Aibu to wonder how marks and spencer has not closed down yet??!

[Olaf4fuxache]

Last time I bought an item of clothing in there was 2005.I go in there regularly just to have a laugh at their clothes now! EVERYTHING is covered in lace,sequins,buttons,applique or some such shitty garnish.Nothing whatsoever one would want to buy.Cheap crap you could buy in primark for a quarter of the price,flimsy fabrics.Who the hell are their fashion buyers? Are they blind?Even my mother and grandmother think their clothes are frumpy and do not shop there anymore.How much longer do they think they can get away with the garbage they stock?The shops look like ghost towns,staff are unmotivated.They have no idea who they are targeting.Sainsburys Tu,or Tesco F&F have better clothing than they do.They understand their target buyers may not have rake thin toned upper arms,may have big tummys and crepey chests and have clothes to suit. FFS M&S!!!!Get your act together or you will go the same way as BHS,Woolies etc....And you know what?We wouldnt even care!!!

They have really invested in their shoes. Well it looks like they have anyway. Inhave a very comfy pair of stilettos that I wore for hours to a wedding. Really comfy. Don't rate the clothes. Love the food

Their food is second to none imho.
The childrens clothes , shoe range and mens clothes are excellent. As is the beauty range but........
The womens clothes are MEH!

Their running/gym gear looks good.

I quite like their plain black work trousers. Cheap enough but they wash ok (unlike primark etc) and fit my capacious arse. Their bra department is a fucking disgrace, though.

I had an assistant ask me the other day if I wanted a fitting and I replied (politely, I hope) "I don't buy bras here, you don't have my size and the fitting isn't very accurate on larger busts" and got a whole speil about how they'd changed their fittings and would I like to try.

Turns out they do larger sizes now but not in a small back size, only in (admittedly much much larger) cup sizes, but they don't have my cup size in the store anyway - "oh, no, the extremely large sizes don't sell so they're only online".

So how can you fit me then??

(Another foodhall fan though - obviously not for a normal shop but very handy for a nice tea on a difficult day.)

I don't even think the school stuff is that great anymore . For a while I was convinced the school shoes were as good as Clarke s and half the price but last lot I bought were £28 a pair (only a fiver cheaper than similar at Clarkes) -'and fell apart by November
And the underwear is ok but they CANNOT fit bras properly . I've had years of ill fitting bras from them before doing the bra intervention (thank you mumsnet !)

I went in for a tub of the night cream, as recommended by MN, yesterday.

Some of the shoes are great! I didn't buy any, but I think I'll go back. I did buy a bunch of sunflowers though.

The night cream smells good, but I've only used it twice, so only time will tell on that score. I also noticed they sell a perfume brand I like, so I'll be directing DH there around Christmastime.

F&F from Tesco is rubbish. Tu is ok.

I do like their jeggings and food.

Knickers sizing has gone mad. I don't buy pants from M&S anymore. Would have to buy multiple sizes of each exact pair to find out if I'm an 8 or a 16 in these ones. FFS. I am 10 or 12 on the bottom in everyone else's sizing.

I agree with a pp, their sofas are great.
However their clothes are just ridiculous at the moment..

I started to flick through the sale rail the other day and then thought " why bother? .. i couldnt find anything i liked when it was full price".

I would have thought I was their target market, but all I buy from them is school trousers, socks and sofas!

I've been buying the jeggings for about 4 years now. I have noticed a decline in fabric quality, unfortunately.

My nan buys their clothes and loves it, last time I saw her she was wearing a denim zip up with sparkly butterfly appliqués 🤷‍♀️

I buy my tights and undies there. But the rest...I'm mid-40s and would love plain navy wool work trousers, crisp white cotton shirts, good winter coats that last. Not bizarre polyester shite with bad prints and frills and ruchings.

And can we stop with the ageism? Older women (60+) shouldn't have to put up with shit clothes.

I wonder too if they will turn into just 'simply food' - haven't they already talked about closing some branches altogether and turning some into 'simply food' instead of full stores - not all, but some which aren't doing well as full stores and are in the right areas for a 'simply food' store.

It hard to believe that some of the weird clothes which you can absolutely predict will be on the 70% off rail in a few weeks and still not really sell make lots of money. perhaos the margins are so big they can still make money if selli g at 70% off. Or perhaps the profit from the food and the school uniforms and the underwear is subsidising the losses of other departments....but if so, why bother with the other departments.

What I suspect is that different sections do the population like different departments. So here, on MN we are Mums...we like the food, the kids clothes and some like the underwear. It will be people not on this website who love the women's clothes or who buy the mens clothes. This is keeping them going, not just us. However, they are missing a trick if their clothes do t appeal to lots of women who are mums age category, because there are lots of us too...and if we don't like the clothes now, by the time we are in the next age bracket, we probably still won't.

Clothes- great kids clothes & uniforms over the years. Got their kids black leggings for teen DD last year for £6! and they have washed well, not thin or baggy.
- used to like Per Una years ago but just seems less stylish now.
I agree they don't seem to know who they are targeting. I walk onto the shop floor and feel tired looking at the vast array of rails. It just feels like to much effort!
Food - like their gastro-pub ready meals
- fruit and veg seem fresher than other stores. Soft fruit takes longer to go off (wonder why?)

I have seen shoes that caught my eye,gone over and picked them up and thought "fuck no! Rigid as hell,couldnt even make it out of the store in them...plastic slippery sole,unbendable,£40 fuck off"

They do lots of things well:

Food
Flowers
Cards
Underwear (although I know this is contentious)
Some of their face care is good.
Children's clothes
Homewares - especially bed linen and towels

I have to agree that they are gone way down the pan. During the summer I was looking at the childrens clothes and finding it quite frustrating that there didn't seem to be anything appealing to me. Upon examining one of the girls dresses there as a big rip along the seam, this put me right off the whole idea of ever shopping there.
Since then I stick to John Lewis or Mothercare but avoiding Jules Oliver's line of stuff , who does she think she's kidding?

“Foods awful as well.”

No it isn’t , although they do have a woefully poor selection of vegetarian food.

I still like their underwear. Not being hugely endowed I can find loads of bras in my size. I like their men’s jumpers. I have long arms and feel the cold easily. Flared sleeves and three quarter length sleeves are silly and impractical, but the men’s cotton jumpers are ace.

I want to like M and S, but you have to look really hard now to find some nice clothes. Most of their clothes are overly fussy and made from horrible material. There are too many frills and horrible patterns. They used to be so good at plain basics. I don’t understand why they aren’t listening to their customers.

I bought a dress and a trench from there.

Very reasonably priced and I've got soooo many compliments on them both!! When I say M&S no one can believe it!

I also buy kids uniform. I need it to hand down to second DC and I generally buy in June when they do 20% off uniform.

Their winter coat collection also has one or two gems

My local M&S IS closing (not a Uk store) and i will miss all sorts of things, notably tea, coffee, christmas crackers and decent opaque tights

Well, I bought a nice orange shift dress from there in the summer, plus their basic t shirts and winter jumpers are good. Their knickers and bras are fine. I am over sixty and I don't do beige or crimplene.
I am not impressed with Next, and don't like Tesco. Sainsbury's clothes can be good, but can be a bit hit and miss too.

As for that pink horror illustrated above - didn't the Boden catalogue have a similar top with the same strange sleeves, at a much more stupid price than M & S?

Actually I have just had a look for that coat you were on about fullofhope and it is fabulous very Bet Lynch in her hey day lol. I think I like some of their stuff they have in atm. I think I am turning into an OAP !

The black ones are crazy comfy and look great. The they ones I think look good but I probably couldn't pull them off

And £25 bargain