M&S + John Lewis - your poor Christmas sales will be due to the contempt you've shown your female customers

[Sunkisses]

It's all over the news that M&S and John Lewis have had terrible Christmas sales. I am absolutely sure this is due to the terrible press coverage they received and viral threads of Twitter about how they allow men into the female changing rooms, the contempt they treated their female customers with when we voiced our complaints, and the 1,000s of us who pledged not to shop with them over Christmas. I stuck by my pledge over Christmas and they lost about £1,000 of custom from me with gifts and food. Anyone else kept up their boycott?

Yep, didn't by a single thing from either of them. I put it straight back.

Plus most of it is rubbish now anyway (M&S).

John Lewis appeal even less now too

Yep, me too.

Not been in either. And, I won't until they maintain my legal rights to single sex spaces.

Let them go bust. I'll take my bust elsewhere.

Given the downturn was across the retail sector I doubt very much that any issues relating to trans people had anything to do with it. Feel free to try and convince yourself that you had a significant impact though.

OP said about how they allow men into the female changing rooms, the contempt they treated their female customers with when we voiced our complaints and snowblight leapt to "leave transpeople alone you horrible women!"

OP didn't even mention transpeople. Sunkisses said men in female changing rooms. However I see how it's an easy mistake to make, snowblight.

This is about women being able to retain their dignity and privacy when undressed. And about women being listened to when they have a complaint. That's all it needs to be.

@snowblight ^^ this is exactly the contemptuous attitude that M&S and John Lewis adopted. Treat female customers with contempt at your peril. We will never be able to prove it, and nor will they (or you). But if a company alienates its core customers they will not survive

All clothes shops in the UK allow trans women to use the female changing rooms.

I'm hugely GC but exactly as I know that the vast majority of the population don't even know that trans etc is a thing, the vast majority of department store shoppers don't either.

I'd be extremely surprised if viral threads on twitter had any effect on sales.

There's no meaningful traction yet. The Olympics might do it. JK Rowling almost did it. But until its all truly exposed, this is an online argument, and hadn't troubled the general population.

In a cut throat retail environment, companies such as John Lewis and M&S cannot afford to lose a single customer, let alone 1,000s of us here on Mumsnet who also talk to our relatives and friends. Alienate your female customer base and treat us with contempt at your peril. Prioritise a small minority of men above your female customers, and it will show in your sales. I used to be a very loyal fan of both companies. You cannot replace loyalty once it is lost.

I stuck with my pledge too, Sunkisses, and I was the very archetype of Mrs M&S; shopped there every week without fail. Not now. And unless they rediscover common sense and remember who their core market is meant to be and what safeguarding actually means, never again.

Disappointingly, I've yet to see an article that mentions the changing room policy as a factor in their decreasing sales. However, I have hopes of their next AGM. Many of their shareholders are women and they are not known for holding back on their views.

I'm with MorrisZapp. There are a lot of more likely reasons for poor Christmas sales: less disposable income, uncertainty about the future leading people to be more cautious with money, increase in online sales, awareness of the problems of fast fashion, etc.

Snowblight you are beginning to sound like a broken record - on every post that you pop up on.

They’re not known for their rampant transphobia either.

I broke and bought the advent calendar, or rather didn’t return the one that was bought for me but I didn’t do any Christmas food shopping and significantly I’ve stopped doing my weekly shop there which is usually about £250.

I’ve not missed it as much as I’d thought.

I did not get a Christmas present from DH. Apparently he was in M&S about to purchase something when he remembered he should not.

It's fine. Our joint account is better off, M&S isn't, and he has offered to take me away for my birthday.

It was nothing to do with this. Beyond a small group of people, this whole argument means nothing. A downturn in the economy is the main reason

I had to buy some Christmas gifts for suppliers. M&S have been staples in the past for hampers and suchlike.

No more. And I recommended my chosen supplier to other colleagues in the same boat too.

It has very little, or nothing, to do with it. Most people don't even know about it!

Merrygoround, brand image, once lost, is hard to regain.

Many posters here will represent both stores key target market. Middle class middle aged women with disposable income. And we saw them as reliable and responsible, although not the cheapest or most fashionable.

Yes there is a general problem with high street retail, but you don't alienate customers if you can avoid it. (Plus I hate the amount of plastic M&S Foods use. Is a tempting snack worth the hit on the environment. Usually not.)

If 10,000 Mumnetters didn’t spent their usual Xmas £250 in M&S, that’s a serious chunk of money missing from M&S’s tills. Add that to the continual pressures the high street is under, and its a costly avoidable mistake for M&S.
I bought an M&S bra online for my daughter last week and broke my own boycott in doing so. I was then sent a questionnaire on my shopping experience. Perhaps M&S are starting to listen after all.

Many times over the Christmas period, I thought of things I "needed" from either M&S or JL. And then bought them elsewhere.

Maybe it has nothing to do with the results but I’m sticking with my principles and will continue to boycott M&S and JL. I don’t much care why their sales are down in the general but there’s a lot of us who have contributed to it, whether they choose to acknowledge and address is up to them.

Most supermarkets did suffer over the festive season, I agree, but alienating any women shoppers wasn’t the greatest plan unless they think another sector picked those sales up.
I didn’t do any Christmas food shopping there, or use my M&S card and neither did a lot of my friends.
I emailed M&S about their polices after one standard email they ignored the rest of my emails well guess what I don’t shop there anymore.

They’re not known for their rampant transphobia either

Another broken record. Just here to tell us off, again.

I repeat: this is about women being able to retain their dignity and privacy when undressed. And about women being listened to when they have a complaint. That's all it needs to be.

Feel free to try and convince yourself that you had a significant impact though.

I will! Thanks!

Between them? Probably about £500 down via my household on Christmas spends, which were diverted to local independents clear on human sexual dimorphism.

And the thing is, once you've become sufficiently irritated by Wanky Wokeism from the corporate retailers to get off your arse and seek out ethical alternatives, you never go back.