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

[Hepzibar]

Without exception.

Also, the M&S credit card gives out free coffee and cake regularly so a lot of people queuing are there for that.

Agreed very slow service, increased prices and lower quality also very messy behind the counter. Quite often they run out of cups and have to serve coffees in a paper cup which for me defeats the purpose of paying to sit in. I looks like lack of capable staff and lack of supervision as there seems to be quite a few wandering around aimlessly when they have big queues. I avoid now and just go to an independent.

I have that credit card, I get the free coffee vouchers, but I've never had free cake. But I'm just about to cancel the card because no-one has the time needed to drink 32 free coffees a year at the speed they make them (they're not free, you pay £10 a month for the card, which buys you a load of vouchers and you just about break even).

But anyway, I don't understand it either and I don't particularly understand how going to a coffee shop is a 'treat' when it involves queueing for ages to wait for the world's slowest people to make coffee, only to sit and eat it at a sticky table next to People Who Never Stop Talking when you were hoping for a peaceful few minutes sitting down.

M&S cafes have always been like this though. Not sure what the issue is but it's very annoying and unnecessary.

Our new, all singing and dancing store (well it's better) cafe has screens to order as you arrive à la McDonald's and an electronic table positioner. Everything is delivered to the table and the menu is wider too.

Works well most of the time and is completely different to their other cafes which, I agree, are slow. I hope it'll be rolled out everywhere but I'm not holding my breath.

It's the coffee machines. Drives me nuts because I don't even drink the stuff. The noise of the banging and whooshing and cups clattering is appalling. I don't go to my local one any more - too slow and too noisy. I hope M&S execs are reading this thread and will do something.

I was literally thinking the same thing recently! The cafe is in a really big and lovely M&S with a lovely clothes and home departments and food hall but the cafe was very hectic. Many tables were not cleaned and the queue was out of the door. I thought it was just a busy day but it seems that they are like that often.

JL too. Oxford Street store's cafe is painful. Appallingly selection of food too. I've stopped going. Had a painfully long wait for a flat white in a small cafe today. A lot of banging and tapping and the coffee only tepid by the time I got it.

And why have they got rid of saucers? I buy coffee out for a treat and now it's a horrible grey mug bunged on a tray and a teaspoon sliding about. Why can't we have a saucer M&S?

The speed of service is truly appalling. My local one opened with three coffee machines/tills, one off on the side by the kitchen so you could order hot food there, making the cake and coffee line quicker. It worked really well, so naturally they closed the hot till and only work using one coffee machine even with 4 people in the counter area. You still have to clear the tables yourself, eat amongst all the crumbs and spilt drinks. M&S really don't respect their customers.

It's painful watching people with a pram balance a tray and make a toddler queue for 25 mins. I can't stand for long without pain so it's agony waiting without a chair or something to lean against.

Yeah it's a nice coffee but now I go to Dunelm as they make a lovely coffee, cake is nice, so much cheaper and the staff are lovely.

My local one is painfully slow and all the staff seem to loathe each other.
They close at four thirtyish and for some reason this means they can't heat anything up after two, they have run out of most things after one anyway and look at you like you're a huge inconvenience for having the audacity to request food from a cafe.

Starbucks is the ultimate worst though. Sooo slooowwww, they never give you your whole order together, they do the stupid asking for a name for the drink then just bellow cappuccino or flat white anyway, the faffing about making the drinks, the constantly running taps, the fact it's ridiculously expensive and they seem to have got rid of the cheese and marmite panini which was the only decent thing about it.

^^ yes exactly this! The designer seems to have gone for maximum clatter!

I agree @Screamingabdabz, poorly trained people and badly organised systems cause cause queues, not women of a certain age. I’m really efficient and full of initiative despite being born in the 1960s and not having a penis. There are lots of us about @Letterposter.

I've worked there. Terrible management and weird rigid sticking to roles. Very little passion for hospitality. A weird place.

Yes @PatsWoggle , if they close at 8pm why does the cafe close at 4pm. If it closes at 4pm you should be able to buy a coffee at 3.55pm. I'm fed up of cafes advertising their closing times then washing the kitchens out an hour earlier.

I find Cafe Nero incredibly slow. It's a shame because they do a really nice hot chocolate but it's not worth 20 minutes of my life to queue up for it. Harris & Hoole do really good hot choc and are much faster

I've stopped going to M&S cafe which is a shame as I do my food shop there and used to enjoy a coffee and cake first.
The coffee is rubbish and I don't know what they've done to the cakes but they're all like bricks! Horrible and dense.

I think it’s a combination of stealth staff cuts and also the processes they have.

In many shops, staff are just not replaced as they used to be.

I worked in a supermarket as a temp semi regularly, and it’s across the board. Someone leaves, they’re not replaced. Maybe a small amount of overtime put on, but nowhere near the contracted hours of the person who left. Our shop was absolutely trashed by late afternoon every day. Customers would moan about it. But the nightshift were lucky if they got the delivery all worked, let alone working backstock to fill gaps. They also offer less and less overtime. In the 10 months I worked in that shop, I felt like was expected to work at superhuman speed towards the end, for the same shitty MW pay. It will be the same there. Unrealistic targets from Head Office that the management have to pretend to go along with.

Booths cafe in Penrith is similar!

I vote this. I used to have really bad anxiety and stopped going to cafes for years after I asked for a coffee once and the girl said what one, I said just a normal one, and she refused to serve me as there was no such thing as a ‘normal’ coffee?? I didn’t (and still don’t) know the daft names of all the poncy coffees nowadays. I’ve since been told if I want a ‘basic’ coffee to ask for an americano 🤷🏼‍♀️I just want a coffee ffs

It’s the lack of staff. That’s what always causes queues.

Costa is the worst

It's not the coffee or the machines. I used to work in a coffee shop when I was 17. We had 1 person on till, 2 people making drinks only and stayed making ALL drinks. We had a pot washer/collecting pots. We had another person cooking the food too.

Its the lack of staff and training. Once you are trained you make so many coffees a day you pick up speed.

This!

Last week we went for brunch. I wanted avocados on toast with poached egg. Nope, no avocados….dish not available. Went to the food hall afterwards for shopping. A dozen packets of ready to eat avocados sitting there 😡🤨

Pure laziness and lack of customer service. Eggs benedict as an alternative was vile 🤢 Never again.

Made to order coffee instead of a jug of filter coffee, and then sometimes it’s not particularly hot so you spend longer queuing than drinking. I try to go to independents where you order at the counter and they bring your order to you.