Has M&S food quality dropped?

[Thewiseoneincognito]

This is a weird one but I’ve started to notice over the last couple of months the taste and quality of Marks and Spencer’s food items has really lowered a lot. Has any one else?

I’ve had a few of their ready meals recently with huge chunks of chewy beef in that clearly hasn’t been cut properly, sounds ok but it just looks gross and is usually big boobs of fatty gristle. I found a large sharp piece of flint in a mushroom dish, a piece of blue plastic film in one of their soups. Their sandwiches seem to have stale bread despite being well before the end date. Usually I can let the odd thing slide and put it down to once in a blue moon but it seems to be a regular occurrence.

Before anyone says shop elsewhere, it’s my local food hall, the alternative is a tiny Tesco or Sainsbury’s, great if you need snacks or milk but not exactly the type of store to do a food shop.

M&S has always been a better standard of prepared food compared to others but now I’m doubting they’re any different than regular supermarket offerings. The range of foods seems to have been cut too like they’re no longer bothering to innovate, just churning out the same old but with lower quality control.

@Allabouttheangles

Yes absolutely, over the last year, shopping missions across the grocery sector have definitely changed. People have shopped less frequently and bought bigger baskets; less 'dinner for tonight' and 'top up' missions, more 'big full shops.'

The main shopping channels that have benefitted are online and big shops - across the sector. Co-op have also done well due to their locations, if people have run out of something, they have tended to stay local rather than travel to pick up what they need.

@Alma2021

Suppliers do change over time for all retailers, if a new range is being developed or an old range being delisted. There are a number of suppliers - big and smaller - who make ready meals for the various grocers. Tesco will have a few as not one supplier will have the capacity or capability to do all of their ready meals - the components across this category are quite disparate. Bakkavor is a big supplier that does loads of own label chilled ready meals across the grocers

10-15 years ago, picking up stuff from an M&S Food Hall used to be such a treat. It was expensive, yes, but it always tasted lush.

I’ve dropped my ocado delivery pass and now shop in either Waitrose or Lidl’s. (I reckon they balance each other out!)

I got a Persian recipe book for Christmas and thought that I’d be able to get a few ingredients from Ocado... like pomegranate molasses etc. They had nothing along those lines, at all. (Not even listed as ‘out of stock’)

So I went into my local Waitrose and picked what I needed off the shelves. If you choose your time, the shop is pretty quiet.

The only thing I buy from M&S now is their loose tea.

I find supermarket meat pretty disgusting now tbh. We only buy from the butchers, I appreciate we're lucky to be able to do so.

Could drop in food quality be anything to do with leaving the EU? I remember people mentioned it could be a repercussion.

Our M&S food Hall has remained pretty popular over the past year, not just with its typical elderly clientele spending £30 on mini meals, cake and trifle. There was a woman in front of me, a few weeks ago, who spent over £200 on meat, fruit and veg. My £80 half a week's shop looked paltry in comparison.

@Allabouttheangles

I wonder if M&S are seeing a drop in business as many of their customers are office workers heading home ime with something easy to Chuck in the oven, not a full shop. Now offices are closed and lots use Asda, Tesco etc for their full shop. Maybe this is why they’re having to change it up. I don’t think I’m contradicting *@Pipsquiggle* I just wonder if it’s one of the factors.

I think you are right About the office workers switching to doing bigger shops. The sandwich aisle in my MS has shrank to 1/3 of its usual size, the fridge shelves are now mainly canned cocktails.

BREXIT!

In home and out of home food consumption has dramatically changed due to the pandemic, there are 10s of millions extra meals happening at home that were in the office / out and about.

Brexit is affecting all retailers. I really don't think Brexit in isolation will affect M&S quality, might be a factor but I haven't been in any meetings where I work saying we have to change quality standards due to Brexit.

I would put my pension on that M&S are trying to change their price perception that they are too expensive to do an everyday shop.

A few things point to this:

*their recent 'Remarksable' price campaign.
*they appointed someone from Tesco to head up their food division - very commercial bloke.
*their tie up with Ocado which is all about a 'big shop.'
*I am pretty sure this was an inferred strategy in their latest shareholder report

@Pipsquiggle

In home and out of home food consumption has dramatically changed due to the pandemic, there are 10s of millions extra meals happening at home that were in the office / out and about.

Brexit is affecting all retailers. I really don't think Brexit in isolation will affect M&S quality, might be a factor but I haven't been in any meetings where I work saying we have to change quality standards due to Brexit.

I would put my pension on that M&S are trying to change their price perception that they are too expensive to do an everyday shop.

A few things point to this:

*their recent 'Remarksable' price campaign.
*they appointed someone from Tesco to head up their food division - very commercial bloke.
*their tie up with Ocado which is all about a 'big shop.'
*I am pretty sure this was an inferred strategy in their latest shareholder report

Some items are very competitively priced, their Tonic water is 60p and far better than the Schweppes ones at £1,50, their eggs are usually great at 90p for mixed sizes. Their stir fry meal deal is excellent value at £6. It’s the lack of other brands and price structure for items like cleaning products, washing powder etc.

So surely they need to improve their store size? They don’t have the space to house the range in order to encourage families to shop more frequently as a main big shop destination. Their most recent food hall concept is a very similar feel to Wholefoods, which we all know how expensive they are, it has a strong focus on sustainability (hmmm) and being able to select your own items, so their strategy has certainly changed direction since this was first signed off. Fabulous little multicolour tomatoes which are a fortune are not very cost effective for the average family.

I’m all for lower prices but if that comes at the cost of excellent products then they may enter tricky territory. My hunch was the quality was lowered slightly to not require price increases in certain ranges due to rising costs and loss of revenue from lowered footfall and loss of customers in busy town centre stores.

Yup. Brexit innit

If I was at M&S I would be looking at the empty retail units which may have become free due to the pandemic.

Yes their in store range of nonfood is shit hence the tie up with Ocado.

Retailers will always have loss leaders /deals - why do you think Tesco, Asda, JS and the discounters have insane baby offers / events? It's not from the kindness of their hearts, it's to get the rest of that family full shop basket

Worth dropping a line to Stuart Machin who is the director of food. Usually gets you a £10 off voucher. Also the more complaints he receives the harder they'll try to improve.

I did email Stuart Machin with a link to the thread no response

We should get a chicken petition going by the looks of this thread! Remove the gristle! M&S are in a tough spot. Food halls always had their place, they didn’t need to be another Tesco, Asda etc. They had the after work, weekend treat and older clientele. The older ones are stuck in the house, the city workers are at home, folk are having takeaway instead of a treat because they are stuck home all week cooking. I am generalising massively here but think they are certainly problems. Add to the fact until recently you tried to find M&S food online it would only give you food to order ie wedding cakes etc they missed the boat a bit.

Chris Packham has a petition on improving welfare of chickens

www.change.org/p/supermarkets-stop-selling-suffering/u/28803014

@Allabouttheangles

We should get a chicken petition going by the looks of this thread! Remove the gristle! M&S are in a tough spot. Food halls always had their place, they didn’t need to be another Tesco, Asda etc. They had the after work, weekend treat and older clientele. The older ones are stuck in the house, the city workers are at home, folk are having takeaway instead of a treat because they are stuck home all week cooking. I am generalising massively here but think they are certainly problems. Add to the fact until recently you tried to find M&S food online it would only give you food to order ie wedding cakes etc they missed the boat a bit.

In my city centre M&S it seems the elderly are still travelling in to buy their shopping. I think the biggest decline is the after work customers, yes the store is still busy but only in the sense of social distancing it’s nothing like how it used to be precovid. Loss of tourism will no doubt have had a big impact particularly for the lunch offerings.

I’d rather they scrapped lines completely instead of lowering quality though, you really do notice it when that’s all you’ve eaten for the last 10 years.

It's not just their food that's got worse. Don't get me started on M&S knickers...

@Thewiseoneincognito

You're conflating the change in customer shopping behaviour going from smaller, more frequent trips to bigger, less frequent trips across the market with M&S food quality standards going down.

The first point is certainly true backed up with data (look up Kantar press releases). The 2nd is probably true, based on your experience but sounds like it is M&S only and due to a different strategy of wanting to be at a keener price point and entice more shoppers to shop more frequently with them, preferably with bigger baskets

All the supermarkets including m&s use the same suppliers for the vast majority of their food. Waitrose being the only exception having its own farms. It will come off the production line and just be packaged differently. I suspect the decline in quality across the board is down to supply chain issues caused by brexit and covid.

It's not just their food that's got worse. Don't get me started on M&S knickers... oh yes... the teeny narrow gusset with a big baggy butt...

@Woodpecker22 DH has food supplier clients who supply all the major supermarkets. Recipe is often different, not just the packaging e.g. will have a higher % meat or be all butter.

Our Xmas pigs in blankets were shocking - they went to the local fox. Their roast potatoes are usually delicious and so easy. Cooked some up yesterday - none of us could eat them.

I thought the reason bog-standard £2 chicken breasts are stringy is because of factory farming - the birds are over fed so they grow at an unnatural rate so they can be killed young and it affects the meat quality. Free range and organic is so much more expensive because the birds are allowed to grow naturally and in better conditions. I think I saw this on one of the channel 4 food programmes.

M&S food halls are for treats - that’s the point of them. If they just end up the same as everywhere else, why bother?

@Mumsnut

M&S food halls are for treats - that’s the point of them. If they just end up the same as everywhere else, why bother?

This what I don’t get. If they don’t sell nice treats and luxuries why on earth would you ever go there? M&S don’t carry the full range of products that you need in a weekly shop and generally they’re in town centres or retail parks so not even convenient.

I go every week for fresh stuff, fruit,veg,dairy and have not noticed a decline in quality, but i do not purchase many convenience foods.

As for the lack of sandwiches/ lunch takeout options, of course demand will be at an all time low, so why would they produce vast amounts of product for little demand.