Is M&S really having a moment?

[friedaddedchilli]

I keep seeing/hearing that M&S is having an amazing season, but I'm not getting it. Browsing the website I see nothing special. What am I missing? What have you bought recently which has really thrilled you?

M&S were definitely having a moment over the summer. So much I wanted to buy. Haven’t seen the autumn/winter range.

Why are there only larger sizes on the racks??

I dont know but it's the same in Next as well.

Loads of 18s and 20s but no 8s or 10s. I went into both my local stores today (West Midlands) and they only had 16s 18s and 20s. No size 7 or 8 shoes or boots either.

I think I agree — on the whole, M&S don’t appear to have mastered autumn / winter this year, which is disappointing!! Their summer range was a bit better.

I hope they can turn it around. 💪

They must have lost a lot of money this year with the hacking incident.

I have just emerged from my local M&S empty handed. I wanted to buy the knitted rugby shirt that has sold out on line. They had a medium in store but it was huge. I saw some trousers I liked but no 12r but 3 pairs of 12s. The rest was very dull and uninspiring. The Tesco extra over the road was better.

@sunshinechaser it really is. How do they get the availability of popular sizes wrong every time? The shop assistant couldn't have been more helpful - taking me to where the barrel jeans were (not with the rest of the jeans for some reason) but she obvs had no idea when they would be in stock. I find that at least with Next online, newish items that are out of stock in my size do come back.

The staff still have no idea what is happening. I asked a question about some clothing the other day and she went on her (or M&S) mobile to check it, just like I would do at home. Said they still don't know what is going to be delivered except the days the stock is coming.

I went in there today and spotted the flared cords in my size, 14L so quite rare to see, fortunately I still had 20% off Sparks and they fit perfectly so I bought them. I had seen them online but my size was always out of stock

I personally think as with anywhere, they have some great pieces. Everything I buy does not need to be natural fibres. I look for that in knitwear and M&S have cashmere, merino, cotton etc. They had some gorgeous linen dresses/tops/trousers in the summer, as they do every year. Some of their shops look dull, one in a retail park near me looks old fashioned when you walk in, yet the big store at Cribbs is fine. Next stores are the same, dull when you walk in but some of their pieces are ok, much better on their website. I sometimes rely on influencers to show me what is in store then I will go and find the items Im interested in, saves a lot of time.

I think High Street shops are just struggling in this economy in general which is why I think a lot of stores look tired. I find they invest more in shopping centre and London branches but that could be me. You’d think they could invest some of their profits into renovating some of the dull and shabby stores but again, the market could be really struggling right now!

I've been in my local store today and some of the clothes were ok but it puts me off when you see others wearing it and a lot of it is so instantly recognisable, especially with so many influencers promoting it.

I agree Betsy there was a nice pink summer dress that I liked but every influencer was wearing it on instagram and that put me off buying it. I saw it on the sale rack when I popped in the other day so maybe I wasn’t the only one.

Yeah, I’m kind of sick of this influencer culture now!

Funny how the top I wanted was ‘sold out’ whilst the 20% off with Sparks card offer was running, yet is back in stock now that the offer has ended. Call me cynical….