to think we can come up with good ideas to save M&S

[FleurDelacoeur]

M&S definitely on the skids. Profits down, stores closing, Chief Exec saying radical transformation required. Fairly clear that this has happened because they're not listening to their core market, which I'd wager has a fairly large crossover with the MN demographic. So Steve Rowe, if you're listening, here are a few bullet points.

1. Scrap the Sparks card.
2. Sack your womenswear design team. All of them. Now.
3. Ditch the Per Una brand.
4. Rethink your over generous returns policy.

Boots is the worst when it comes to finding a till open. Loads of them, all over the place in many of their larger stores but you often have to ask a member of staff if you can pay them!

Good quality basic clothes in lovely natural fabrics (cotton, wool, silk, cashmere etc). No frilly bits, no weird colours. Charge more - clothes are so cheap nowadays, but good quality is hard to find and does cost.

You should be able to go to M&S for a soft white cotton t-shirt in various necklines, a lovely heavyweight wool coat, a black pencil skirt or flattering work trousers, a pretty cotton summer dress, a cashmere jumper that doesn't itch. Follow general trends in shapes and lengths, but avoid high fashion.

We are your core customers - and we want you do to well ! That's actually a pretty good starting place for a company that's in the dolldrums - we aren't saying we don't care if you go under, we want you to sell stuff we want to buy.

Good thread op, hopefully someone with influence will read it.

It is actually interesting to see how very active (and very similar) these M&S frustration threads are - lots of people actively engaging, lots of people saying the same things.

People really don't want to write them off and they could still rise from the ashes. They really don't seem to want to listen, though.

DH us T1 diabetic, his worst and fastest hypo followed consumption of half an M&S steak and ale pie.

Check the sugar content as well as the salt!!

You may well be on to something when you say they don’t want to listen.

I'd be happy if someone who worked in senior management in retail/design could put their heads above the parapet and explain WHY this whole 'quality staples' thing is so hard to do? I'm assuming there must be some major stumbling block that's stopping M&S from going down that route - I'm on an M&S consumer research panel and it's all I've ever fed back to them, and it gets repeated time and again on threads like this, so it's not just me.

Is it that the range of M&S customers is so diverse that one style wouldn't suit everyone? (In which case, have The Perfect T for different body shapes, maybe?) Is it that they're worried that once you've bought your perfect trousers you won't buy anything else that season? (In which case, accessories!)

The more time I spend on the womenswear section the more problems I see - and that's just in one mornings' procrastination at work!

The whole Limited Edition section should be binned (70 items). There's not a "staple" there - everything has embellishments or some fashionista thing going on. It's like looking at Zara or Mango. Bin.

Autograph seems mostly ok when it's black/white/navy, but the prints are awful and colours sludgy or a one-off - eg. gorgeous canary yellow jacket, why not in a cool colour as well? Again - 185 items to wade through. Bin all prints and most colours.

Classic, 128 items. Prints again are almost universally terrible and almost EVERYTHING is printed. Or some kind of weird pebble-dash like the designers can't bear solids. Just - why?? Bin anything that's not a solid and see what's left.

Twiggy. Why have a separate range of yet more items, many of which make Twiggy herself look dumpy. Why not an edit from the main collection of some kind. Bin.

Per Una. There must be a market for this stuff or they wouldn't keep making it so I guess look hard at the range and edit it down. Not even the most dedicated Per Una fan could wade through 238 items. Remove everything that's embellished and then streamline the rest of the collection. A lot surely overlaps with the main M&S Collection eg. the many many different kinds of jeans, chinos, cotton trousers. Why repeat them in Per Una?

M&S Collection. 1698 items. Oof. But, ok, this is the core of the whole shop. Eliminate anything with embellishment, slogans, and most of the prints. And then edit, edit, edit.

Interestingly if I go to the Boden website and say "view all" for women there is a total of 405 items TOTAL. Of course many of these will have 3-6 alternative colours and patterns but still, it's not so overwhelming to look through.

user I agree it’s just too ridiculous to be true.

I have never seen such agreement on aibu on one issue and all posters saying the same thing.

It’s utterky bizarre they don’t listen

M&S is so hit and miss. Lots of the baby stuff is so beautiful, but women's clothes - well.

The food is sometimes delicious but too expensive. The Chinese ready meals cost almost the same as a Chinese takeaway. They need to look at their basics food wise too because anything that's not a ready meal is often uninspiring. And yet the lemon drizzle cake, the crispbakes - some of it is so nice.

But they'll probably waste time and money redesigning the perfectly nice stores/uniforms and retraining the perfectly nice staff and redoing the perfectly nice adverts instead.

I have posted this thread on their Twitter page - so they can take something from this :)

I’ve just been shopping for kids clothes (ds and dd) and I found nothing I liked in m&s. The choice was rubbish. I then went to Debenhams and I was spoilt for choice with the Blue Zoo range. Not much difference in price but I wanted to buy everything.
M&S are good for kids shoes, uniform, food. homeware is nice too.
I also buy jeans from there. I’m not very tall but petite ranges come up too short. M&S have jeans and trousers that fit me.

Good move beanii now lets hope they listen. As I posted I emailed my local manager in disgust at the clothes and was told thanks but they know their customer best.

No no no you don’t M&S

Dont know if anyone has said this yet but stop paying twiggy and co ridiculous amounts to advertise the clothes
And in my area the clothes are slightly too expensive. . A piece of knitwear at 45 or 50 pounds is just too much .

Drop everything except the food halls and open more of them - full size, town centre and village local ones etc, also start online grocery deliveries and basically become another supermarket and make it so that a full shop can be done there and they could properly operate as a supermarket chain.

Clothing and homewares, whilst once their shining crown is done, most of the adoring generation of Marks and Spencer have gone, times have changed, retail has changed and loyalty means zilch now, I think M&S were expecting to be operating the way they always did forever and of course that won’t work.

Hire staff that have a bloody clue about customer service.

Hire management that understand how to run a store properly and how to hire staff rather than their great aunt's next door neighbour.

Sell basic capsule wardrobe items.

Sell the same top in 6 different colours/patterns.
Sell the same dresses in 6 different colours/patterns.
Same with pants, jeans cardies blah blah blah.

Look at what sells elsewhere. Supermarkets and places like Matalan sell more of their capsule wardrobe items than anything else.

Make them good quality again and people will pay again. I would happily pay £180 for a stunning simple dress I knew was going to last me a decade that I could dress up/down whatever throughout each year. And if they made the same on in a variety of colours I'd probably buy 2.

Same with tops, trousers etc make them good quality and to last 5yrs.

People want a decent wardrobe. They are fed up of a wardrobe full of shit polyester.

I don't mind paying as much as for a takeaway if the quality is better and it's healthier - less salt, sugar and fat, for example.

So if M&S aren't listening to their customers, why aren't they? What are they seeing at the tills, in the financials that doesn't bear out what customers are saying? Or which other stakeholders are they prioritising?

JL and Waitrose now definitely have the customer service edge now.

@VickieCherry has got it spot on.

I think their managers must read this stuff and think "but we already do that??"

No. No. You don't!

God their woman’s clothes are just vile. I got given an MS gift card for my birthday. Spent it in the supermarket.

The kids clothes are nice though. I like their uniforms.

Like the Rosie Huntington make up too. Maybe she should design some of their clothes.

Agree with everyone saying they should offer good quality basics in natural fibres.

The cuts need to be more up to date and fashionable but offer something that other brands don't such as a slightly more comfortable fit (without loosing style), slightly longer tops, long sleeves, etc.

Everything is so frumpy at the moment.

To be fair to M&S (a bit) there are some competing ideas on here. To go back to British production and high quality fabrics like cashmere and wool will push prices up, to the point that they wouldn't be a go-to high street store for most. They will on a level with Hobbs/Jigsaw and beyond. This won't matter to some at all, including many posters on this thread.

But they would lose a sizeable chunk of their current customer base. So maybe some compromise around quality would be needed - a higher priced range that sits alongside a cheaper one?

Maybe they could try to be a budget Hobbs and Jigsaw then rather than a premium Primark?

There might be a market there?

Lower kids clothing prices, much too expensive for the short space of time and hard wear they get. I get 100% cotton tops in GAP for under a fiver in their sale, would never considering M and S for kids clothes as they don't give good value for money.

Same for the food - very pricey but not always better quality.

Love the underwear/nightwear but well stocked sizes is always an issue.
Happy to pay a bit more for better quality that will last a lifetime.

Agree with stop employing celebrities and stop chasing fashion. Accept that your customer base is not that into fashion - or if they are they won't go to M&S for it.