M&S Food now have a poor range of flowers in store.

[AtIusvue]

I’ve noticed in the last year, M&S Food, who always has a wide variety of flower bouquets- now have a really poor collection.

In the past, you were able to get more unusual flowers too (different times of the year of course) Agapanthus, narcissus, parrot tulips etc in single flower type bouquets. Now, it’s just the usual suspects: roses, lilies, freesia and carnations.

They seem to now mainly just stock standard mixed bouquets and the volume has significantly decreased too. Two stores I regularly attend, the stock is down by at least a 1/3, poor selection and mainly mixed bouquets.

Sainsburys I find much better than M&S now. Waitrose and Morrisons still have lots of good options. I wonder what has happened to M&S?

I think most supermarkets have reduced their range of flowers. Probably because it’s a completely discretionary spend and, as people cut back - and most people are having to cut back -, they are selling fewer bunches and so reducing the range available and the quantity. They have such a short shelf life that you need to be confident that you will sell them all.

M&S is my second choice, I think they are realistically priced and normally quite good variety. Morrisons seems the best supermarket for flowers at the moment

My local food hall has gorgeous flowers and stock levels seem to be the same (half has now been taken over by Christmas trees though)

I have noticed this too. However, they randomly had a huge selection at the weekend - including peonies. I have never seen those apart from in April / May, it just seemed wrong.

It’s a discretionary/luxury item, usually one with a lot of air-miles and a short shelf life (and therefore high waste). I’ll be delighted to see less in stores.

They spent the whole summer re-vamping and extending my local M&S, but somehow it now has less of everything. Cards and flowers glaringly so

My m&s has beautiful flowers especially for a gift but for day to day I find them quite expensive.

Our local simply food has lots of flowers and a good variety. I rate their quality too. I bought 2 bunches of roses and some eucalyptus recently and they lasted 2 weeks.

I was in our local M&S food hall yesterday and I thought the range was really good. I think I even saw some peonies in one of the £20 bunches of flowers.

I generally only buy M&S flowers for a gift, if buying just for me I usually buy flowers in Aldi or Lidl as they have some very nice flower bouquets for less than a tenner.

I agree with you OP, I always get my normal flowers with my weekly supermarket shop (tulips /roses / seasonal ones) and then get my special top up ones from M and S and recently all they’ve had are mixed bouquets which I won’t buy because they have lilies in and we have cats so I can’t risk it. I’m hoping it’s just an Autumn thing and it picks up again.

Aren't a lot grown in Europe, so probably the Brexit effect?

Unless you can get them here quickly with little hassle, it's not worth it as they'll be dead before people can buy them.

Plus also likely an example of trading down/shrinkflation, bulking out or switching to cheaper varieties to keep to the price point so people will buy them.

I've stopped buying them from M&S as the choice is limited, prices high and the displays are mainly full of rather garish - and pricey - bouquets. Sainsbury's are better, for now.

As a gift, I might buy a bouquet from Morrisons, but never from M&S. Mainly due to the shop location and price of M&S.

Occasionally, I buy 2 bunches of chrysanthemums from aldi. Each bunch has a sachet of preservative liquid, so after a week, I replace the water and add the 2nd sachet. They last over 2 weeks, sometimes 3 which isn't too bad.

It’s because they have been on a mission to ‘elevate’ the range. It has led to less choice, needlessly expensive packaging (have you seen the online offering!!), and a great deal of snobbery regarding flower varieties that they have decided are for the peasants who shop at ordinary supermarkets or, shudder, the discounters.