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.

I work in one of the mentioned higher end supermarkets as a temp for Christmas and it’s insane the amount of food consumed, it’s a misdsize small town branch.

I spent two hours filling up the plant section Saturday night after hours, I put out over 50 plant sausage in bacon packs for example, by the time the online shoppers had swept up over 34.000 online items ready for the drivers the shelves were almost empty again and not enough staff and stock to refill before the shop opened again.

There was physically not enough room to put more stock out before the pickers swooped.

limited cages are allowed out to restock during the day for safety reasons because the store is too busy.

Night shift is an eye opener for the shear number of products consumed by one supermarket in one town, the amount of meat products eaten I think would make many meat eaters think about where it comes from.

During the night the lorry deliveries are constant. It’s insane really.

Make your own? Home made nut roast is really easy -especially if you have a chopping device eg a magimix. It chopped everything up in seconds

This was the silliest move from M&S.
I don't eat meet so I won't peruse the meat shelves looking for vegan products.Apparently they think many of their customers are flexitarian so may decide I won't have real bacon today but I'll take a plant based alternative.

Maybe you can try Ocado? Or one of the M&S in garages near you on deliveroo / uber eats. There’s also M&S stores in WHSmith, train stations etc - so if you were really desperate there might be an alternative M&S that has it in stock.

Personally I never struggle with finding vegetarian or vegan food at the M&S stores near me, but most people I know that live nearby seem to be meat eaters. In fact, quite often the veggie food is the only stuff left.

M&S used to be great for veggies, but they have discontinued most of the range, and as PP have noted Plant Kitchen isn't a standalone section anymore.

The only veggie ready meals I find in my local are pasta, it's pathetic. Even the stir-fry range you cook yourself doesn't have the veggie pieces anymore.

They sell more that way. Meat eaters buy more vegan food than vegans do 🤷

BBC Good Food have a very tasty nut roast recipe: Nut roast recipe | Good Food

It's pretty easy too, just lots of fine chopping!

This one is very easy, I often don't bother with the cabbage wrap www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/dec/15/how-cook-perfect-nut-roast?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

I might be missing something, but isn’t the main idea of M&S Christmas food that you order it in advance then they pretty much guarantee to have it? That’s what we’ve done for the last few years when we’ve used them. We’ve had some lovely veggie/ vegan stuff. This year I ordered in October!!

I’d never risk walking in and picking up- our local M&S was a complete bunfight yesterday and I expect worse today. If you do do a walk in I’d be there as soon as the store opens.

Not vegan but Tesco sold out of their icing topped gluten free mince pies in early December and they are the only mince pies i like. A little bit sad, I couldn't buy them early because they don't have very long dates.

Did my vegetarian Christmas shopping in M&S on the 19th, everything dated 25th or 26th. Got everything I needed. Got a vegetarian Wellington and a faux turkey as well as all the vegetables, gravy etc.

Yes, it’s so annoying that Plant Kitchen aren’t together now. And they changed the Kievs, they’re not nearly as nice now!

Kyiv

It will be something going wrong in the supply department.

Until recently I worked for a supermarket. One year the Advent Calendars didn't arrive until the second of December and none of us has quite recovered from the year when the turkeys didn't come in until the week before Christmas - when everyone had, quite sensibly, bought theirs elsewhere. We had turkeys going reduced on Christmas Eve and nobody had any freezer space left to store them - it was ridiculous!

We have a very big food hall by us. You couldn’t get near the Xmas picky bits and the shelves were empty. If I had known I wouldn’t have bothered!

This year’s procurement would have been impacted by the cyber attack as well. It was back in April, but even the internal messaging then was to “not drop the ball on Christmas” - difficult for buyers to liaise with suppliers when they’re working off of paper!

Tesco online this year were advertising about 14 veggies/vegan products in their ‘made to order’ section - the trouble was, only about 2 or 3 were actually available - the others were showing ‘unavailable’. Some more did come available later on, but literally only a day or so before the deadline (14th). It was ridiculous.

We shop at ocado weekly and the delivery man on Sunday said he had 4 shops for people that were over 100kg! Who needs so much food thats bonkers. Mine comes 10pm on Christmas Eve and I ordered it last night. Got everything except Christmas crackers

Yes. I got the bloody thing as a sub for a real chocolate log. Was not happy. I am therefore chocolate log less.

Nut roasts are relatively easy to make yourself tbh, I’ve done it lots over the years- particularly back in the day when veggie meat alternatives were disgusting.

I got a no turkey crown from Tesco this year and some meat free pigs in blankets too. Receipt just came through and nothing unavailable so I’m chuffed!

This is so annoying! I did the same- looked in one place for the Plant Kitchen stuff. Now I have to wander around the shop.

The Veggie options have been so annoying this year. I went round early to try and get them as mostly they are frozen so I thought Id chuck them in the freezer, but they weren't out. So I didn't bother. I went to Lidl and there were loads of veggie stuff but hardly any turkeys!

They had a police van and a one in one out policy at our store yesterday.

Their vegan / vegetarian range thats available on Ocado looks pretty comprehensive to me, but not as much as at Waitrose. I agree with a PP that to guarantee what you want at this time of year you have to be organised and buy early from Ocado.

I’ve just returned from my local huge M&S food hall which was very busy 40 minutes after opening at 8 and I got everything I needed. There were plenty of nut roasts - there was plenty of everything - and yes there was a standalone PK section. The staff were doing great restocking with not much space to do so.

I made a bloody delicious nut roast a couple of years ago. But I lost the recipe. It was far nicer than any other shop bought nut roast. It was really easy to make as you say!

M&S only seems to have roast potatoes in beef dripping in all the ones near me which seems weird.