M & S Dine In For Two. BAD Decision.

[timetodothis]

to think that M & S have made a huge mistake in stopping their Dine in for Two Deal.
In my local shop, the area where they usually have this deal was virtually empty. Normally you have to fight your way to the front! I think customers are voting their disgust with their purses.

I think it's a bad decision to scrap it altoghether. I didn't mind when they hiked it to £12, because it was still worth it for the wine.
Now they have some wanky deal where you pick and choose and the same equivalent items would come to £16.

The whole idea before, was that the customer didn't have to think about things. You grabbed your main, side, desert and vino. Job done.
Most customers picked up other items while they were in there, so they still made money. it was a lost leader of sorts.

If it aint broke don't fix it.

I wonder if this is because, in Scotland, it's illegal to include alcohol in deals. Maybe they have scrapped the whole thing.

Wait- they’ve scrapped it?! When?! Ah I bloody loved this!!!!!

I thought it was just paused to make room for Christmas food?

Noticed the tinkering but didn’t realise it’s go altogether.

Oh WHIT?

I hadn't appreciated they'd stopped it altogether! Gutted

It's only stopping till next month, it hasn't been scrapped.

The Asda one is still going I do not know if Tesco do one.

Tesco do one for a tenner I think

Makes sense just to pause it over Christmas so I hope that's the case. Always works well for Valentine's Day, New Year's Eve etc.

How do you know what money they made from it?

Many people pay by card, so M&S can track not only what’s purchased with the meal deal, but also how frequently they shop.

They could well have data that tells them:

• not enough people add extras
• not enough first time tryers are converted to returning and buying other goods

Loss leaders are a thing, but they don’t all work and they’re not always the right strategy for all supermarkets.

Maybe their research has shown that it’s devaluing their brand, and far from encouraging people to pay their generally high prices, it’s making people resent the higher prices?

Many price sensitive promotions decline in effectiveness over time. We all know brands that we never pay full price for because they’re on offer so frequently. Personally, I see Kingsmill muffins as hideously overpriced because Co-op has BOGOF about 6x a year on them.

Could be M&S are temporarily halting it because the fizz has gone out of it for the consumer.

I get that YOU want it, and why! But I don’t think you can say that they were making money overall. They have the data to know if they were making money short term, and if it would make money long term. I’m guessing not!

It's not always on every weekend though, it often pauses for big events.

I don't think they could keep it within the given price, any more, to be honest. The options have become more limited and the wine had slipped right down the scale from when the deals started, until they tinkered with the deal price and made it £12. I increasingly found it not worth bothering unless they had some nice coffee and a really nice main in the offer.

The Chinese meal deal has become much worse, this year, too. Apart from the beef in black bean, all the saucy, rather than battered and fried or noodle based, mains come as a single portion with rice, which makes the fried rice as a side pretty pointless. It ends up being a stodgefest.

It's only a tasteless ready meal at the end of the day. Worth paying a bit more for proper food

It's only a tasteless ready meal at the end of the day. Worth paying a bit more for proper food
Sometimes there was bland stuff such as lasagne or other pasta type dishes, but every so often, the deal would include things such as ham hocks or duck legs. or steak.

Those were definitely not tasteless.

It's starting again at the beginning of December.

They always had the alcohol with the deal in Scotland so don't be blaming it on us! no idea why its stopped but fingers crossed its temporary.

I hope it's temporary, but I don't think they will bring it back.

So sad to hear this. The chicken, new potatoes, apple pie and a bottle of red was a great for the four of us. I always thought they used it as a loss leader.

It did need a big rethink. I first started buying it as a Friday treat when DS1 was a baby and he's off to Uni next year?!

They tried to keep it at £10 for too long and the portions and quality/range decreased too much. Also if, like me, most of the people clearing those shelves were buying nothing else, it must have become too costly for them.

I think they've brought in a family meal deal instead - feed four for a tenner or something?

Choice of mains, side, dessert - no wine, sadly in case you get the toddlers tipsy.

I will be happy if it comes back. As long as they have steak back on the menu.

There is a taste of Asia deal in our local one, 2 mains and 2 sides for a tenner. We fed both of us and 5yo DD on Saturday, and we bought a dessert for after. Less than 15 quid. We wouldn't do it every weekend but it was a fair amount for the money.

Go to Lidl or Aldi and get decent wine for cheap to go with your M&S food

Go to Aldi. You can get three little pigs in blankets there

I had a £10 one from Tesco last week and it was really good so I don't feel I'm missing out on the m&s one.

The wine in the dine in deal has been fairly rubbish for the last few years. We did used to get it fairly regularly and it felt good value, but the choices seem to become cheaper options, and we haven’t had it in a while. We find their Indian meal deals fairly good value if you pick carefully (they often have stuff on the shelf that isn’t included to try and trick you into spending more!).