Really M&S !!!

[Bransdalelass]

Have felt incredibly supportive of M&S through their Cyber incident.

Despite the lack of stock in store for weeks now, my account details being compromised, my M&S credit card (only ever used in M&S or on their website) being used fraudulently and the poor communication, I have remained totally loyal.

Until today !!!

I am shocked at the numerous, price increases across the Foodhall. Fish Pie up from £6 to £7. Prawn Thermidor a similar increase, 10p a loaf on my normal bread, Blueberries up by 25p etc.etc.

I am shocked that they are clearly planning to pass all their losses onto their customers in this way and even more shocked that they are doing it whilst we are still having to cope with their ongoing stock shortages etc.

Am I alone in feeling aggrieved? I feel quite strongly that the losses caused by this incident should be borne by their reserves & shareholders.

Regardless, my shopping next week will be with Waitrose, Sainsburys or Aldi. All stores within 1/2 mile of M&S. This customer will not be returning and their loss will not just be my regular food shop, but also the cosmetics, clothes etc I have historically always picked up in-store at the same time.

They're in stock at Ocado if that helps?

Blinking heck! That's crap. I've moved and my nearest one is 45 minutes away, doesn't have one thing I need to send as a gift and I'm not driving that far for jeans and underwear.

Shrinkage , putting covers over the packaging so you can’t see it’s only half full, smaller bottles of drinks and cans ( but not much cheaper) pizzas in big boxes that come out half the size , it’s neverending the ways they get around things and still stick the price up.
The days of the ‘ bogof’ deals , whatever became of those ? It’s now 3 items for 12 pounds or something like that

I buy tinned tuna for my cat and that changes price every week.
I find Marks has always been pricey, but Asda prices have gone up too.
Every week shopping is more expensive especially washing liquid, conditioner, shampoo all personal hygiene stuff is so expensive now but you have to buy them.

I heard it’s July until they can do the online orders again. I did read ( on here ) that the IT people are having to rewrite the whole system.

It's not just M&S. Prices have risen across the board in recent months. This is the way it is going to be now.

I go into pound land type places and savers for shampoo and cleaning items, toothpaste and so on.
its a tad cheaper and you can also pick up dried goods and tins too. It’s a more of a faff, but it is a bit more economical than the supermarkets.

The national insurance increase is having a huge impact on businesses. Not only has rate increased from 13.8% to 15% the threshold for employers paying national insurance reduced from £9,100 to £5,000. That part alone costs businesses an extra £615 annually for every employee they have. Prices will go up and unfortunately some businesses will go out of business. Not great on top of everything else businesses have had to deal with in past 5 years.

Things have increased across the board really not just M and .We were in the menswear section (DH buying a wedding suit for DS wedding) The sales assistant was telling us how rude some people have been if the items are out of stock.The food section has always carried a premium though

Chatting to a friend yesterday about food price rises & remember that it was only a few years ago that food seemed to be so cheap.
There was a MN thread about it.

We do pretty much all our food shopping in M&S. I don’t notice individual items’ prices but can’t say I’ve noticed our trolley prices increasing.

I think they’re very reasonable and the quality is consistently excellent.

Although I’m a tad peeved that they haven’t had their protein rice cakes for over 2 weeks.

Exactly this.

The NI increase will likely cost M&S over £50m per year.

This and minimum wage increases is why most shops have increased their prices in the last month.

Food inflation will be caused by utility costs increasing, NI increases, raw material
increases and so on. These come up the chain from manufacturers into retail. There are pretty small profit margins in food retail, we are talking 3-4% and these are companies that are amongst the top ten/twenty employers in the UK. No one wants them to fail.

Does not make the price increases any easier to bear but highly unlikely that M&S will have put on price increases just to make back all the profit lost from the cyber attack.

They have to recreate all of their online systems again which takes time and a lot of money.
I think retailers like Next will see a boost while M&S are down.

Tbh, this is why brand loyalty is misguided. The brands have no loyalty to customers, and I don't mean that in a snarky way. It's just how it is. Brands want your money, brands will say and do things to persuade you to spend with them, but when the chips are down, of course they'll pass the cost on to customers.

I don’t understand why you would be ok with all the hacking and your credit card being used fraudulently, (which they legally should protect you against), and yet you will abandon them because of a price rise that was surely on the cards anyway and may have nothing to do with the hacking malarkey.

To expect a company like M&S to put people before profit is nonsense. Profit is the prime consideration for every business and to expect a business to have a morality doesn’t make sense.

The only way to protect people and make businesses put customers first is with extensive and complex legislation, ie, to force them all to do it.

And I have a feeling most of the people who shop at M&S would consider this to be the hallmark of a nanny state and argue it stifles free trade or whatever.

I’m wondering if M and S can survive this cyber attack and other problems it has. Many rely on it for online clothes shopping and can’t get to a store easily , they will go elsewhere and never return.
It’s costing millions to rectify this situation. I hope they had some insurance, but no idea.
It’s all looking bleak for them , but it would be sad too if the whole thing collapsed, I know I’d miss them as I like their clothes which actually last and wash up well.
I already struggle to get clothes elsewhere etc and I like our local food hall , but I don’t do massive shops in there but it’s nice for a treat ( or just bread and milk) if I’m in town etc.
Lots of people I know use it a lot more.

Well this is standard practice surely? It’s a massive loss and it needs to be recouped. I mean i’d knock shopping at M&S on the head anyway if you’re looking to save money as it’s obviously in the higher end price bracket anyway.

And yes, imagine the comments if M&S was to close. It would be the final nail in the coffin for my town that’s for sure. It’s one of the few places I’ll go to if I need to shop in an actual shop, as it has everything I need. If putting up prices mean they can stay in business, so be it.

Tesco have just had some big price jumps. I expect other stores are doing this too.

Not going to Waitrose since JL closed their store in Sheffield despite council being monetarily supportive. The Marie Antoinette style remark of the CEx that "You can go to Leeds" riled us all!

We're all paying for the shoplifting epidemic too.

A. are your diamond shoes too tight as well?
B. prices going up everywhere. Every week.

I agree.

It is definitely naive to think that they care about customer wellbeing - money from a loyal customer is worth as much as money from an occasional customer.
I haven’t seen many complaints about Ocado which is what I’d use if I wanted to remain loyal to M&S Food.

Shoplifting is so rife now and the self service scanners and tills don’t help matters either. I know they check and have random checks , but more often than not they don’t and so much stuff must just go missing. Not to mention the more traditional shop lifters around who know the way around not getting caught out.
On top of the latest NI budget increases and many businesses are struggling.