Why is the service in every M&S cafe so slow

[Hepzibar]

Without exception.

Yes! and Costa. It's usally due to all the banging tapping and general faffing of the coffee machine. Ok so it makes a nice coffee but they need 2 on there.
I assume it's similar to all other service and retail less staff, cutting corners etc.
I went to a big Primark the other week on a school holiday Saturday and they only had 3 on the 10 line of check out.
I just gave up.

Local M and S slow too. I sometimes buy a drink and sandwich or banana in the shop downstairs and sit at the back of the cafe and eat it. ( Cafe doesn't sell gluten free sandwiches, only muffins and scones, so that's my excuse if anyone ever says anything)

Local M and S slow too. I sometimes buy a drink and sandwich or banana in the shop downstairs and sit at the back of the cafe and eat it. ( Cafe doesn't sell gluten free sandwiches, only muffins and scones, so that's my excuse if anyone ever says anything)

Yes , staff super friendly but so slow. 10 minutes to make a coffee and put a biscuit on a saucer … I don’t even want the biscuit. They don’t seem to have a system , it’s as if they are in their own kitchen . It’s the same in Waitrose

Mine is awful. They can have two lines open, but without fail they will only open one at any one time. The queue will usually be going out the door. Sometimes they have one person making the drinks and the other doing the till, but more often then not the same person is doing both.

They seem to only recruit teenage boys without any common sense. The other day I was in there and incredibly was the only person in the queue. Two of them watched me struggle with a buggy and a tray. Another time I ordered a chai latte and the boy who made my drink made a latte and then put the chai powder in.

The cakes have gone downhill too.

I always wonder why the quality of the food in M&S cafe is so shit when the supermarket produce is so good

I no longer go to the one in Bath, it’s so painfully slow.
I prefer an independent coffee shop nowadays on the rare occasions I go out.

One particular Costa near are not slow they are just extremely short staffed even before covid.

Costa get 5 minutes to serve each customer, if they have a queue you will be there all day

It's the coffee. Remember when you could only order tea or coffee with no faff or queue.

@laladoodoo I think the quality of M&S food in general has deteriorated. We needed a quick evening meal and bought some of their ‘special’ fish cakes. They were inedible.

Costa is a also franchise so they'll vary massively depending on the owner.

It's not just Costa and M&S, DH and i had drinks and a snack in a frou-frou little olde tea shoppe the other day. There were three people behind the counter, we ordered and paid and were told someone will bring it to the table.
Cafe about full.
Twenty minutes later and with no sign of our order (I coffee, one tea and two slices of carrot cake) we noticed the sole remaining waitress was bringing out items one by one. And she wasn't exactly speedy but she was young and had no visible difficulties, apart from her extremely long fingernails.
She made four separate trips to our table to deliver our order of four items.

I've noticed this in my local Costa's. Sometimes they can be really quick,like less than 3 minutes from ordering to my coffee being ready. But the majority of the time,it's more like 10 minutes. As a previous poster said,it's all the banging wiping,tapping,steam releasing,and more banging that takes the time. Add to that,they can never find the bloody scissors to open a new bag of milk...... 😡

Maybe I'm being a bit dumb here,but just why do they bang the cup with the milk in on the counter several times before adding the coffee?! I'm sure someone will be along to enlighten me shortly!

Older women? They’re all slow are they? What a fucking hateful ageist comment.

Exactly this ! Everywhere is the same now. You would think someone would have come up with a machine that can make more than 2 shots of espresso at a time by now 😕

The coffee machines in M&S seem to take ages. I think this is a large part of it. I judge the size of the queue now (as there is always a queue) before I decide whether or not to bother. A shame, as their cakes are way better than the other coffee shops in our local shopping centre.

John Lewis cafe in Solihull is even slower than M and S and I entirely agree that M and S are soooooooo slow. We gave up going in the JL one altogether and ,if it's lunchtime,I don't go anywhere near an M and S. Easier,as PP said,to buy a sandwich in the food hall, self serve and find a bench outside.

The slowest ever was the costa in the waiting area at Newhaven ferry on the actual dockside. Like watching paint dry. I did wonder whether it would have been quicker to do it myself.

@ALongHardWinter I think the banging of the milk cup on the counter is to separate the 'liquid' milk from the froth so they can then pour the milk. But this makes no sense as why make it frothy in the first place 🤷‍♀️

I'm probably wrong. I only drink tea but the queues are so slow that I spend a lot of time watching 😂

@cinnamonfrenchtoast not all are franchise, but I find the franchises are ran a lot better than equity

Local M&S very slow, in spite of all servers being under 35 last time I visited. The order taker got into conversation with a customer (who didn’t actually buy anything) as we all queued.

I only want a cup of tea, recommend me somewhere that doesn’t do fancy time consuming coffees!

M&S in shopping centre, A man aged about 55 and a woman probably older. I doubt ever worked in hospitality before that is the trouble. Sooo slowwww, they check everything twice between steps. After 6 months they are no quicker than when they started. That is sad.

I used to work in a big M&S. The weakest links were always put in coffee shop or on the tills. The coffee shops make very little money, often only a couple of quid over months, so they aren't a priority for managers.

Good staff are put into homeware and clothing as that's where the money is.