M&S have failed with their veggie Christmas food this year?

[MandSLetDown]

Nut roasts etc arrive in store only a few days before Christmas and sell out almost instantaneously. The very lovely store assistant said they could have sold at least 20 times the number they had in and she’s spoken to a lot of disappointed people.

Slim pickings for the rest of the its in the plant based Christmas range - literally only one or two single items on the shelf.

This is a huge M&S. Rest of store decently stocked. Staff working their socks off btw so no complaints there.

Why of why do M&S do this to themselves. It’s the same with size 12 or 14 jeans - never any available. Or the most common sizes in footwear.

We were unable to find our favourite picky bits at M&S today… hugely disappointed in the offerings. YANBU

They never get enough in. Its every year. I don't even bother trying anymore.

It’s not just M and S, either. I went into Waitrose today to get some mince pies - you know, for Christmas - but they had sold out of the brown butter with cognac ones and won’t be having any more in. They must know how many they’re selling - it’s a bit rich that you can’t get them at Christmas, when that’s what they’re for.

I find this with every shop, they know something is popular, they know there will be great demand but they never order enough for everyone. My Tesco sold out of cooking oil, the manager told me it was Christmas 🙄🙄🙄

It's not only Marks. Aldi didn't start selling a lot of their veggie stuff till the 19th. I popped in on Friday and today and there was nothing in stock. I looked up vegetarian choices on Asdas website and it brought things up like stock cubes and olive oil!! It's been really poor this year across all the shops.

I found some other good things, but nothing for the main meal. I was amazed not to find at least a festive-looking nut roast.

M&S has also dropped the two vegetarian options from their Gastropub range: the veggie cottage pie and the butter bean cobbler. My two favourite ready meals ever, from any shop 😭. Come on M&S!

Yes, I have noticed similar. But I think M&S need to have a ruddy good think about their veggie and vegan offerings.

My local M&S used to have a very good Plant Kitchen section. Clearly defined with all the products in one place. Then they decided to do the unthinkable…they mixed the Plant Kitchen in with the non-veggie food. So the PK no chicken kievs next to the chicken kievs in the meat section and so on.

So instead of heading to one section and choosing everything that I need quickly, I am expected to wander around the shop, hunting out the PK range. I do not have the time, nor the energy nor the inclination for such tomfoolery.

I now order everything online via Ocado which means that I do not pick up extra bits like I would have done when physically in a shop.

Vegan options seem to fall into 2 camps: sells out before you have a chance to get it; or languishes in the reduced to clear section for weeks afterwards. I mean, I will attempt to get through as many Vegan Yule Logs Waitrose are willing to reduce to half price but I’m just one woman!

I make my own nut roast, but I've pretty much given up in hoping for nice veggie meals at this time of year. Which is annoying, because most of the time I cook from scratch, but by Boxing Day I've gone into a slump and just want to chuck something that's not fake meat into the oven. Especially as I have a vegan staying, who doesn't like that kind of thing either, so a giant glorified cheesy tart won't cut it.

I am so sad about my nut roast. The M&S one is so good, it’s about the only one that isn’t the texture of mush. It has beautiful whole nuts.

(Yes I know the world has gone to shit…yes I know Christmas is about peace on earth and goodwill to all men…(except M&S buying teams that is!!)

Weirdly I also noticed the exact same thing today on my nut roast mission…specifically the Kievs!!

On that basis I might boycott them - loved the cottage pie!!

I think it’s just lots of people don’t shop at M&S anymore.

The store was heaving at 8pm!!

Totally agree about m&s mad reshuffle! I can't work out what vegetarian wants to pick their sausages up in the meat section? It's been hugely annoying and disappointing for me!

My nearest M&S was absolutely rammed this morning. Went into Asda first to get some things from their ambient vegan range, and that was a walk in the park. Loads of parking spaces, no lines at the checkout, no scrums.
In M&S they were queuing to find the end of the queue.

Vegan Yule Logs you say. I did not know this.

Yes I agree though everywhere is busy busy in Christmas week. What I meant is lots of people haven’t been shopping there so perhaps they can’t swing huge Christmas orders. I think it’s a dying brand really.

Yes, very disappointed in M&S vegetarian selection. Went in to buy party food for Boxing Day buffet and there were almost no veggie options. Found better choice in Morrisons funnily enough!

I've always found M&S veggie stuff shocking, it's extortionate for what you get.

I have 2 ALDI mini nut roasts with melting camembert in the middle. Lovely and about 3 quid.

You can pre-order. I’ve got a m and s nut roast I’m picking up on Christmas Eve.

I found the vegan and vegetarian offering on Ocado (so M&S) to be really lacking this year.

M&S have ruined their vegetable masala by changing it from vegetarian to vegan. It was delicious, now it is watery slop.

I know you're looking for the ready made version, but since it's hard to find the BBC Good Food nut roast is really lovely, I make it a lot!

I don't know what the reason is, but it's a common problem that one offs of perishable goods cannot easily cater to huge quantities.

If they aren't frozen it's probably hugely expensive to manufacture enough of something they only need in large quantities once a year that will be good to eat on one day. So they will order as many as they can reasonably get places to produce at a price that they feel their customers are prepared to pay.

(Absolutely no idea what's going on with the jeans, though).