New style M&S cafe

[Triflingjelly]

AIBU to not like the new style M&S cafe where you order at screens like McDs and then sit and wait for hard working waiting staff to bring your food. Stressful for customer and #runaround for staff. It all feels very impersonal. Bring back self-service. Is it just me?

It's like the Middle East, there's no solution. I've written here before about the rage inducing hell that is the Portrait Gallery cafe here in Edinburgh, where you push your tray along and get served as you go, with hot drinks being made at the end. This service model needs high numbers of staff, nobody to leave their positions, and everybody doing a specific task.

In reality, Sheena's on her break, Morag's on salads but she's just popped in the back to get more cheese, and Henry's on hot drinks but he's sick today so Janet's giving it a go. And nobody's getting anything until the five stage lattes are fully ready.

I mean it's fine if you've got all day and a high faff threshold but to most people it is the absolute pits.

In all honesty I'd rather touch a screen.

@LittleBearPad so why do you think people who are not able to pay for something with cash should not mind?
Or do you think everyone should manage their money the way you do?

@MorrisZapp it is very easy to have touch screens and someone who takes orders.
In most independent cafes a person takes orders, and then someone delivers it to your table. They do not try to create the order while you queue.

I’m not really sure what your first paragraph means?

I very likely wouldn’t have cash on me so literally wouldn’t be able to pay for anything. Presumably people who prefer to pay cash do have basic cash cards if not debit and credit cards?

I’m interested in why no cash in an M&S cafe is an issue. Do you also pay for clothes there with cash?

@LittleBearPad You make big assumptions. Cash cards can often not be used to make purchases in store. This is all you get with a basic bank account.
So some people can only use cash in places like cafes. You are saying they do not matter.

I don't understand how the food in M&S food halls is good but the M&S cafe I was in the other day had not very appealing choices.

It’s unusual for cards to be used solely to withdraw cash these days - even children have chip and pin cards. Basic bank accounts often mean you can’t get an overdraft. Not you can’t get a chip and pin card with which to pay for things.

A lot of people don't like to use their debit card to pay for things, I never use mine as I have several credit cards, paid off in full each month. I would never use my bank card to pay for anything online or when out. Some people can't get credit cards and are stuck with just the one debit card. If your bank card gets hacked because of a rogue QR code or chip and pin machine it can cause much more problems than a credit card getting hacked.

YANBU I will no longer go there now.

But some people prefer to use cash, perhaps it’s how they manage to budget better eg. Why wouldn’t you buy clothes with cash??

If I didn't have a credit card I would use cash, I would never use a debit card in somewhere like a cafe

Because I never use cash unless absolutely necessary which is rare these days (and I would probably have to go to a cash machine to get it). I use my credit card for everything as I get cash back. I wouldn’t want to carry around the probable amount of cash I’d need to go clothes shopping. It seems vastly less safe and convenient to me.

Why? That just seems bizarre?

If your debit card gets hacked which it could be as people are not that careful it can cause immense problems, a credit card you can just forget it and let the bank sort it out and carry on as normal and use another one. Some people have only the one bank account which leaves them very vulnerable if they should use a fake QR code. There were warnings about these fake codes recently.

I see that you use a credit card like myself @LittleBearPad , I also get points or cashback on all of mine and the added security it brings.

Fair enough, that makes lots of sense. I use my credit card for everything and can’t actually remember the last thing I my debit card for

Yet again a company that only exists because it has customers not giving a damn what the customers want but making changes that suit them only. I feel more and more that clients are a nuisance to many businesses and that shareholders are who they work for and yet without us they would not exist.

We can vote with our feet and bring our custom elsewhere.

Having said that M&S must be doing something right as their profits have increased.

I prefer it, our cafe is always full to bursting.

Our M & S doesn't have the screens yet. I look forward to them being introduced.

My adult son's a wheelchair user. Makes no difference to him he has to ask for help however he orders.

If he goes to the counter, the expectation is the customer carries their own drink to the their table and he can't do that as he needs both hands to control his wheelchair.

I tweeted M&S about this after a visit - it's next to pets at home so while the dogs goes for a groom I go to the cafe with my mum.

I also left a review on trip adviser.

It's totally soulless.

My mum would never use them and she only pays cash.

I won't be going back. There's a garden centre nearby so we'll go there next time.

I'm in favour of choice.

If I want a cheeky cake with my coffee I don't want any evidence of it either!

I wish it was that way in more cafes. I queued for 20 minutes to get a pot of tea in a London cafe yesterday. Never go to St Martin’s Crypt if you haven’t got at least an hour to spare.

Ooh, that sounds marvelous to me. Our one you have to order most food at the till anyway, and its only sandwiches and cakes that are self-service, so the 'hard working waiting staff' have always brought over our food etc once its ready. I much prefer the idea of ordering at a screen rather than waiting in a queue while the only person on the till is trying to make drinks as well as take orders/payment - will have to pop over and see if ours is doing that already!

It’s unfair if it makes things harder for disabled people. And also - why no cash? You can pay cash at supermarket self-service so it’s not beyond the realms of possibility, surely?

But I can see why something needed to change. The cafe service model in this country is absolutely awful, with M&S leasing the way in terms of queues, faff and general incompetence.

As a related issue, I can never quite understand why people get so worked up about people securing a table while their companion gets the food/drink. It’s the only sensible way to proceed! It’s not as if everyone would be guaranteed a table if people didn’t do this; there’s still every chance you’d get a tray of food and every table would be full 🤷‍♀️