AIBU to think Marks and Spencer deserve to go under

[Carulli]

I'm so disappointed, I grew up shopping at M&S snd as young adult still bought most of my clothes there. However for at least 10 years they don't seem to have anything to offer me (I'm in my 40's) apart from food.

Their Sparks card is a bad joke, I've got over 57,000 points from regular food purchases but to obtain any benefits I'm expected to log in and pick deals I'm interested in. Who's got time to do that before they go and buy a sandwich? I know Boots ask you check offers too but they also generously accumulate money on your card with every purchase which you can use to buy products. Sparks offers nothing at all, they get all the valuable data but customers get nothing of any use.
I foolishly bought school uniform for my 3 kids because it was a 20% off deal. Instead of delivering it in one or two large boxes they posted it to me with most of the items in individual bags which took up loads of space, I received 16 parcels in total! Having tried on the uniform and finding it far too large for my normal size kids I decided to return it and was amazed to find that in order to return it to the local Collect store I was expected to tear off a printed piece of paper and attach it on to each individual parcel! All the other retailers that I shop online with have sticky labels which are so easy to attach.
I rang customer services and asked if they could collect the parcels so that I don't have to use sticky tape to attach 16 labels on and they refused and were particularly unhelpful.
There was still a part of me that felt some loyalty to them and I wanted to call head office to let them know how frustrating it is to shop with them now. Well I found it impossible to contact them, there was a number online which kept me on hold for 8 mins before I gave up.
Any loyalty or wishes for them to get their act together so that I could shop with them again evaporated. I feel so sorry for their shop floor staff who will continue to lose their jobs as stores close through no fault of their own. Incompetent management teams for at least the last decade continue to treat their customer like idiots. The only way to have any contact with M&S is though the call centre and those staff appear to have no way of escalating customer concerns, certainly I was given very short shrift. If the Senior managers really want to turn the business around they need to stop tinkering and actually connect with real customers and lots of them. They need to know why so few people are buying their products now and actually ask them why themselves, maybe call 10 customers each once per week picked at random from their Sparks database.
I'm not sure why I'm offering them suggestions, I just don't care any more which makes me sad.

YABU wanting them to go under. To be honest I think a number of employees in the stores are trying to do it themselves. The customer service is shocking in M&S and their Sparks card offers are a joke.

I could be wrong but I just don’t feel like anything works in the stores. The food section looks great, all modern and lovely

The clothes section is so drab, doesn’t rotate very often, no sale rale, nothing seems to be attractively set out - I shop in New Look a lot and their shop is clearly a very different set up, the displays are good etc.

I love their stocking and hold-ups, really excellent quality and only marginally more expensive than elsewhere. Well worth it.

I don't use the Sparks card, keep forgetting it. Is it any good? I've heard mixed things about it.

YABU

Why couldn't you put the stuff in fewerbags and just tape on a few labels?

Or better still, just return it to store?

You sound very hard to please...

M & S have just opened a simply food in a retail park 5 minutes from where I live, an area of council estates & high unemployment, how they are going to make it pay I'll never know, it's tiny, hardly any stock on shelves, I asked where a specific item was & got told "We don't stock that, you will either have to go to our city centre or Meadowhall branch" What's the point of opening a store if you aren't going to stock what customers want? I haven't bought any clothes from M & S for years, the quality is poor, they used to sell lots of lovely leather shoes, now most of them are synthetic & look cheap & nasty. If they don't sort themselves out they will go under, but I don't think I would miss them.

They are brilliant for school uniform.. all ours has lasted really well. I also love their kids clothes in the Autograph range and their fab vests, knickers, socks and PJs for kids.
The food is also amazing and miles better than Waitrose (where I also shop).
I agree that their women’s clothing is a disaster (just bring back pure cotton and wool FFS) but I love heir undies!
I spend a fortune there now I come to think of it..

I feel the same way about John Lewis So no, I don’t think YABU. But I feel desperately sorry for the people who have to work there. I wish they, like me, could just simply chose to go elsewhere.

Bit of an extreme reaction to spending 8 minutes on hold.

I love M&S food. And their make up is good. I used to love their clothes (I still wear an old pair of Jeans from when they were good. It was my 'go to' for all my smart casual work gear and bras, and i'm plus sized.

But now the plus size blouses are too short , the bust is too small but everything else fits, or the sleeves are too tight. Jeans are flimsy and wear out or shrink. The last time I went in there with money to spend I found nothing. Too many frills, unexpected holes and fussy patterns.

No company deserves to go under. But it's a business, and with the competition from online retailers they need to up their game in the clothes section and stop passing of cheap stuff as quality or their customers will just start walking on by.

YABVU - how can you wish thousands to lose their jobs? It is wicked. Do you have any idea how difficult the jobs market is? How long it can take to find suitable employment whilst unemployed? How inadequate our welfare system is for people who suddenly find themselves unemployed with mortgages/private rents to pay?

And btw I actually like Marks - delicious food, good range of underwear and certain types of clothes, friendly and hardworking staff. I’ll accept that the clothes range could do with improvement but then the same could be said of most other clothes stores.

I don’t agree that the food is amazing. Their deli counter salads are way overpriced and not very palatable. I don’t think that the food is worth the money they charge.

As for the clothes, there’s no excuse to keep getting it wrong. Their target customer has been telling them for years that they should be concentrating on well made, competitively priced basics, but they haven’t listened yet.

Our local smallish store has racks and racks of sale stuff that clearly no one is going to buy and a manager who stands in the middle of the shop floor on his phone. Impossible to ask him a question, because he’s walking up and down chatting. Very few staff on the shop floor too. Our HofF is going and I think Marks will too.

I feel conflicted about M&S. I bought lots of towels and bed linens at Christmas in their sale for our new house (well, moved in two years ago, but just starting to be able to afford things). Only one of 2 boxes got delivered, but the driver marked that 2 were delivered. There was £200 worth of purchases in the missing box. After multiple phone calls over a few weeks, they agreed to refund me but barred me from getting any more deliveries! Then, they called me back later that day to say they had since discovered that they never had the stock and had never sent them, and apologised (and unbarred me). All very stressful and unnecessary because they should have been able to determine straight away that they had never sent the 'missing' box of stuff.

And yet, I like their food, and I like their lingerie. Loathe useless Sparks.

Marks have circa 85,000 employees - not they don’t deserve to go under and those people loose their jobs because you’re not happy with your delivery.

You’re really not that important. If you don’t like what to offer don’t shop there.

If you worry for the shop floor staff why did you order online? Why not go into an actual store and get your children to try the uniform on. You know.... what you probably did when you did all that M & S shopping in your youth!!

Looked in there at the weekend...I actually saw a nice lightweight jacket...nearly £70!

Yay! Let's make a large workforce redundant - including their disabled staff - of whom they seem to hire the most on the high street. Whoppee

The clothes are awful but I don't want them to go under because you were a princess about some packages. Their closure would leave massive gaps in town centre stores.

Obviously, some senior designers/buyers should probably move on. They are to blame for the dreadful clothing range not Margaret from The Wolverhampton centre store.
Are there not enough people losing their jobs for your liking?

I sometimes wonder if people are sponsored to write these threads. There are plenty of rubbish shops but it always seems to be M&S that are targeted. They do some lovely food. And you can get good value basics there. And if you don’t like it, don’t shop there. Maybe you prefer companies that don’t employ many people in the UK and don’t pay tax.
Well done.

I'd love them to survive and thrive but they simply will not listen to their customers. It's like wilful self sabotage, drab clothes, the food isn't special anymore and scratchy underwear.

I want to buy from them, I truly do and I'm on their opinion panel too but it's fingers in ears and lalala.

Some of the clothes might be awful but a lot of them are good.
DP get work trousers from there and they look smart enough but are reasonable and they wash ok.

Meh. I went to Primark the other day for new underwear and pjs and put them back and went to M&S. Soft and long- lasting :)

They have really disappointed me recently- they stopped doing their amazing 5 pocket jeggings and replaced them with horrendous uncomfortable jeggings. They have also changed all their shoe sizing so no longer can I get my shoes from there and they have also discontinued Oudinot and various other popular things- all my friends moan about them, they have lost touch with their market, such a shame

Going under is too harsh but their clothes buyers need to be fired or sent for some extensive retraining. The majority of their clothing is revolting and the current sale proves that it’s not selling. Almost half of the entire, huge store is rail upon rail of crap, polyester rubbish aimed at god knows who.

Once in a while it’s bang on right but far, far too patchy.

Oh, and stock control needs a kick up the arse too. Size 6 or 22? Certainly madam. 10-16? No, all sold out a week after being released ( this is, obviously the one or two decent things one might have worn. If I was a 6 or 22.

I wouldn’t want M&S to go under as they are not that bad. I think to attract new customers they should have a compelling media strategy that includes a fantastic website, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Their window displays need a good shake up and they could train their staff better. M&S should strip from the store all the clothes that nobody buys; and try to give their customers a great experience to make them want to return.

I think they do some lovely women’s clothes. They don’t always hit the mark (excuse the pun) but Dress Like A Mum on instagram has a partnership with them and she often shows off some gorgeous bits. I’ve made several purchases off the back of her posts.

I love their baby stuff for DD too!

Why didn’t you just return the clothes to a M&S shop? Surely you must be near a M&S within 30 days?