People browsing clothes at M&S

[sunshinehappy20]

Went into the food hall at M&S today, to enter you have to walk through the main shop to get to the back where the food hall is.

On my way through I was surprised to see people browsing the clothing rails and many people had their hands full of clothes/socks/scarfs etc which I presume they thought they could buy. I didn't notice if anyone was on the till but staff didn't seem to be challenging them at all, I did notice more than a handful of people in the main shop so it wasn't just one or two people being cheeky. Anyone else noticed this?

[quote PinkSparklyPussyCat]@Squiffany here's the tree. You get some cardboard pigs to hang on it but I decided less is more and I'm sticking to the lights only. You also get a packet of Percy Pigs![/quote]
Very cute. Although I did expect it was going to be pink tbh.

Kinda why I think the whole thing is pointless big

You either cram 1000 people into 3 large supermarkets or spread them out over multiple shops.. you are all gonna be in direct or indirect contact with the same people. You can pick up.a card or pen fhats been manhandled by 50 people in tesco or a card thats been manhandled by 5 people in your local shop...

I wonder how many people have shares in tesco and aldi compared to penny's pen parlour...

Seems while some shops go under there's plenty who will benefit.

I went to Asda and managed to but dh socks and DD vests this week. He does need socks after leaving it so late he's got holes in all of his and never told me. Getting much colder here so DD needs vests. Asda didn't seem bothered.

[quote bigchris]@Whatwouldscullydo i think the point is its unfair on independent stationery shops

I mean paperchase is closed , people are buying Xmas cards in smiths, tesco, m&s, online sales won't make up the fact they're losing money[/quote]
Correct. In my opinion all shops should be open.

Bars/restaurants is another argument but I do think ALL shops should be open.

it depends on what the government gas deemed essential or not. so if they are allowed they are not going to stop selling are they if people want to buy. here in Ireland everything has been closed for the past 5 weeks nearly unless it's deemed essential. you can't buy clothes in Tescos they are open but the clothes section are all taped off. so are the toys and other sections. same in dunnes. you can buy essential clothing only socks underwear pyjamas uniform. that's all.

Bars/restaurants is another argument but I do think ALL shops should be open

Bars and restaurants were pretty low down on the list of venues where infections were traced back to...

I think they have been treated appallingly with curfews etc I mean I think its better they are closed and furloughed than allowed to open and lose money because apparently a virus goes home at 10pm.

Bit it's still bollocks

I agree all shops should be open. I can buy the argument that you could pick up the virus sitting in a pub but surely not walking through a spacious shop or a small shop which carefully manages the number of people.

I did this during the first lockdown. At first the clothes were blocked off. Apart from. Some basics. After that the whole ground floor was open. It was wonderful to do something that felt normal.

I rang a local independent shop yesterday who told me the Council were going shop to shop checking they were complying with COVID measures ie selling only click and collect. Not only that in the nearest larger town, there were police vans out checking.

The owner said whilst they accepted they were non-essential, B and M were very busy with shoppers buying christmas decs etc when they were not allowed to sell theirs. Such strange times.

This just proves how mad the rules of this lockdown really are ... absolutely crazy

I also bought clothes and shoes there during the first lockdown. I totally agree that smaller shops should be allowed to open too. I bought helium balloons from WH Smith on Tuesday. Meanwhile our local Party Shop is going under...

Why is this a surprise? People need clothes

Thanks for letting us know, I may get my food bits from there tomorrow as I'd like to look at the clothes too. Last time our local m and s had the clothes section shut.

I drove through my local town today and it was heaving. Traffic was awful and everywhere was v v busy.

Certainty doesn't feel like a lockdown.

Before any judgey arseholes comment, I was driving for work.

@Dannn

This is nothing like lockdown and the fact that there are 500+ deaths every day with no signs of this decreasing confirms it.

341 deaths on Friday and a 0.6% decrease on the previous week's total deaths. Also, case numbers are down 14% on the previous week.

Meanwhile in the US, deaths and case numbers all up 65% +

It might not be the sort of big bells and whistles, batten down the hatches lockdown that some people seem to want, but it is working.

If you don’t like it walk on by.

If the shop sells food and clothes are on the same floor then I believe you are allowed to buy.

In the m&s in my town they gave brought the Christmas pjs down to the bottom floor as that's where the food court is. I heard that as long as the clothes are on the same floor as the food then they can be sold.

In my local marks you can buy everything that you can get to .. otherwise they would section it off! You can't pay at either food or other tills .

If anyone wants to know the actual M&S clothing rules...

If it's all on one floor it can all stay open.

Stores where there's more then one floor - only the floor which has the Food Hall will be open. They have rearranged the stores so there's a selection of everything section, kids, men's and women's.

If the Food Hall is on a floor which doesn't have its own access a route will be made through the other floors but you won't be able to roam free.

How dare they try their best to keep a precarious business afloat!

Interesting at the garden centre today they’d taped off the bedding section.
Although I’d rather sleep in soft bedding just not bedding plants

My local Tesco has closed non essential parts of the shop, it’s very unfair other stores haven’t done the same

Theyre allowed to buy them. Theyre not doing anything wrong.

If you feel the situation is wrong, its not the fault of the people buying the clothes- its either the clothes shop or the people who allowed it to happen.