To think that the decline of M&S began with the introduction of Per Una range...

[Blowin]

I mean it all just went so downhill from then on....imo.

[Mynewmoniker]

They're giving 20% off today...do you think they are trying to get rid of stock?

[williaminajetfighter]

Per Una is dreadful. To me it screams: Stevie nicks on holiday in Lanzarote. That is all the image I need. Back away now ....

[Mynewmoniker]

Just realised my cumfy new PJs are Per Una! I hadn't worn PJs for YEARS as I didn't like the bottoms wrestling with my crotch in the night.
Saw the minky, flowing coloured ones and bought the sexy top to match. I LOVE them and just go and have a feel at the material when I'm in M&S now.

Off to shower and put on my loungy Pjs now

[Nanny0gg]

I'm not on FB though I've had a nose through DC's. Can't someone here link this thread on there so that someone might take notice?
Complaining through normal channels is such a waste of time.

[Mynewmoniker]

TSSDNCOP looks like you have mentioned Cafe Resusitate on the wrong thread

Went in today and was serves Cod Mornay, mash and green beans all in one deep sided rectangular dish. It looked like it had been 'slopped' in. It tasted lovely; shame about the presentationas it would have looked much better with veg seperated from fish

[CruCru]

Does anyone else find their website confusing? I mostly buy DS clothes from Boden, JoJo, John Lewis etc so think I've been spoiled by easy, well laid out websites.

[TSSDNCOP]

How can the cafe be out of tuna? Why don't they just go down to the food hall and get extra tins????

I'd love to know the % of profit Per Una generates.

Give the abundance of additional materials/embellishments each garment contains if that entire section were stripped out maybe the manufacturer could find the extra tones of dye for the blue and red garments throughout the rest of the lines.

[gazzalw]

I think I would agree..... Look what happened with the Twiggy endorsement !

[Sparklingbrook]

If I was a Sleb I would run for the hills if m&S wanted me to front their clothing line gazza.

[gazzalw]

Well it was a choice of six, most of whom were British apart from Gisele Bundchen - people like Kate Winslet, Emily Blunt, Rachel Weisz.....

Waves to Sparklingbrook.....

[Sparklingbrook]

Cafe thread Had to be done.

[Finola1step]

I too thought it was our local m and s cafe that was just ridiculously disorganised. I only going in when I know I've got time to wait at the counter while three or four members of staff work on my latte order... it goes like this:
1 to take the order
1 to press the correct button on the machine
1 to froth and pour the milk
1 to put a biscuit on the saucer and pass latte over (this might be the Sam person who took the order who has now left the till with a queue of customers waiting to order and pay)
And all the while checking with each other what the drink order is and who for. All getting in each others way. Wasting flipping time.

[freddiefrog]

Our local M&S cafe is a nightmare too.

I was in there at Christmas looking for onesies for my kids - which incidently M&S didn't have any of, another huge trend which they hadn't taken advantage of, and fancied some lunch, after queuing for 20 minutes I gave up and went next door to Morrisons

[Sparklingbrook]

Oh no gazza. Does she know which sleb?

[gazzalw]

DW met friends for a light lunch in there yesterday. They waited 20 minutes for their baked potatoes and then DW's tuna choice was out of stock so they waited five minutes more.

I've never quite worked out what the issue is in their cafes. All I know is that in Caffe Nero you never wait more than five minutes and there's often only two baristas serving.....

DW is with you AuntySib on the former glory factor. I know for some it is impossible to imagine that M&S's clothes were ever highly desirable but they were!

I think that M&S still rely on their sense of being part and parcel of the great British High Street and have rested on their laurels as more fashion-forward competitors have stolen their thunder....

Marc Bolland has been implying that change is afoot but have yet to notice a change for the better in their stock.

Incidentally DW yesterday filled in survey all about a high-end, celebrity endorsed collection in the pipeline for M&S....

[AuntySib]

used to go to M&S in my 20's ( when a student) and make a list of all the stuff I wanted, then get bits gradually. Am now officially middle-aged and haven't seen anything I wanted in there for years, cos it's all too frumpy. too frumpy even for my Mum, who's in her 70's! patterns are garish, fabrics just awful, colours unsubtle or granny-pastel. Even the jeans are old-lady. As a previous poster said, how do they get it so wrong?? A particular offence is that the cotton knickers ( previously a staple) are not the colours which match their own bras! I go to Gap for undies now.

[Blowin]

OMG! I thought it was just our local M&S that had a really slow cafe, its a revelation to learn that this is a SYSTEMIC PROBLEM!!

I swear to god, if their coffee and scones werent so lovely I wouldnt put up with it. They always have around 5 women faffing around behiind the counter and yet STILL manage to make you queue for around ten minutes just for a cuppa! By the time i get it i feel almost murderous with hunger and thirst!

So its like that in all the cafes - wtf, M&S sort it OUT!

[Sparklingbrook]

No, it would be very specifically the crapness of the Cafe MrsR.

[MrsRambo]

Sparklingbrook

Would it be a thread about a thread though??

[Sparklingbrook]

Do it MrsR. Maybe somebody will appear on the thread and explain how is is actually fab.

[MrsRambo]

Maybe we should start a separate thread about the M&S cafe fiasco, you know, for ease of reference for the M&S people that are noting all our comments (loving the "Cafe Resuscitate' BTW Mynewmoniker)

I used to go to our local M&S cafe a lot during maternity leave. The chaos of it all didn't seem bother me much as I had lost all sense of time and and orderliness anyway. I did attempt to go more recently with an out of control energetic toddler in tow. Oh how I wept....

[Sparklingbrook]

But why does it take so long?

[Mynewmoniker]

"They also had some odd queuing system in the cafe which was so long and complicated, it made nipping in for a coffee and a sandwich not worth it."

Don't get me started!! The ineptitude/slowness of the staff and the complexity of the systems in M&S cafes never ceases to amaze me. Nice food though."

I agree laquila. I have said to other customers when I've been queueing Cafe Revive should be renamed Cafe bl**dy Resusitate (sp?) as your nearly starved to death or so dehydrated before you get your drink.

I once went to Yeovil in Somerset and they gave a flashing, vibrating thing the size of a large mobile phone to you to alarm you when your order was ready. There were lots of old ladies going beetroot when their vibrators went off

[silverten]

DH used to wear M&S washable suits. Not fantastic, but not bad, they lasted a year or so for a fairly reasonable price.

However. The big selling point was that you could buy one jacket plus half a dozen pairs of matching trousers. In theory at least....

What actually happened was that DH went in, tried on, identified the size and length for each item and located whatever they had in stock. Usually a jacket and a couple of pairs of trousers.

He wanted at least four pairs of trousers for each jacket so promptly went to order these. Had to pay in full, of course...

Then go home and wait with baited breath for the phonecall. Which never came. So DH, wanting the goods he'd already paid for, contacts them. To be told that the items had arrived, but because he'd not collected them within 48 hours (!), they'd been sent back.

Long conversation ensues which is not particularly helpful but the goods got re-ordered with a grudging promise that they would let him know this time.

Goods arrive- DH is contacted but because they've forgotten to tell him as soon as they arrived he now only has 24 hours to pick them up. What with working full time (hence the need for the bloody suits) he can't do this and says so.

No, they can't possibly hold onto his order (the one he's already paid for!!!).

Cycle repeats a couple more times. I think it took him three months before he decided to return the lot and buy a suit elsewhere, as it was becoming clear that he wasn't going to get his suits any time soon.

Could he get history back for the original, pristine unworn items we'd bought in the first place?? Why no- because they'd buggered him about so long it was out of the time limit for a refund.

I think we still have the credit note hanging about somewhere- we tried buying socks but found that they develop holes on the first wear...

DH buys his suits elsewhere now and will almost certainly carry on- there wasn't much wrong with the M&S ones (for the price) but it's simply too bloody difficult to actually buy them.....

[Flappingandflying]

Some of their clothes seem to be made from church hall curtains.

Husband gets £200 of vouchers as a xmas bonus from his work. He went in new year sales to buy a suit. They wouldn't let him try one on! You can't try on suits in the sale. Apparantly. He did point out that he wasn't going to spend £150 on something he couldn't try but nope 'rule from head office'. The vouchers are unspent. I do think the men's stuff is OK but recently have not found anything in the women's.