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!

Our small M&S is still there, apparently it makes money on the cafe. Our town is however still without a post office since WHSmith went. Plenty of betting shops though, priorities.

Yup Wolvo

Large manufacturing employers like Goodyear, all the steel works and other factories have closed down, the famous brewery is closing down, Homebase and other large retailers have closed down and our local council is on a mission to pedestrianise huge portions of the city centre, preventing passing trade

The money to sustain the shops simply isn't there any more and the city has become a hooch potch of doss houses, badly refurbished office blocks (NHS Office, local telephone exchange and the tax office are all now flats) and derelict and closed down shops

Even one of the three job centres has closed down

A large portion of Wolverhampton's population work elsewhere and it is quickly becoming a dormitory for the surrounding area

The people seen during the week are pensioners, the unemployed and the unemployable

My town lost it's M&S and BHS in quite quick succession. Probably about 10 years ago now. Both were lovely stores and a real benefit to the town. There was a less good Debenhams as well, but that's been gone a long time as well. Now there's really nowhere in the town centre to get good quality basics like bras and pants. The next nearest M&S is a 25 minute car ride away.

The site at Chapel Ash would be on the city's ring road and also at a key entrance into the city. It sits on the edge of a residential area, but still within walking distance of the city centre. It is close to a large Sainsbury's store and is opposite the new Smithgate development, which will bring new homes and flats to the city.

Thank you for that update @NotsosunnyShropshire . I just pasted the above from the local paper and the proposed site doesn’t actually sound to bad. It would be about a 40min walk for me personally or just mins by car. It’s also en route to the big Sainsbury’s I use regularly but still gutted the cafe, homeware and clothing won’t be there. It’ll just have a regular supermarket vibe I guess but still better than nowt I’m sure 🙃.

It doesn’t help the council owned central car park opposite the Mander Centre has increased its price from 0.60 to 1.00 and whereas previously after 5pm there was free parking, now it’s a 24/7 charge.

Luckily I live near the Tettenhall village green so in my own bubble where I can still experience some nice independent shops and a nice atmosphere but you’re absolutely right, the prognosis for Wolves as a whole doesn’t look particularly bright right now.

Oh that’s not good not having a single PO in the town centre 😐. Almost forgot about WHSmith - my first PT job after uni! That’s another store that was just so lovely to experience. I still remember going in with my mom as a young child to buy my first ever book - one of of Beatrix Potter. Also bought my dictionaries, GCSE revision books from there as well. Again I have all these wonderful memories because they were in store purchases but the new generation of small children won’t have this - because it’ll just be bought online for them by parents since they have no physical stores to take them to where they can marvel at the hundreds of books around them and perhaps inspire them a little especially if they’re not particularly enthused about reading.

There’s just so much more human benefit to having physical stores than perhaps we initially realise especially as without that ‘anchor’ store footfall from the likes of M&S etc then the surrounding cafes may suffer and then the availability of ‘third spaces’ will also diminish further increasing social isolation for some. It really is very sad but now it’s well and truly started I can’t see it can ever be reversed unfortunately.

Unfortunately they are so expensive we looked at mens pyjamas 38 pounds went to tg Hughes 18 pounds.

It is disappointing. Ours are all food too.

I’m lucky in that ours is still in town and has 4 floors. There used to be three cafes but now there’s one main cafe and then a ground floor one that sells mainly a smaller selection of items. It’s right next to the food hall and people buy sandwiches then think they can sit and eat at the tables, security is forever moving people on. We have a local football team and it’s where fans congregate on match days too. We have a couple of out of town branches for food, they have removed the cafe from one along with the toilets, which is a nuisance as it’s a tiny retail park with no public conveniences elsewhere and I have a bowel condition and can require use of toilet without notice urgently, so I no longer use that branch.

Waitrose is about 7 minutes drive from my house and I’d be genuinely gutted if it ever closed.

Everything great is gone.

Topshop Debenhams Jane Norman

all we have left are terrible fast fashion brands that fall apart and don’t fit properly

I think M&S paid the ransom demanded by the hackers and damaged the company.

Fierce competition and I think they’ve acted too hastily. Smaller stores make it look as if they’re just as busy as they used to be. IMO in the larger stores over 2or 3 floors they could have reduced floor area and let out upper floor to other businesses. Many of older stores were in prime locations and as in Liverpool you got off the bus and had a wander round M&S even when you didn’t need anything but generally did buy something!
Theyve lost all that random footfall as they moved into the old Debenhams store which went bust because it was not as accessible as the location which M&S had. I can’t be bothered going now for that reason.
Dept stores will come back soon as many people are fed up with the hassle of online buying, loss of orders, lying by these couriers, chasing up returns etc.

Unfortunately

After the latest round of closures l think M&S is well on its way out.

They have been struggling for years and their non food products are quite poor quality and very overpriced

it is a shame really.

I still mourn the loos of BHS C&A and Debenhams.

I think M&S will still keep the food business which they will then probably sell off into franchises.

Such is life

I'm was disappointed when they closed Bournemouth, but angry when they closed Poole as well leaving us with just one on a retail park miles away... For people like me with no transport its very disappointing, really miss all the department stores 😔

All these comments are making me want to time travel to the past! As an aside, I can recommend two fantastic period dramas set in department stores: The Paradise and Mr Selfridge. Will likely comfort watch them again as the colder nights start drawing in 🙃🙂.

You could live in my town! A Turkish barber on every corner, coffee and charity shops basically alternate down the high street. And now the council wants to build houses on the only free car park. Beginning of the end.

I wonder if a lot of out of town shopping centres are ripe to become housing? Probably of the build it high, sell it expensive, variety...

Agree. Lost store in our town centre about 5 years ago - now the whole town has gone down. Miss having somewhere to buy ‘treats’, different food, etc etc. there’s a food hall about 2 or 3 miles away at one of the retail park things but I don’t drive. Nearest proper store is about 12 miles away. Seems a bizarre thing to miss - but I miss it.

Not bizarre at all 💛. There’s a comforting reassurance about it especially when it’s been part of your childhood and much of adulthood. Even if you’re on a low income you can still enjoy window shopping and occasionally treat yourself to a fancy sandwich or dessert. It’s also lovely to look at all the food treats and gifts at Christmas. I’m lucky enough to be able to drive to the retail park based one’s but it’s just not the same and I likely won’t be going out my way unless I need a very specific item that only M&S has.

The football club moving out of the town, and the then development of the retail.park is what caused the downfall of that particular town centre. M&S were late on the moving out bandwagon

YANBU I would be sad if my local store closed. I’m starting to wonder how long it will last though as they’ve closed one floor already and the lifts and escalators are barely ever functioning 😏

What was the cyber attack?

AI Summary: Marks & Spencer (M&S) was hit by a significant ransomware cyber attack in April 2025, primarily targeting their online systems and affecting customer data, which led to the suspension of online orders and click-and-collect services. The attack was suspected to be the work of the DragonForceransomware group and involved social engineering through a third-party contractor, leading to a double extortion tactic where data was stolen and systems were encrypted. The incident cost M&S an estimated £300 million in lost profits, and while M&S has resumed most services, they advised customers to remain vigilant about potential phishing attempts.

https://www.braintreeandwithamtimes.co.uk/news/25511792.braintree-quadrant-starts-closing-sale-158-years/?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawNPsFZleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETBRQVBUaEI4QkJPNm15OEYwAR76EIN8YjL5_euK7s_pL6jfw85X0xN1YPM1cLaeuKdDrd-UiOI0KyLyO4y8Ig_aem_SZ9kBw1ZcUoBhh-6a_a0cg#Echobox=1759404639

It’s weird to think how much retail has changed since the 80s/90s in my city we had Debenhams, HOF, BHS, m&S, littelwoods and allders and all now defunct. It’s pretty much a shell of a city centre now and they were always packed.

That’s really sad OP. We lost our large Debenhams a few years ago which I was actually rather gutted about. BHS had already gone and our large Top shop. I wonder how John Lewis will fair?
I really miss the days of all the good high street clothes shops and department stores such as C&A and Woolworths 🥺