My Favourite High Street Shop - Gone! 🪦💔

[MoominMai]

We’ve had a Marks and Spark in our town centre for the last 96 years and this is the first weekend without it and I’m so very sad! It was a lovely large store on two floors with all the departments and a fantastic food hall.

What’s ultra annoying for me is that I get lots of my basics there from the Petite range which not all stores carry - or if they do they equate petite with slimness so all sizes feel too small sometimes!

It was just so convenient to order a few different items in different sizes - especially bras, collect them in store, try on and return any unwanted in the same day. Also lost the lovely cafe as well, which was the only place my elderly mom preferred to go for her weekly afternoon out cuppa.

Apparently M&S are I talks with the council to find suitable premises for the Food Hall though it’s anyone’s guess if that will happen.

More than my personal moans is just the greater sense of a huge loss to how things alway were and the fact that M&S for almost 100 years was just a reassuring presence almost - and yes I know quality has suffered and prices increased sometimes unjustifiably high - but it’s what it as an iconic British brand symbolised. Next had departed a few years prior to that and now the only biggest retail pull is probably Primark.

Feel free to let me know if I’m being unreasonable in being so affected!

Yes, ours went a few years ago, just as I was approaching middle age too 🤨
The nearest is on a retail park 10 miles away.
Still have M&S food store, but I'm not rich enough yet..

We've lost Beatties, a former House of Fraser department store and a place people travelled to from miles around

British Home Stores

River Island

Marks & Spencer

Body care and we're losing Claire's Accessories as well

Our local shopping centre and surrounding streets are very depressing

Wetherspoon's have got the old Co-Op building next to their pub, but nothing has happened to that yet

Our M&S went and the food hall is just out of town. Have to travel to the nearest city for clothes now!

It’s a sad tale across the UK. Our towns are just so sad and empty. A M&S should be a staple.

Sutton Coldfield?

Lol - at least my middle age needs have been partially met I guess 😅

Wolverhampton- so you see my concern - I love it but I know it’s already not got that much going for it 😅

I’d be interested to know why you think a change in demographic caused by an increase in immigrant hotels is related to the demise of your town’s M & S

Because these people can't afford M and S prices - it's pretty obvious isn't it ? A town's general wealth is indicated by the range of shops they have - shops like Poundland, B and M , Bargain Buys, Peacocks etc are found in certain socio economic areas. Compare these brands with a town with White Company, Albaray, JohnLewis, Barbour, Tiffany. What store is going to locate in an area where it won't make money?

shops like Poundland, B and M , Bargain Buys, Peacocks etc are found in certain socio economic areas.

We have all of those. We also have an M&S foodhall which is always busy. 🤷‍♀️

I didn't say there wasn't an overlap but there are patterns and trends.

Remember Beatties. We didn't have Beatties money when i was growing up, but occasionally mom would by some 'sharp' cheese. As an adult loved to browse.

Wolvo me too OP. Littlewoods went to be replaced by Primark. What next?

Yes! I worked at the nearby local job centre about 10 years ago so quite regularly I’d just spend my entire lunch break at the fabulous Beatties - got my steps in that’s for sure! And yes it was mainly always window shopping but a couple of times I picked a fancy top or too from the Jane Norman concession stand, a bag and scarf from Oasis and a beautiful bag by British company Nica. I just realised how crazy I can remember my in store purchases from over 10 years ago so well but online ones are forgotten as soon as that button is pressed and then half the time you wonder what on earth is in the parcel when it appears a few days later!

But for M & S to no longer be viable in that town suggests people could once afford to shop there, and now can’t. Surely that is much more likely to be due to people becoming poorer due to the cost of living and other economic factors than to immigrants. And that’s without even considering the fact that online shopping has made physical stores less profitable. Then there’s the increase in staffing costs due to employer contributions, then there’s Brexit, the pandemic, and on and on. To suggest immigration as the main cause that comes to mind when an M&S closes is not only inaccurate but makes immigrants an easy target, with all that entails.

There are roughly 32k in the whole of the UK in migrant hotels. If we look at the whole of West Miss, it’s under 9k. You’re blaming 0.3% of the Midlands population for your M&S closing….

We've still got marks. It has a food hall and a café, they seem busy if i pop in.

@Clafoutie unless the general population demographic has changed in a very large way - it’s not going to be the reason and M&S has shut/moved as you said . - the only place I’ve lived which I noticed a big difference was when we lived in Windsor - their was a much larger Asian community than when we lived there before ( we lived their twice , 2011 and 2022) and it was noticeable that their night time economy in my opinion went to pot - we lived ( rented a nice house) on a street that was full of well off Asian families ( think 4 or 5 mercs on the drive- big extended families ) and it was noticeable how no one ever seemed to go out at night -there was not a soul about ( apart from us occasionally) -it’s not a criticism as that may well be the cultural norm , but an observation and that certainly kills restaurants, bars, cafes, gigs etc

I don't want to name the specific place but it has been on a downward spiral. It used to have a good range of shops. Of course there are many factors which contribute to the demise of certain shops like all areas . It's suffered badly over the past couple of years but yes the increased population who do not contribute positively to the area is a part of it. Once a spiral starts it's difficult to reverse. The less attractions there are the less shoppers are attracted. The more unsavoury atmosphere which is reported in the press and crime stats depress the market further. There is no doubt that socio economic factors play a role.

If this is aimed at me - you don't know the place I am talking about and you don't know the numbers. It's not the main reason but it is part of life when an area is used as a dumping ground by the Gov.

Oh Ozarina, maybe you just live in a shit hole. Maybe that’s nothing to do with immigrants

If you read my posts properly I don't live there but it is nearby. It's a shame it has happened.

Same in Crawley. New Look is pretty much top end and I worry that is hanging on. It's so wierd as they built the mall in the 80s/90s and its just quite an abysmal place now. They did try and regenerate the main square and to an extent its nicer with some open coffee shops but it's rubbish.

This is just not the reason for the decline of town centres I don't think. Its online shopping with the likes of Asos etc., plus online shopping generally with more people buying online from M&S.

Plus an inability for wages to rise sufficiently - its not as simple as saying immigration caused that, we also did not adjust economic policy in favour of working people.

Shares in M&S had risen 300% after the pandemic before the cyber attack, they were smashing it, and probably a reason why they were targeted.

@MoominMai they’re talking of moving to food hall to the site of Banks’s brewery out on the ring road. Not sure many people using public transport would walk there.

I don’t go shopping in Wolves anymore. It has nothing for me. Which is such a shame. Same with many other cities and towns though unfortunately.