M&S constantly sold out?

[Danfromdownunder]

Hi as the thread title states I’m curious why most of the good items are always sold out or only have size 6 or 20 available. I’m shopping from Australia as we don’t have a great range of work clothes here like you have in the UK but I’m struggling with always finding loads I love and never being any available. Is this common to this particular store or am I just having bad luck? Anywhere else ships all the way down here you might recommend? Thanks in advance

I have found the same with M&S. I am a size 16 and find that they are constantly sold out in my size when I go to buy online.

Strangely enough I have found that they tend to have a better range of sizes when I have shopped in store. I don’t know why this should be the case and I guess that is not much use to OP!

M&S are an institution in the UK and I have bought loads of work clothes there over the years.

I used to buy all of my underwear from M&S too but the quality has really dropped in recent years.

I guess they are carrying less stock in recent years than they used to? Some shops are like this all the time now.

I think range limits could be in response to the complaints about everyone having the same items, so limit the range and highten the demand! Some stores carry better size ranges and also items before they pop up on the website. I've found their clothing much better this year (not the underwear though) and again, less choice elsewhere (look how many companies we've lost in the last 12 months) will push us towards the few businesses still trading. There is definitely a grading of some kind for their stores, like Primark does, which means ranges and stock varies a great deal between branches.

Thanks for the input, I guess I’ll just have to check in ,ore regularly online and hope to catch things when they’re in my size in stock.

M&S is particularly bad for this. They will have a size 6 and a couple of size 18s and nothing in the middle. I've seen a couple of things I liked this year and haven't been able to buy them online or in store, not even at the palatial Marble Arch branch. (and I'm a fairly standard size 8-10).

Does the M&S site have alerts for stock? I am finding a lot of places seem to have limited availability, or only the vsmall or large sizes in stock. But I have done stock alerts for h&m and things do sometimes pop into stock and then I grab them quick.
I also think websites don't remove items which are completely sold out and won't be restocked very quickly. They even seem to promote these items, then when you click through it's totally sold out which seems bizarre. Maybe it's used to get you to click through and then buy other similar items?!

OP, might be worth keeping an eye on the next few weeks. This time of year is a bit between seasons and the autumn things will be in soon which might give you a better chance of finding things in stock.

M&S are becoming buggers for this - stock moves very fast. You have to buy stuff as soon as you see it. I wish they'd just take stuff off the website if they don't have stock!

I gave up with M&S a good few years ago. I bought some items. They didn't arrive. After about 2 weeks I got an e.mail telling me they were out of stock.

I was never a big fan as you could buy 3 items with the same size tag and they would all be completely different sizes, I once had 3 skirts and each one was an inch bigger that the previous one on the waist.

M&S do have a stock alert online, but it seems to be spectacularly useless. The best thing is just to keep on checking the item several times a day.
Sizing is totally bizarre these days. I'm anything from a 12 - 20. So I tend to order in-store to try on.

I find they get a lot of returns and agree that the best thing to do is check back every day. It's definitely become more prevalent, loads of very ordinary stuff seems to go out of stock.

I used to work for M&S HQ and they’re notoriously bad at predicting demand, overbuying stock of unpopular stuff and underestimating what will be popular and underbuying. Someone was sacked for not buying enough jeans to meet demand once but they’re still bad at it. Also once a boat carrying loads of the clothes sank, which isn’t M&S’s fault but shit can happen that loads of stock is suddenly unavailable. Their website could also use improvement – things disappear from sale as you’re trying to buy them, or shows up on search when it’s not in stock. The backend is crap.

Yes, I've noticed this. Tried to buy the same top twice when it's been in stock only to be told it's out of stock a day or two later. Have just ordered it for a 3rd time as back in stock, but not hopeful the same won't happen again. On the plus side, they have refunded quickly.

I bought a suit jacket and matching trousers for my daughter's graduation online a few weeks back - the jacket arrived; the trousers didn't! I turned out that the cost of the trousers had been credited back to my account but they hadn't let me know. Luckily I'd bought something else for the graduation just in case...

I bought a bra online which didn't arrive but I could not cancel the order as it was apparently "in transit".

They seem to show stuff as available online which, when you try to buy, magically disappears. I'm lucky enough to have several local stores do always try to avoid online buying as much as possible.