Marks and Spencer's

[Daisy03]

I don't want to get into the whole debate of whether lockdown is right or wrong!

But aren't M&S taking the piss and bending the rules by keeping stores fully open.
I understand yes the food hall, but most of these are in separate rooms or floors and could be easily split off.
I understand they're struggling but to me it's a bit of a kick in the teeth to those smaller and independent shops that are also struggling but following the rules. What's to stop some of them selling something essential so they can open, and then why bother closing any retail or claiming to be in lockdown at all?

Are m&s open? Great! Think of all the jobs that’s keeping going.

Is it so the staff can restock the shelves safely while there's no customers in the store?

Oh yes, that makes sense

Where is the call for shops to stop selling alcohol?

There would be anarchy and the government know this.

I was reading a post about a flower stall being forced to close yesterday. At the same time he was being told to pack up, people were coming out of M&S almost opposite, with flowers they'd bought there. Sums it all up for me. Big business rules, who cares about small businesses and self-employed? This Christmas will be £££ for Amazon, and big stores. I wonder if independents and small businesses will be missed from High Streets when they're gone? Probably not.

Hotel Chocolat have remained open. M&S is definitely essential in comparison.

@DeeCeeCherry

I was reading a post about a flower stall being forced to close yesterday. At the same time he was being told to pack up, people were coming out of M&S almost opposite, with flowers they'd bought there. Sums it all up for me. Big business rules, who cares about small businesses and self-employed? This Christmas will be £££ for Amazon, and big stores. I wonder if independents and small businesses will be missed from High Streets when they're gone? Probably not.

That's the perfect illustration of what some of us are talking about. While the stall owner might simply lose the stall if this goes on, multi department stores will make a killing.

Lots of our independents went online including veg stalls during first lockdoen. They try hard, but many of them can't go online. We have lots of unique ones who make and sell stuff you can't find on amazon (for everything else I shop there) and it would be sad to see them go.

Yes, but virtue signaling over shopping is so much easier.

That's the perfect illustration of what some of us are talking about. While the stall owner might simply lose the stall if this goes on, multi department stores will make a killing.

That’s an argument for having everything open though, not everything closed.

@ancientgran, that is my worry too. We maxed DH's card out with postal vouchers so I can take them to the shop with his card. I will then convert mine in-store if needed.

I don't want £100 of alcohol! 😂

When I found a news article it seemed to suggest that aisles don't get cordoned off, if they're just within the store. If they're in a totally separate area, like a mezzanine, then Tesco has been doing that. Sainsbury's is being a bit bloody cagey though, which annoys me.

If it bothers you, don’t shop there. I think clothes are pretty essential, especially right now. Just two weeks ago it still felt like summer.

Here, have a

That’s an argument for having everything open though, not everything closed.

Could be for both. Depends how you swing it😁

Tbh i would open all. This isn't working. It could, bjt not when done half arsed way.
While I am seeing local businesses scared for their future, I am also seing people just going on with their lives, having meet ups with more households, small house parties etc. It's a pisstake. That's where infections are, not in a local little homeware and craft shop.

@DeeCeeCherry @SchrodingersImmigrant where’s your proof that the flower stall situation actually happened? As a random post could obviously be fictional. If that situation did happen, what did you want M&S to do with their surplus flowers instead? At the end of the day, lockdown only lasts a month. The independent businesses you speak of should be given some government assistance to help them during this month.

My local M and S has cordoned off the clothes bit.

Does it really fucking matter

I think clothes are essential too, but Autumn/Winter and a change of temperature comes around every year and people tend to have the appropriate clothing already. There was about 4 days between the announcement on lockdown and it happening that meant the majority could get to buy essential clothing.

But if you can't go 4 weeks without buying an emergency bra or the children have a massive growth spurt during that time, there's a few shops open you could quickly go to.

I've got past caring.
I'm still having to see people, often from multiple homes, often 'unable or unwilling ' to wear masks, so that's 3 of us from 3 random households, yet I can't see my own child in my own garden.
Dh has lost his job Due to lockdown. People can still buy alcohol. Kids swarming around the streets together.
The NHS should have enough funding to cope, there is enough collected in taxes and NI contributions it's just now coming to light through this pandemic that the money has been squandered by the conservatives elsewhere.y
Quite frankly I'd my local M& S want to sell knickers and tights then go for it.

alcohol is a grocery.it falls under food and dri7k

I think shutting bars, restaurants, cafes, clubs, gyms etc probably fair enough from an infection control standpoint. Shutting shops that sell things people need (and which, round here at least, were operating very responsibly with well controlled queues, hand san, one way systems, screens etc) seems unnecessary from an infection control perspective and will drive shoppers online, particularly to Amazon, and could cause a shopping frenzy from 2/12 onwards AND will bugger the economy. I'm very pleased M&S is open. I haven't been but even the thought that i could is reassuring during a very unsettling time.

It's ridiculous to say they can open part of the store. There aren't that many people in most of the time anyway.

Alcohol is not essential.
They is the problem.
Tickets unable to do without alcohol,bro thousands lose their jobs.
I still have to work.
Either do a full lock down whereby nobody leaves their fucking house unless they're dying. Or don't.
Because what happening is untold damage controlled lives and for what?

Again for the hard of thinking. The NHS should be able to cope without the country going into lockdown. This government and their predecessors
have squandered the money.
After having my weeks holiday totally ruined myself and dh went to the shops yesterday. I bought all four adult dcs their stocking presents, the shop was packed.
I've got past caring. Nobody cares about me or my family, the least I can do is try and make Christmas as good as it can be.
I also had to buy tights for work.
I need more knickers too to get my fat, covid induced weighty arse into.
If M & S want to sell them then I will ship there.

Why do you feel alcohol isn’t essential but buying stocking fillers is?

I was shamed during the first lockdown for going into Asda’s clothes sections to buy some clothes for DS2 who had outgrown all his 6-9 months clothes and desperately needed grows, t-shirts and trousers.

I also had to do a load of last minute shopping to get trousers and skirts for a new job that was to begin during the first week of the second lockdown (all my old work clothes no longer fit post babies). I wouldn’t have received them in time if I had ordered online and couldn’t afford premium next day delivery.

Personally I feel clothes should be classed as essential. But I understand some people would take the piss and buy clothes just for the sake of it or the thrill of buying something new. Maybe as a compromise, super markets selling clothes should be allowed to continue selling them?

I dread something like the kettle or toaster breaking!

Like I said I’ve got past caring about the general public.
Our life has been ruined. Both dh and ds lost their jobs due to lockdown. I have to see people at work and quite frankly if I have to endanger myself there, then give me one good reason why I shouldn’t try and make life better for my son.
The reality is you can’t. You can’t make me feel better. Would it make you feel better if I spent my annual leave day indoors contemplating ending it all?