Is your M&S cafe rubbish?

[Bloomburger]

Because ours is. Went in for a little before going back to school treat with Dd.
I think they have low water pressure or the slowest machines in the world or perhaps just staff who don't understand that when they have a queue they need to move faster.
The young lady who nearly served us today insisted on calling everyone dear which the oldies might have liked but it just felt weird to me.
There were no little pizzas or any sort of kids juice that wasn't the bloody awful Percy pig juice, I say bloody awful as DD is allergic to something in it as it make her throat itch.
So we were nearly served. I put a toastie, a pot of apple and a satsuma on my tray thinking surely at 12 noon on a busy Friday they must just not have stocked the fridge but no, apparently no other sort of drink for the kids meal and no pizzas, so just a ham and cheese toastie (DD doesn't eat meat) . I asked the young lady if they just hadn't been put out and she went and looked for me but no, nothing, no pizza, no meat free sandwiches and no juice of any other kind (shop full of the bloody things downstairs). This is not unusual, DH and I used to pop in there later in the day on a Saturday for coffee and a cake but we ended up giving up. Nine out of ten times they had no cake left. It's not as if it's not opening again the next morning. We weren't the only ones who were a bit but if you asked them if they had any more cakes they were always a bit sniffy and said no. It's not as thought they are closing for a few days and any cake will spoil overnight or god forbid they earmarked enough cakes for the footfall at the weekend.
Plus the amount of staff they have behind the counter for the actual work that gets done, there is always at least 5/6 people but it doesn't seem to speed up the proceedings.

Just wondered if they were all like this?

It’s been a while since I’ve been in one (my local M&S closed) but yes, every one I’ve been to has been SO slow to serve people!

My nearest one is fab as is the one in the city. However the other two I use are shite. Very hit and miss.

I used to go into ours...then there was the day when I watched the assistant use the same ratty looking cloth for cleaning the milk frother spout, wiping the worksurface and then cleaning "my" coffee cup as half the coffee had actually missed going into the cup. I asked for a fresh cup and told her why...apparently my eyes were deceiving me.

I've not been to ours for a while but the service is terrible. The order and queue are separate so you have to queue up twice. The order is never right on the till so there's a whole back and forward of 'was that 3 sandwiches and 11 coffees? No, I'll let thenkitchen know' They don't have order or table numbers so they just wander through shouting 'ham sandwich' and whoever is closest grabs it.

I don't know how it's still open.

How patronising that you think that ' oldies ' like being called dear .

M&S cafe is (in my opinion) exactly like their bloody food Halls!
The products are very nice- Cake and scones, sandwiches and even the hot food have always been lovely and nice quality. Same with the regular food hall food, it’s a lovely treat!

but their supply chain management is appalling - Our cafe is always empty shelves and low stock and when they do have items in they all have the same (usually very close) expiration date! Food hall is the same, either they have nothing, or they have 5 thousand and all have todays date on.

There is no middle ground.
I posted a thread complaining about it in the run up to Christmas. This was the first year we didn’t do our £150+ Christmas indulgence shop at M&S because the dates were so crap and items unavailable, just felt like a big let down

To be fair the oldies were all very chatty to the girl, whereas I wasn't due to the fact that I found the way she spoke to me patronising, so I'm going by their reaction, maybe inside they were seething. Who is to know. I don't care I just wish to know about your cafe.

I forgot, theres another one I went into - in a "just food" where the conversation went something like "flat white please".
"Thats strong you know"
"Yes, thank you"
"Its strong"
"Thats what I want..."
Assistant still standing there "are you sure dear?"

"Yes"!!!!!!

Maybe the usual clientele dont like it!!

The one nearest to us is nice. I have been in others that were very slow to serve you.
After reading @starfishmummy comment I don't think I want to go back.😦😦

Depends where you are. In cities with high footfall they tend to be better - mine offers free baby chinos go kids and will allow food hall stuff to be heated up for them too

Yes, so slow

starfishmummy that's made me feel a bit 🤢.
So funny about the very strong coffee though, maybe you looked like you were already buzzing? 😂

grumpyhoonmain ours has a sign saying only stuff purchased in the cafe can be eaten in there. I suppose it's because the food is more expensive in there than on the shop floor. If not I would have whizzed down stairs and grabbed Dd a pizza and a carton of proper juice.

I've been to several great ones. It was our go to for lunches out when DDs were young as we had a bread and potato product refuser- but she would eat pizza and pasta.

Yes our local on is just awful

I used to work on their customer service complaints team. We used to get so many complaints about how slow the service is and lack of stock.

Nothing changes though!

The Marble Arch and Oxford Circus branches are both terrible for service. The staff seem to have two speeds - slow and stop. The Oxford Circus one, the tables never get cleared, and the staff seem to think they are employed to have a lovely chat with each other rather than actually serve anyone. There is usually one person doing the work and three others standing around doing fuck all. And yes, they do run out of stuff and not replace it!

The one in town and the one in the out of town home store are both the same. It's as though they deliberately sought out the slowest, most inefficient staff they could find and then trained them to be even worse. It isn't possible that in the normal course of things all members of staff could be that slow, stupid and disorganised. None of them seem to know how to follow a simple process of making a cup of tea or coffe or heating up a sandwich, or organise themselves so that someone is serving and someone else is clearing etc. It is truly mind boggling to watch. Every time. Obviously I avoid if humanly possible.

Bloomberger

To be fair the oldies were all very chatty to the girl, whereas I wasn't due to the fact that I found the way she spoke to me patronising,

Maybe you look older than you realise, dear.

Have to say, the M&S cafe near us is fine. Good selection of food and drinks (not huge, because it's just a food store with a smallish cafe) and the service is really good and pleasant.

I have been called "chick" there, but I coped.

This has reminded me though of Boots in town back in the day when my sister and I used to meet up with babies in tow. They used to do a lovely bowl of soup and crusty roll for lunch, but OMG we used to roar laughing at how much fuss 5 or so staff could make out of serving a couple of bowls of soup. It was incredible.

Yes.
I've given up on them these days.

In mine they literally throw your sandwich onto a pile of others to go for toasting - there is up to twenty sitting there waiting sometimes. The person who takes them into the kitchen must have then done mine (on top of pile) first because I have never waited more than five minutes for it. But surely the earlier customers must have been raging?

How about us going into a Subway that had no bread, only wraps and no hot drinks?

Or into a Frankie & Bennys "restaurant" that had no steaks (og any size nor type of meat).

These chain store eateries are getting as bad as chain store retail re poor service.

I don't think the managers have a clue.

But, yep, OP we found the same. Thought about M&S cafe for lunch today but saw the queue and remembered how slow they serve last time we went, so didn't bother.

Ours is well-stocked (it's part of an M&S food, so not a big store). Service is generally very slow but I'm aware that they also employ a good number of people with learning difficulties, who are doing their best, and are very diligent. So I try not to fret at a long wait. And I go elsewhere if I'm in a real hurry.

I must be in a minority as the local one to me is great. It's always heaving but the service is pretty quick and it's rare for them not to have a full range of stuff on.
They are also brilliant at offering to carry my tray for me when they can see I've got the pushchair, have the hot water flasks for you to borrow to heat bottles/baby food and the lady on the till will often sneak me an extra couple of biscuits with my coffee so I can have one myself as ds always steals it!
I wonder whether the thing about the flat white being strong is a company policy as I always get told "that's the short very strong one, is that okay?".