AIBU to think that M&S have lots the plot?

[justkeepongoing]

Just looking on the sale website. Despite being a loyal fan to M&S over the years I really think that the range on offer would come second best to a sale rail in a charity shop (which I'm equally a fan of)!

[edwardsmum11]

Tbh I think their 'fashion' is rather too like BHS IMO. I prefer next.

[TheWernethWife]

I love M & S - that's all really, each to their own.

[justkeepongoing]

I've been going in for 30ish!!!!!!! years and currently have a large selection of their clothing in my wardrobe (I'm actually on first terms with some of the lovely staff) but by the love of me I can't see the appeal at the moment.
Agree, food is great....flowers ok (best for roses imo) but cheaper and quality as good at Aldi or Morrisons.

[PomBearWithAnOFRS]

Our M&S closed and opened a "Just Food" shop instead.
Frankly we were amazed they even sell any food in a town with no less than 4 Greggs, 3 McDs, 2 Home Bargains and a B&M but they must be selling something...

[Travelledtheworld]

I like Per Una and am a loyal knicker buyer.
But many of their styles just scream MISTAKE.

[ThursdayLastWeek]

Hmm, I actually quite like m&s (I actually do have shares though )

The children's clothes IMO are decent quality and I picked up some nice things for DS1 in the sale last week.
Food - mostly yum if spectacularly overpriced
Knickers - a staple
I think the women's cloths are just too hit and miss - they try to appeal to everyone and end up often appealing to no one by the sounds of it.

[MardleBum]

I went into M&S this week for the first time in months to look at their sale. All I can say is no wonder that stuff was in the sale. God it was grim. I couldn't find a single thing - I wouldn't be seen dead in any of it, not even at 50% off. And I'm 50, not some 25 year old fashionista, so I should be their target market.

[AugustaFinkNottle]

If they're selling off what was in the shops a few months ago I'm not surprised. I can usually pick up something I like, but last time I went in I wandered around in a state of increasing incredulity at the fact that everything I saw was either a horrible design or in horrible shiny materials that I wouldn't wear in a million years. They really need to sack whoever was responsible for design and buying decisions this season.

[RJnomore1]

Ooh the just food shops one has opened at the end of my road and I'm already nearly bankrupt.

Is it wrong that I quite like the metallic jump suit...

[Oliversmumsarmy]

I think they need to invest in some surveys before they go filling there rails with what only can be described as what someone's gran would wear in 1959.
Used to go into m &s regularly. Now only use it for bras.

Agree with the person upthread who says whilst they might have some nice items life is too short to wade through the dross.
At one point a few years ago it looked like they had turned a corner with their fashion but it quickly has gone down hill.
I think I am the only one who hates their food. I can blind taste test and pick out their ready meals. They have to me a certain taste to them.

[SpaghettiMeatballs]

They sell lovely clothes for little boys. It is telling that I bought 6 tee shirts and 4 pairs of trousers for DS and not one thing for DD in the sale.

I love the food. I love Autograph cotton tights.

The DC'd bedroom furniture is from M&S. They even put it together for you and take away the packaging.

That said the ladies fashion is dire and I don't recall DH ever buying anything to wear in M&S.

[stillenacht1]

It's a baby boomers shop isn't it. When I go into Bluewater it just seems the whole cast of Boomers is in there with all their friends.

Love the food and gd for school uniform though.

[SlowComfortableShrew]

Yes, my mum loves it...

[Fadingmemory]

M&S have lost most of the plot. Was looking for a nightshirt recently - some of the pyjamas and other nightwear looked incredibly frumpy to me and I am in my 60s. Likewise the holiday and leisure clothes! So maybe OK for some of your great grandmothers! OK for underwear.

[Lokisglowstickofdestiny]

Still think their food is good but that's it. Underwear is poor, the size range of bras for those of us in a larger cup size (thanks to a proper measuring after years of cramming into wrong size, thanks to m&s) is pathetic. In a large local branch I had the choice of 2 bras. Debenhams, same town, over 20.
I think they should become a food retailer only, my DMIL, age 80 doesn't like the clothes, me age 45 doesn't like the clothes, too much artificial fibres, garish patterns - just who is their target market?

[RaskolnikovsGarret]

I'm not keen on the underwear any more either. And the service has become very poor. Last time I went, I saw them giving very short shrift to a lady searching for a post-surgery bra, and another who didn't have a clue about maternity bras. Very off-hand and unpleasant.

[PenguindreamsofDraco]

I love M&S. Every time someone compliments me on what I'm wearing it's from there. It helps that they increase their sizing as I get fatter so I'm always the same size there

[RaskolnikovsGarret]

They just add slogans/buttons/frills/gold bits to all their clothes. Unnecessary and ugly.

[trinity0097]

You used to be able to buy a cheap decent pencil skirt for work there, now they have added yucky zips as fake hip style pockets which makes it entirely inappropriate for a professional environment. What a disappointment - you could rely on M and S for basics like that, I.e. Non trendy basic office wear.

[Lokisglowstickofdestiny]

Their underwear staff don't seem well trained. I went in with my DD to get her some bras and they insisted she needed a 34 back, she's a size 6, I'm much larger and wear a 34 back, we went elsewhere and she has some very nice bras which fit well with a 30 back.
They have too many ranges, I really wouldn't want them to go the way of BHS, their management needs to review their women's clothing - m&s "where bad clothes come to die"

[Ineedanaptoo]

I loved their kids range, underwear and food. But as they shut our local high st M&S we haven't been to one as we'd have to travel ages to another store. Shame as I always picked up bits and pieces there.

[WellErrr]

My eyes!!

[YaySirNaySir]

Love the food especially the biscuits. We have a three seated sofa from there it still looks brand new and is soooo comfy.
Clothes are shocking though, their attempts at fashion are laughable. The Alexa stuff is a joke.
I do have 2 things both basics- a lovely wool pencil skirt and a v neck jumper both bought a good while ago and both still in fab condition.
M&S should stick with what they know and leave fashion to others.

[megletthesecond]

They have a long white stripe t-shirts dress that I think would work with my Nikes, I'm going to investigate next week. Although I suspect the cotton isn't going to be thick enough and even flesh colour bra and pants will be visible .

[SuperFlyHigh]

Their clothes I never touch (even PJs now) as I think they're dire and have lost the plot. Last time I tried to buy a jumper there for my mum it was turned away as not being right!

However close relative who's young and very hip got their pie crust blouse (Alexa Chung) range the other day as she posted it on FB.

Their knickers actually aren't bad got some nice ones recently patterned in the sale, my local one is tiny and not a vast range, the shoes I saw there recently were appalling and the one pair I did like I thought vastly overpriced at £60!

I also wasn't impressed when a few weeks ago in a panic and rush went to M&S Stratford and was looking for tights I think, a certain denier, asked someone who was on shop floor sorting out a range and got a really nasty snippy reply (if I'd had more time I'd have complained!) I didn't expect that tone from them to a polite enquiry from me! I came away with tights there only and not the boots I'd been eyeing.

Their tights I've been put off years ago their nude ones were great then they changed them and I tried the new ones which were inferior so won't try again.

The underwear is awful if you're a large cup size and band. My mum buys bras there (small cup) and their heat tech long sleeved tops in colours but even she baulks at a lot of their clothes and she used to be a big Per una fan.

I used to in 1990s/2000 regularly go there for nice tops, tshirts etc don't know who designed back then but me and a lot of friends went there... Now though not in a million years.