M&S blames poor clothes sales on the weather

[GobblersKnob]

Okay, you keep telling yourself that, just the bad weather......

M&S is good for childrens basics, especially school uniform. I took part in the mumsnet Matalan uniform testing lst year, but I have gone back to M&S as the price isnt much different but the quality is much better.

I havent brought pants in there for years, i find even the primark cotton pants better than the M&S ones.

I don't buy a lot of food there as in the stores near me its all pre packed ready meals and deserts. I buy the odd desert for after sunday lunch but not much else.

Fuck me! That shirt and those kecks!! And I'm not a lady who usually swears in polite company!

Their knickers are still good. And the food's decent.

I'd set fire to the rest of it. Not trying to incite social violence here, but it's the only thing I can reasonably recommend, in all conscience.

Now the internet demons has seen me looking at those trousers and they are stalking me with little adverts all over the web.

Well, I've had £50 worth of their gift vouchers in my purse since Christmas.
Popped in about once a fortnight thinking there MUST surely be something I like to spend them on. Six months & counting.....

What I can't get my head round is the granny clothes and the hooker shoes next to them.

The contrast between the elastic waited trousers with the polyester mix and the platform high heeled stripper like shoes in garish colours is ironic. Who store plans? Who designs and who are they targeting? It's beyond me and I have some retail marketing background.

Brilliant idea. Co-ordinated arson attacks across the country, as MNers revolt against M&S's crimes against womenswear.

Not just a normal revolt ...

When the over 50's are looking in limited collection something must be wrong!

I have had some good knitwear from m&s in the past and the occasional good pair of ballet pumps but have been in recently and just got irritated by having to look in 6 different sections to see if they had the thing I was looking for.

It could be a great shop but trying to be too many things to too many people and failing at it all!

Someone should send this thread to the CEO

This thread has made me laugh so much!! Haven't been able to read every single post so someone may have already mentioned this but: Am I the only person that has noticed that ALL M&S stores across the land smell the same? And it is a very odd, distinctive smell, you could blindfold me and make me sniff that smell and I would know it was an M&S store!

Dorothy - couldn't have put it better myself. I'm unnaturally annoyed today cos I opened a pack of 2 Bodyshaper tights this morning and promptly put a finger through the leg as I pulled a pair on. One thing we could always always rely on was their tights; they've even screwed them up lately. Good quality basics - thats what we want. Oh and it'd be nice if they would tone down the lighting a smidge - I get a migraine after being in M&S for more than 10 minutes. Or maybe thats the awful, gaudy, cheap, polyester stock. There's a lot of goodwill still around for Marks, every woman remembers when they were the go-to store for great knickers, bras, work clothes, t-shirts, nightwear. Hope they get back on track, it'd be a shame to see them closing stores.

YY to the rising feeling of hysteria as you try to find a size 8 - honestly, you WANT to go and buy a pair of black trousers or a long-sleeved white cotton top or some camisoles or something from there and they just don't have NORMAL, non-horrible versions of them, and if they do, they don't have an 8. Ever. Also all the shoes in my local one are either stereotypes of the worst granny shoes in existence (which none of the grandmothers of my acquaintance would dream of wearing!) or platform ultra-high patent slapper shoes. Again, I should be able to walk in and find ballet flats in a range of colours, seeing as that's what everyone wears!

Rail after rail after bloody rail of t-shirts. A rail of white, a rail of black, a rail of blue a rail of flowery print....a rail of white 3/4 trousers, a rail of black 3/4 trousers........ .

Seriously, the layout alone needs changing. Why do they cram so many things on one rail?

And yes to whoever said about the t-shirts being too short, little boxy things with not quite enough sleeve.

Not just any rail ...

And the pintuck pleats on the neckline of all the scoopneck 'tops'! Four seasons ago it was a stylish design touch. Now it's on every fecking one, it's more like a design tic. Stop it.

I'm 23 and I really like marksies! Admittedly not their casual clothes, but I get the majority of my work shirts, skirts and trousers out of there. I love their knitted crew neck cardies, they wash v well and go with lots. And the work shoes are brilliant, good quality and a decent price. Also love their no-VPL pants too.

HOWEVER- I wouldn't go in for a browse round for casual clothes, it's just not on my radar. They made a half-hearted effort with that Indigo range, but to be honest the stuff still felt a bit old. Per Una is an actual joke, the same patchwork, handkerchief-hemmed toot trollied out season after season just in slightly different colours. I know this because my mother often makes ill advised purchases during sale time, then DT or I point out she looks like a mid-17th century serving wench and it's returned.

Sort it out marksies! If you go down the tubes I'll never be able to get strappy work shoes that don't make me look like a stripper again!

It's like the designers don't know when to finish: one more bow here, another frill there and, oh!, let's put a few sequins on too!

PLEASE take the 'eyebrow pluck' approach and stop before you think you've finished. I may then consider browsing the rails again. but probably not.

YY to paying a quid more for something that is going to last longer. I remember when the zebra print shows they did were a sell out item a few years back. Now their are no M and S must haves/ steals because the clothes are just so uninspiring.

I just don'tthink M and S are in touch with their customer base and are just going off what they thought they knew about customers a year ago whatever.

I'm really grateful for this thread. I've laughed a lot as I've been reading, and looking at the hideous clothes. But it's also brought home to me the message that actually, doing most of my clothes shopping at M&S is just a bad habit I've acquired. And the clothes are not flattering to me. At all.

I'm middle aged, I've been buying clothes there since 1988. In those days I would go to M&S to buy quality work clothes and underwear. Then as I got older I started to buy almost everything there. I haven't been discerning at all...
I live in a rural area and the easiest place to drive (and park) is the large M&S about 15 miles away. So I shop there and hardly anywhere else.

But this is what's wrong :

1. bras no longer fit well. The fitters aren't very good at all so I don't ask for their help but the bra sizing is crap
2. tights are crap quality. Ditto knickers.
3. the sizing of trousers especially is all over the place. BUT I STILL BUY THEM. POORLY FITTING TROUSERS THAT LOOK GOD AWFUL ON ME!
4. tops are truly awful mostly.
5. shoes are even more truly awful
6. the shopping experience itself is horrid. As everyone else has pointed out, overstuffed racks of clothes, packed together, and the need to walk from one end of the store to another to find two or three different styles of black trouser. Which never fit me anyway!
7. I've just gone and looked in my wardrobe and the contents are truly hideous, mostly.

anyway, now that I've got all that off my chest, I'm going to start trying other shops for clothes. Will try Tesco and Sainsbury's for my basic knickers as mentioned upthread. Not sure where else to try that is suitable for my age group but it's definitely time to expand my horizons.

Hurrah for shhh's revelation! Who says that bitchy sniping never achieved anything worthwhile

Shhh, I found that once I'd had a really good fitting in John Lewis and bought a couple of good (Triumph, in my case) bras from them, I could then use the lessons I'd learnt about sizing to find cheaper bras that fitted well in M&S.

Honestly Dilys I read all the posts, then went and looked in my wardrobe. Hideous doesn't do it justice! I am embarassed to have been walking round like some tacky floral bedecked frump. (Yes lots of Per Una in my wardrobe sadly).

Thanks for the information about John Lewis. There's a JL about 5 miles further on from M&S. I'm thinking of booking an appointment at Rigby and Peller for a bra fitting but I may try JL first.

I rarely visit the Style and Beauty section of MN. I think I need to spend quite a lot more time here and get an education!

Dear M&S

Please get the basics right,

Plain ladies cotton knickers in single colour packs.

Bras that fit (they seem to have changed size)

BASICS
You can make the nicest longest lasting plain T shirts and simple long sleeved Ts available anywhere. Why don't you do it reliably.

No frills, no polyester, no sparkles and no weirded colour combinations. Just plain or subtle patterned tops in a variety of lengths and neck lines, non of which show our bras!!!

KIDS BASICS
DD2s Indigo jeans are lovey, but if she wanted some more they'd be out of stock.

I don't know a single M&S with a decent sized children's Dept, except when the school wear escapes.

Please we want all year round to be able to get jeans, tops, leggings and school wear in all sizes. Yes blouses, socks and tights in February.

Believe it or not DCs grow all year, they wear things out, fall over and cover them in paint all year.
Some DCs move house and need different coloured cardigans mid term.

MENs Casual clothes.
Too £££££ for the quality and styling

Your suits and work trousers are absolutely fine for by totally disinterested DH.

But your casual shirts and polo shirts are £10 more than I can get designer ones for if I wait for debenham's sale.

Oh I love the eye brow plucking analogy

NEXT are even worse!
Sequins, frills and key hole backs, why???

I burn and have spots on my back, why put a hole in the back of a perfectly sensible t-shirt.

I used to love the Autograph range, but it's turning into Per Una.

And the heating is on way too high - the poor staff!

When they last measured me for bra's they didn't go down to my small rib cage size and suggest I wore a girls bra .

For those of you who are saying there food is good, have you ever looked at the ingredients list? The FAT CONTENT of M & S food is huge compared to Sainsbury or Tesco.