To think the M&S cyber attack has shown up how awful the shops are?

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I have a wish list full of things I can’t buy online so have taken trips to the two M&S’s closest to me to try and buy in person instead. The selection of clothing and homeware was awful.

I’m occasionally a size 8 in M&S trousers but neither shop stocked an 8 in any trousers. Nothing seemed to have a full selection of sizes with only 5/6 of each item.

The homeware bits weren’t available or were only available on the wrong sizes (e.g. every size sheets but double in the style I wanted).

Not a single navy cardigan in either shop.

If only I needed towels - the only thing they seemed to have in abundance!

Well if they’ve only got 2 x 14s of each piece of clothing in a humungous out of town store that is nuts and speaks volumes re priorities.

They are.

I visited their huge and excellent store in Meadowhall last week and was told this by a member of staff.

I do feel sorry for M&S but their stock was crap before this, as with much of the high street.

You can't complain about shops not being chock full of every size when all I read on here is that no one actually goes to them anymore

Someine above mentioned buying loads of stuff online knowing most of it will be sent back

I agree with you as I never buy clothes online buy clothes online but I dont blame the shops

Someone said - The huge impact this is having on soany people is dreadful, I dont imagine they can comprehend it

As if it was a group of naughty teens so my point about ransoms was that it was deliberate and malicious - not a prank which they innocently did for fun. And a cost that will be passed on to us their customers.

I feel for the staff their systems are down they are having to write in a book when they clock in and out plus keep track just in case payroll messes up stocktaking is done on paper teams went down early on so they couldn't get messages to and from there immediate supervisors all the little shortcuts technology has given us to make work go faster gone they arnt getting longer to do the job but the job is taking longer to do then they have to deal with the general public who are not nice at the best of times

The cyber incident has impacted stock levels and re-stocking. They use sales data to inform production, logistics, etc. Large parts of their computer system were affected which means it's going to take time to unravel and resolve the issues. They also stock a lot more items they can ever have physical shop space for, including from other retailers. Computer systems make this possible.

Thirty odd years I worked for a high street retailer that upgraded its tills which meant we got rid of the huge stockroom in the cellar because deliveries were made JIT to go straight onto the shop floor to sell. Based on the sales data from the new till system.

You misunderstand how modern logistics and stock systems work. They can restock current items next day or even same day depending how close the store is to the warehouse. They can carry more items because they are not using the shop floor as a stockroom. If they don't have your size you can order for next day collection or delivery to you. Free returns if it doesn't fit or you change your mind. Times and systems have changed. The cyber attack has exposed a vulnerability, but the criminals picked an extremely successful, wealthy retailer to target because they wanted to hold them to ransom.

I don’t feel sorry for them. I feel aggrieved that they have not taken enough steps to ringfence their security and protect my data as a customer.

I have found the same problem regarding cooked chicken, it’s been hard to get hold of in my large M&S since early March. I have asked about it several times and never get a clear answer.

No thanks I don’t want that hassle. What a poor use of resources and so bad for the environment!I want to try things on in the shop and shop at shops with bigger numbers of popular sizes. Other stores mange it. I’m not going to return, wait for delivery or do click and collect. I work full time! I’m staggered M&S do that,there is clearly no point shopping in their stores.

I think it's been awful since way before the cyber attack. I repeatedly try and visit shops (local and chain) before I shop online in an attempt to support the high street. Kids school shoes, swimwear for me, maternity wear, even staples like toothpaste etc. Mostly come back empty handed either due to availability or cost, and end up ordering things online anyway. Am reaching the stage where I don't try so hard anymore as I'm fed up with not finding what I need or it being vastly more expensive. I want to support the physical shops but recently found suncream in a local store for £14 when on a certain massive online shop it was £10 for 2! I appreciate little shops can't compete with the economies of scale but equally I can't afford to pay 3x as much for stuff like suncream which feels like a need rather than a want.

The thing is, lots of clothes retailers are impacted by the move to shopping online but some still manage to have reasonable stock and size ranges.

Our nearest M&S is one of the biggest in the country but we still rarely found basics like school uniform or gym kit or shoes in a range of sizes. All before the cyber incident.

Equivalent sized H&M, Zara, Mango have all been much better. M&S have been slow to adapt. Slow to see how clothes shopping habits have changed. Slow to respond to feedback. They haven’t even worked out that if basics like underwear are selling steadily don’t just randomly changes the sizing!

This - nail on the head. Back in the 80s and 90s, the "big" chains took over the High Street and forced lots of smaller independent shops to close. Now the chickens are coming home to roost as it's the big chains who are struggling due to online shopping that some are really struggling to adapt to cope with.

I agree with the OP. Shops in general have woeful in-store stock. I'm a size 8/10, regular length trousers. I like M & S jeans - can I ever bloody find size 8 regular! Other shops are just as bad. They have been since Covid so it's not just the cyber attack.

Unfortunately for you, very many customers prefer to spend their time differently than driving yo and walking around shops which may or may not have their size in stock.

I'm currently in a large M&S - they've got loads of stock. It's busy with customers. Once I've been to the food hall it'll be clear whether things are getting back to normal.

I queried this on their Facebook page and got a very unclear answer just a load of waffle. In a different store yesterday and it was the same.
Drumsticks and wings. If they can do these what about the thighs and breasts. Where are they going if they are roasting whole chickens and portioning them at least I assumed that is what they were doing

I don't feel sorry for M&S.

The attack was due to shit IT. The contractor they used was one DH has come across before and they have a reputation for being utterly useless.

On company he knows who used them specified a number of IT staff they wanted. But didn't give any criteria for standards of this staff. So they hired anyone they could find in India even if they couldn't code a thing to meet the numbers in the contract.

He's unsurprised this contractor has been involved.

There's a lot of companies that are doing similar and not hiring good quality IT staff or contractors cos they are trying to cut costs and then they wonder why it goes horribly wrong.

M&S probably can reclaim at least some money from the contractor.

Yep I don’t. I will shop online however there are times when I do need something quick or go into town. Then I just pick the shops that have stock which M&S clearly isn’t and has been clarified. Their loss!

There are so many companies that do this( use cheap Indian labour UK staff have to unpick bugs from and sort out the huge amount of issues that come with it), even financial services and the NHS. It’s a massive issue waiting to happen. Why oh why don’t we as a country give incentives to companies to use UK staff. We have so many young people who would excel at coding.

^ interesting

Yup. I've had a few dozen IT consultant type of clients over the past 25 years and the common theme from them has been gross incompetence of a handful of large IT contracting firms who employ, literally anyone, who can turn on a computer, just to tick boxes and make up the numbers, with a tiny number of genuinely capable IT experts actually trying to do the work and constantly fire-fighting and trying to get the best (or anything actually) out of the staff they're given to work with. The most able clients I've had simply refused to work for these big consultancies as they don't want to be involved with them, and tend to work for smaller firms or directly with the clients.

I've also had "bums on seats" contractor clients working for these big firms who, from talking to them and working with them, are clearly incapable of anything more than the most basic of IT work - people earning several hundred pounds per day, but barely literate and numerate, because the firms involved had to supply "x" number of contractors and don't seem bothered whether they can do the job or not.

I've not been surprised in the slightest when "big" IT contracts like the failed NHS contract go pear shaped as the companies who get these contracts are the ones who employ "bums on seats" rather than competent and capable IT specialists.

The difference in salaries is why. The India employees are astoundingly cheaper. It's no wonder companies do it if they think they can get away with it.

Pray tell.. which contractor?