning skinny trousers, amongst other things including overbuying on food and poor supply chain.

Am I the only one not at all surprised? The only men I know who shop for clothing in M&S would not wear skinny trousers ever! I know there have been some dubious buying decisions recently but this one is baffling.

Surely it can’t be long before M&S hits the ropes now? (Been said before I know).

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51045282

I actually went into one today for the first time for several months as the friend I was with wanted a look. I quite fancied a break from cooking tonight so had a look at their dine for £12 offers. Not one veggie main course.

We both came out empty handed.

@user1497207191 can I recommend tailor store to your DH? My partner buys his smart shirts there - the fit and quality are very good. More expensive than m&s but not silly prices. www.tailorstore.co.uk/

I’m actually wearing an m&s item today - a pleated midi skirt in a coated snakeskin print fabric. Not everyone’s thing but I like it :). Generally I think they would do better by focusing on jeans, jumpers, t-shirts, shirts etc in decent quality fabrics at sensible prices, with maybe a small range that nods to fashion trends.

I like their beauty section though.

Handforth Dean is my local store and the staff are great. The colours of the clothes though 😱 Mum and I just look at each other in horror. The pjs are rubbish now. Horrible prints or slogans or both and weird sizing. I gave up on bras years ago. Girls clothes past age 7 are rubbish and not much choice for boys. The food hall have stopped doing my favourite vegetable crispbakes and head office never replied when I emailed them. Trousers are stupid sizes. Short are too short, regular too long, the waist digs in due to where it sits, and the 12 is too small but 14 far too big. Then there was the changing room issue so I'm giving it a wide berth. You used to know where you were with M&S. you could depend on them. Now they are pants, even for pants. I do like kids underwear and school u infirm though.

I tend to buy from eBay now. I love fat face but the quality has gone downhill there too so I buy older stuff off eBay. I might have a look for basic black trousers on there too.

I’ve also bought loads recently - lovely cashmere jumpers, merino sweaters at £30 a go, lovey skinny jeans, amazing whatevs tights that actually stay up and keep me warm.. and cute clothes for my kids. I also think it depends on your local store

What Mitzi said about coat pockets. I was prepared to spend M&S money for a winter coat with decent pockets. They had coats with fake pockets.

Heatgen not whatevs 😀

Bercows I went in yesterday to look for the vegetable crispbakes because I hadn't had them for ages and just really fancied some. I was really annoyed that they didn't have any! Didn't realise they'd stopped doing them.

I actually rate M&S quite highly; before I was forced to stop buying from them I spent most of my incidental clothing and home budget there. But I don’t spend with them any more at all.

Go woke, go broke.

Short are too short, regular too long, the waist digs in due to where it sits, and the 12 is too small but 14 far too big

I'm a 14 regular and their trousers fit me just fine. Horses for courses isn't it, we're all different shapes. If they adjust them to fit your shape, they won't fit me any more.

What annoys me most about M&S is that they go on and on and on about their bra fitting service, but if you are anything in a size bigger than a D, the inconsistency in sizing between the ranges is maddening. I expect a wee bit of variation because padded balcony bras will fit different to an unpadded plunge etc, but i went and tried on 8 bras in the same size the other week and only half of them fit right, out of the other 4 the back band was an inch shorter on two of them, one was a cup size too small and the other was nearly two cup sizes bigger!

Plus I've never ripped a pair of Primark tights, they only die after a good few washes/wears and scrapes, but M&S tights all rip or snag on me on first wear! Im not going rock climbing in them, its a desk job!

Bucking the trend here but I love the opaque tights (they last forever), the bras, some of the dresses & the sportswear. There are no non food stores near me though so I use the Sparks app to order my size, which pretty much always, arrives the next day. I also rate the food as it’s generally good quality for the price. I would be sad to see it go.

Oh yeah, I forgot about swimming costumes. I went in for one last year and EVERY style bar one had a plunge neckline. They all went right down between my tits and when I did an experimental lean forwards, I almost fell out of it. I'm only a C cup so god knows how somebody with a proper rack would have fared. The one that had a high neck also had a bilious sort of green and yellow splodgy pattern on it, which looked like the outcome of a nasty bout of stomach flu. I got my cossie from Sports Direct in the end...

I bought what I thought was a very nice knitted dress in M&S in the autumn. Their website is now telling me it is £20, reduced from £30, but sure I paid more originally. Unfortunately after just a couple of wears it looks tired and is starting to bobble. Very disappointing.

Their made to order birthday cakes are excellent though, especially the gluten free ones.

I shop at M&S and I think they have some really nice clothing. Recently I've bought some cheap dresses for work. A few pairs of really nice boots that I always get complimented on. I love their opaque tights. I like their boyfriend jeans. I don't like everything but i don't like everything in any shop. I think they've got lots of choice.

The kiss of death for me with M&S was them announcing that men can access the women's lingerie changing rooms to try on lingerie if it makes the men feel comfortable. It's like they've put the dudes in the comedy skinny trousers and pointy shoes in charge of everything, and all the bloody doors fell off to the sound of parping.

I think M&S having 'too much food" left in their stores = women like me and men like DP consciously avoiding them at Xmas because of wokegate.

I've heard the culture at HQ in Paddington is terrible. M&S doesn't have the brainpower or culture to fix this

I interviewed for a job at their HQ in Paddington it was AWFUL, the people were arrogant, unpleasant and totally up their own arses!

John Lewis have been destroyed by a culture of unpleasant arrogance, too, @vegvegveg, one that was warned about on MN - again, their core customer base - from a couple of years ago onwards. Just like M&S.

Where are all the staff? There has to be at least one staff member who is a mumsnetter?!?!

There has been feedback on here that has been consistent for a few years but they just don’t seem to listen. I do like the food, shoes and children’s range but I haven’t bought anything for me for ages. I tried to buy some last minute clothes on a 24 hour service and they fucked it up so I didn’t accept the parcel. They could do so well if they cornered the lk bennet workwear market at a lower price point. I have actually found myself shopping more and more from Boden. Yes there are crazy patterns but I’ve got nice jeans and dresses and that should be the market m&s are in.

I’m in there twice a week to pick up food bits. Would also pick up all sorts of random underwear/ PJs / kids clothes if I could actually get up to first floor but I can’t due the most inaccessible lift in the world. Hidden behind the bread products and servicing five floors only two of which are customer ones.

If the lift isn’t filled with stock and I reach the first floor I have the world smallest kids section that won’t have any baby clothes over six months and say one type of boys trousers it’s not worth the bother.

@AutumnCrow Doesn't surprise me at all, JL are now launching 'experience playgrounds' in stores for an immersive shopping experience - be interested to see how that goes!

But if you want a pair of black thermal tights in size M in winter you’ll be out of luck. Like seriously, no-one thinks to stock extra tights in the most popular size in the middle of winter?

I'm guessing that M&S and JL have a layer of 'creative' senior management that forgot to run their deranged vision in full past the Board, and the Board were then persuaded to recoup some of those wasted costs by outsourcing their once outstanding customer services to a bunch of fucking arseholes on speed wearing headsets.