Does anybody else get disappointed when a brand they like ends up in M&S?

[Spiracles]

M&S seems to be gobbling up everything.

Kitri, Albaray, Never Fully Dressed, Nobody's Child, Chinti and Parker...

I'm not even including Baukjen and Hush. Although obvs the next one would be ME+EM.

I find some brands I like, doing interesting stuff, then they end up on M&S 😥

But how many branches of M&S other than the major ones are actually stocking these smaller brands? I’ve not seen even White-stuff or Seasalt in my local branch so the only difference is I can now order through M&S - I still can’t see it first.

I’m not against this in principle but I’ve a feeling the benefits are being overstated.

I regularly visit two very big stores. One has only White Stuff and Seasalt. The other has none at all.

Ooh the snobbery

These are all well known brands anyways

I think M and S clothes business is now primarily online (?) - I've never looked properly but the I store offerings always look v basic

It's a lot easier to buy from M&S as I can collect it from store and easy returns. If I buy from a designers website I may have to pay postage and return fees. It's even easier to buy from Next as I have a Directory account, maybe why Next does so well as they have a very good online process.

For brands it opens them up to more potential customers. Same reason as brands have concessions in House of Fraser, Selfridges etc.

I doubt many would survive with your secret purchases alone.

No, it makes my life much easier as I live less than a mile from a gigantic M and S.

Do you walk to your M&S, @RedRiverShore5?

Most people have to drive or take public transport to get to clothes shops. They’re spending money on that.

Most places I shop from online offer free return postage, often via a courier who will collect from my home. I certainly never encounter any return fees.

Thinking about it I don’t think I’ve visited a post office more than twice this year. The most recent was yesterday to buy a last minute stamp for a birthday card. The old model of endless queuing and parcel weighing and paying a fortune to return clothes purchases simply isn’t the reality now.

Yes, it's about a mile away, I live near a popular retail park which has a lot of clothes shops. I generally try to walk unless I am buying lots of groceries.

I walk to my M&S, and to JL. It’s very handy being able to buy multiple brands at M&S and take them back.

There’s some terrific snobbery on this thread.

What on God’s earth is snobbish about saying that for many people shopping online is more time and cost effective than travelling to a physical branch of M&S or Next?

The snobbery isn't about online shopping, but wanting to have brand exclusivity and not seeing other people wearing what you are wearing.

Oh …

I don’t care about other people wearing what I’m wearing - I would care very much if relatively small scale brands making specialised products, or rare fabrics, or very individual designs, which cannot be upscaled whilst maintaining their quality, were absorbed into M&S. Because they would then have to change their modes of production for the sake of scale and affordability. They may cease to use the original craftspeople. They’d probably sack their original designers. They’d hand all their fabric processing to vast, anonymous entities very far away … And I would just shrug my shoulders and shop somewhere else.

A large M&S, 4/5 miles from me stocks White Stuff and Seasalt, which is odd because a department store about 1.5 miles away from it does too. My mum's local M&S stocks Nobody's Child.

I wonder if there's a market opening for stores, not necessarily M&S, to stock sizes 8-20 of one item, not for sale, but for trying on, with ordering pods in situ. Lots and lots of makes available from one place.

I loke to see the fabric, cut and colour before I buy.

Yes and that's the point I'm trying to make: If these other brands are only available to most of us through the M&S website then I'm not seeing much benefit as I can already order direct from those brands through their own sites. The only real advantage to me would be that I could use M&S's collect and return processes.

All things considered, I think I'd rather M&S put their focus on sorting out their own clothing range which has vastly improved even in my own forgotten local branch.

I wonder if there's a market opening for stores, not necessarily M&S, to stock sizes 8-20 of one item, not for sale, but for trying on, with ordering pods in situ. Lots and lots of makes available from one place.
I like that idea and my local high street currently has three empty department stores so no shortage of premises.

I beg everyone's pardon; it's too late to edit but there are 2 empty department stores, not three .
I still like the idea and there are several empty smaller shops too if a department store building is too much..

Not really

As I have never heard of any of those products, I am never disappointed 🙂

Just remembered it also stocks Nobody's Child. I really like their cotton and cord dresses, but they are a disaster for big boobs.

but they are a disaster for big boobs.

And for those of us with no boobs

The heading to your post Does anybody else get disappointed when a brand they like ends up in M&S?

I think that is the clue! Am I right, oh, I do hope so. I know I am slow and none too bright but I assumed you shop at M and S for various items and noticed that they are stocking other brands which mean that they are reaching a wider public

"I find some brands I like, doing interesting stuff, then they end up on M&S 😥"

I haven’t actually bought clothes at M&S this century - but yes, if the brands I do buy became permanent M&S partners I would be (can I speak frankly?) a bit shocked. And mortified. And would probably stop buying them.

Your words were a prime example!

It's proof of how much of purchasing comes from emotions and perception. The clothes are the same, but many people won't buy them if they become more widely available because it changes their emotion and perception. Call it snobbery, or irrational, or anything else, you might be right but it's a very well known phenomenon.

The psychology of sales is really fascinating. A sense of scarcity, one way or another, is a real driving force. That might be the "buy now, only 2 left/5 people have it in their basket" thing, or it might be "only available from this one outlet" thing. It's a very real thing. There's a reason some people are consistently very good at sales...

It’s not but that’s my mother favourite 🤣