Will Marks and Spencer survive?

[MerryPortas]

It’s hard to imagine the full scale of the cyber attack and the impact on their business.

yes, annoying for the shoppers, but they must be losing millions in daily revenue online, and I doubt that’s being backfilled by increased physical footfall.

stock levels are unpredictable - understandably - so confidence is low.

shoppers are creatures of habit, and change is habit forming.

So my question is, do you think M and S is at risk?

I think they will be fine. The food is top notch and people go because they want the M&S food. I personally am missing the online (1) kids clothes - I’ve shopped elsewhere this summer but still will go back to them next summer because of price v quality M&S offer and (2) their online
gifts / flowers. I always send a few friends flowers from M&S each year. Will have to shop around soon if not back up and running but doubt I’ll change long term

Absolutely not. If such ransoms were paid, the frequency of these attacks would hugely increase. Then where would we find ourselves?

As a short fat wobbly person (not stout. I can only dream) it is essential for me that they continue. Also the food hall will be necessary to keep up my calories to attain a stout silhouette.

the bra shop might be worth a look.

I liked the smaller bras M&S for teen DDs but have since found amazon have just as good ones. They used to be my go to place for undergarments - but last decade that's change.

I did like their uniforms - cotton shirts blouses and trousers - but we near end in sight with uniform.

I was going to order some of their light weight jeans - got one second hand and love them - then got e-mail and though I'd wait a bit now think might go eslewhere.

Same here. I couldn’t work out why my bank account was affected. Then they announced this.

It’s the fact they had the nerve to lie to their customers for weeks. They’ve lost all credibility and so have to face the consequences.

No complete bank data was breached as they physically don't store it so there's zero way it could have been, nothing nefarious could have been done with the info they may have. At a push someone may have physically phoned someone's bank claiming to be them with address, dob etc but banks should have more robust systems in place and it's highly unlikely. Attempts on someone's bank won't be because of this.

Ah an expert via your husband? They should have detected the infiltration sooner and isolated their estate from the affected areas, but by the time it was discovered it was far from a simple fix.

Whilst it’s thoroughly annoying that our local food hall is not stocking a few of my staples at the moment or doing scan and shop it is still very busy and on Thursday I had to park at the very end of a large car park ( all M&S it is stand alone ) . I’ve temporarily overcome the shortage in store by getting my sister to order bits on her Ocado as they seem to have everything . I’ve had no more scam calls than usual ( my phone tells me they are suspect) and always check my bank account closely anyway .

This. ^

I'd forgotten all about this. Popped in the other day for some school trousers and didn't notice anything different, albeit I'm only an occasional shopper there so might have missed something. Good job I didn't attempt to order online!

Good point! The fundamentals are good…

It'll be a shame if they go bust because they were a High St staple for so many years - i routinely bought jeans, underwear, socks etc from them for prob 20 years as they were good fit, excellent quality and lasted well. None of those things really apply any more, and their lack of stock in store is infuriating. They keep buggering about with their jeans sizing so i need to try on before buying - and i'd rather do that in store than order, wait for order to arrive, try on, return etc - but last time i looked they didn't have a single pair of any style in my leg length. Not for the 1st time either.
And many other supermarkets can match M&S on food quality now.

They really need to up their game.

I hope they do 🤞🙏. So many high street stores have closed, I hope Marks and Spencers will not close too

I’m a 12 Long. I always get stuff in there.

Not in my local m and s it's not. I'm 5'2" and the majority of their dresses are for tall people.

I hope they survive, it’s the only shop I regularly buy from in our small town.

I'm not stout either, I thought that was teapots that were short and stout.

Is online shopping not back? I can put stuff in my basket and go to check out?

Did they have any? DS has managed to lose (!) a pair of school trousers and is currently managing with just one, but our M and S is a bus ride and a difficult walk across very busy roads away since they relocated from the town centre (which massively pissed me off) and I don’t want to go if they don’t have any in stock. Don’t want to order online from another retailer as no idea on the sizing, and nobody seems to have school trousers in store at the moment for him to try on according to their websites - have tried Asda, Tesco, Next, Sainsbury’s.

Yes because they are having to rebuild their entire system, multiple systems, rather than give in and pay the ransom (allegedly)

My company went through a similar thing last year and I can’t tell you how desperately we tried to resurrect everything. The ransom demand was eye watering, and had we simply paid it the hackers would still have had access. M&S are certainly not doing nothing.

Apply some thinking to what might actually be going on behind the scenes.

I do feel sorry about this, but I have, like many I suspect, have now, after waiting a few weeks, had to jump ship on things that I would always have bought there, including underwear, school clothes, other clothes for DS. Where I live the physical shop is very small and has very limited stock, and I nearly always buy online. I have now had to shift over to other online places like Next, which has pleasantly surprised me (and their returns are equally easy). I think that I will be buying less M&S in the future as a consequence and it does make me feel rather disloyal after over 50 years of shopping with them (well, it was and still is St Micheal where I grew up, but the same clothes).

Thinking what a good idea I’ve just looked, the share price seems quite a rollercoaster even without this, they aren’t down as much as I’d have expected. But yes a great idea.

You can put stuff in your basket, but mine still says “we have suspended online orders”

I don’t agree that their food offering is superior. Some of it is excellent, some of it is less so and it’s all overpriced.

M&S very quietly dropped their furniture range, so maybe they’ll reduce other ranges too.

They’re good for basics and I agree that the clothes have improved, but they’re available generally in the large stores. The one in the nearest town to me, is woeful.

I hope they continue, but they’re available generally will need robust systems in place, to regain the confidence of their shoppers.