The sad decline of M&S……

[GladysGeorgina]

I used to work for M&S in the late 80s and early 90s whilst at sixth form and then uni. I loved that job! I was treated well and paid well for my age. The store was always bustling and we would constantly be moving displays around to try to fit all the stock in. Customer service was top priority. I felt quite proud to work for the company and even didn’t mind wearing the truly dreadful uniforms of the time. I feel sad at watching the decline of M&S on the high street. Our local branch looks more sparse every time I go in. Hardly any staff. No identity. I need new work trousers so popped in at 4pm today. I’m in between sizes so chose 5 pairs of trousers and picked up two sizes for each pair. I was confused because both fitting rooms were closed so I asked an assistant. She was quite snotty and told me the fitting rooms close at 4pm each day due to not enough staff on the rota at that time of day. It’s Saturday and the store didn’t close until 6pm ffs. Apparently it’s ok because I can buy all the trousers and try them on at home. No thanks! I don’t want to pay £400 for 10 pairs of trousers and then lug them home, only to have to bring 9 pairs back for a refund. Don’t know why I’m writing this really. Probably because I was irritated and a bit sad too…….and I still don’t have any new work trousers!

The bit that concerns me most about males in women’s changing rooms & toilets is risk of being voyeuristically videoed/photographed. Either under cubicle walls or by a male leaving a spy camera in the ‘secure’ enclosed cubicles where no one can see them place the camera in the cubicle they now have easy access to. There’s so many cases in the press about shops including M&S and Primark that at best they almost only make local news if that and those are only the cases that aren’t covered up.

There was a male colleague doing that in the toilets in the office my sister was working in (very trans inclusive employer). Mgmt covered up the details. It was in the toilets she used, no info was shared on how long he’d been recording, how he was found, what happened to the images and no redress/counselling for affected women. So pics of her and her female colleagues using the toilet are out there on the internet and she has no idea where.

And in practice faced with a male much larger than ourselves in a restricted space we quickly leave due to fear of their aggression if they are challenged and they conclude the women there are fine with them being there when many of us really aren’t.

I still use M&S food shops but after seeing the vast numbers of disgusting reviews they let men leave even on lingerie reviews even on reviews of teenage bra’s (these were supposedly moderated reviews) I won’t be buying anything in their main stores again unless they apologise to women and address concerns raised about changing rooms.

They very reluctantly removed the worst after Baroness Nicholson got involved after ignoring the numerous women who contacted them but it was begrudging.

loads of companies stopped using U.K. manufacturers and downgrading fabrics to keep prices down.

They do loads of cashmere. Mens and women’s. Plus wool jumpers. Just looked online have s lovely button up merino wool cardigan.

thought best cotton Ts are cos and arket.

@GetRichOrDieTrying Apart from the sneery way you've referred to larger-sized women as "corpulent", this is also a major misunderstanding of what petite clothing is. I'm always amazed how many people get this wrong. Petite clothing refers to petite length - it's clothing designed for women of 5ft 3 and under. It's not just about the garment length - it's also about the depth of necklines, the width of shoulders, and the positioning of waistlines on dresses. Women of any clothes size can be petite, and M&S make most of their petites up to at least a size 20, sometimes larger. Believe it or not it's possible to be both petite and "corpulent" 🙄at the same time.

The women’s changing room next to the lingerie section in my local retail park store Gad been renamed from “Women” to “Lingerie”, in order to make men with fetishes for women’s underwear feel more welcome.
It was closed on a recent midweek visit (store very quiet, I could see it would not be worth staffing it). I asked where the women’s changing room was and the assistant led me past the changing room for “Men” to a unisex one called “Try It On”.
So in my local store men now have the choice of three changing rooms, but if a woman wants to change in a women’s only changing room she has the choice of zero changing rooms.

This is the contempt with which M&S treats women, who I’m sure have made up the bulk of their customer base ever since they opened.

And that’s before you even get onto the issue of men flashing women in the changing rooms (M&S effectively legalising the offence of indecent exposure, because men are now allowed and welcomed into changing rooms with women, so how could you ever prove that their intention was to frighten or upset women?

And the issues with spycams being planted in changing cubicles (so M&S saying all customers have privacy due to lockable doors in the changing rooms is just not an answer).

And the wanking into the underwear/on the mirrors in the changing rooms and then boasting about it online.

I’m not saying this is happening at huge scale, in every store in the country.

But make no mistake, it is happening.

Sad but true. I've ordered a few things online from them.. my pale pink cashmere jumper arrived covered in what I think was curry - the assistant almost wasn't going to refund me as she thought I had done it myself.

Another time my mother bought a silk blouse to wear at Christmas and the smell of BO under the pits was unbelievable.

Clearly they do not check their returns well
Enough !

How ridiculous..surely women should be their target market

I'm glad to see the demise of M&S is widely noted. Have you seen the flagship Marble Arch branch upstairs? The homewares department looks even less exciting than the same in Bhs before it went bust. Generic, bland & uninteresting. There is absolutely nothing in there if you wanted to treat yourself. There must literally be no one on the board who gives a shit about selling interesting homewares.
I remember when I was young, M&S was proud of it's 'British Made' and the Union flag used to be on the clothes tag. There was a pride in supporting British trade. All long gone now.

M&S are awful now. i used to get all my bras and pants in there, all my work trousers - they had perfect ones, all my basics that I knew I'd wear for years and all my shoes because they always did 5.5 wide fitting.
Everything I've bought from them over the last few years has just been sub standard and nothing fits any more.
Why didn't they stick to what they did best?

The Manchester ones, I think, are really good. The large store in town and at the Trafford centre are always organised, lovely staff and lots of stock!

Also, there's no 'retail theatre' about shopping in M&S. The clothing areas are especially bland. Modern retailing (pre covid) was about experience. Look at the effort Hollister/Victoria's Secret went to to give you an experience. Someone shout out to Mary Portas quick.

I don't need an experience, I need clothes that fit!

Yes and no ready made curtains or colour swatches which I wanted to buy even though there were sofa swatch books, most unsatisfactory

People will buy from Dunelm or elsewhere surely

Really interesting @blameless and unsurprising in my experience . As a 16 year old I didn’t really need a dentist, chiropodist etc at work but I felt “looked after” if that makes sense. Very proud to wear the hideous nylon dress and loved taking quarter price food bargains home at the end of a Saturday. As a result I worked hard and wanted to do my best. Its really not rocket science is it? Treat people well and they will generally be loyal and do what’s asked of them. Standards were such that when I was accidentally issued a navy jacket which was too small and it got a bit chilly on the shop floor I decided to wear my own plain woollen cardigan instead. I honestly thought my supervisor was going to have a coronary when she saw me in the wrong uniform! I was quickly ushered upstairs and a spare jacket was found until my own had arrived in the right size. Standards and customer service were everything.

Darhon

Maybe you have larger stores near you then; certainly in my local stores I can't find good quality basics as I mentioned; and yes, a lot of firms source their stock abroad, and that's the problem; customers are complaining about the quality!

I also worked at an M&S 1986-1990 as a teen, and it was regarded as quite a prestigious part-time job. My friends at C&A and Littlewoods were envious. 😀

In Banbury, the town centre Marks shut its doors about 18 months ago, leaving a big empty gap looking increasingly tatty. The retail park Marks nearby, however, is excellent.

Anyone know if the big store at Fosse Park, Leicester has a furniture department? I've got my eye on a chest of drawers on the website but need to see it in person to check the colour is right. It's a long drive to find that the home department is just duvet covers and picture frames...

@HearMeSnore yes it does have furniture as I double checked on line what departments the Fosse Park store has.

Now whether it has your chest of drawers in or not, who knows?
Personally I would give the store a ring to save a wasted journey.

I actually worked in the M&S factory that produced all their displays, posters etc and can confirm it was a fantastic place to work. Really good money, amazing canteen, fab discount. Really nice place

C and A were marvellous to their staff too , the rarely left . M and S now treat their staff poorly if you don't toe the line and fit round the stores needs you are out . The pressure they put on you to do hours on your day off is awful even if you have plans well tough . If you are sick you get interrogated. Plus your holidays have to fit round them they will book them for you . It's not the store you used to work for . Most of the perks have gone too .

I remember when I was young, M&S was proud of it's 'British Made' and the Union flag used to be on the clothes tag. There was a pride in supporting British trade. All long gone now

They can’t afford to manufacture in the U.K. and there is hardly any textile manufacturing here. It’s not about ‘pride’. It’s about the fact that overseas manufacturers were quick to invest in technology and Britain wasn’t. And now they are too far advanced for the U.K. to catch up.

Hairdresser and chiropodist.

M&S cared about their staff's welfare and appearance. There was always a full-length mirror for you to check yourself before you went on the sales floor back then

Menswear isn't aimed at elderly men any more I can assure you! I struggle to find things for older family

This. Even Toast has its clothes manufactured in the Far East now. I seriously wonder if there’s still any clothes manufacture left in the UK outside sweat shops.

I went to M&S yesterday and it was woeful. No knitwear in the men’s or women’s departments, no cords in the men’s and half empty shelves in the beauty department, it looked as if they were running it down in preparation for closing it.

There's a huge amount of inconsistencies with them. Their children's sports socks are brilliant as are their thermal tights I find but they lack hugely in other areas.