M&S closures

Me too. I shall have to stock up on bras if my local store closes. I've never found that anyone else's are as good.
They've forgotten the basics and I suspect that we Gransnetters could sort them out.

Did any one watch the programme about them last night. They went into great detail about business plans and so on, but nobody addressed the fact that the clothes are horrible! There are also far too many ranges. In a big store you can wander through tops, skirts, dresses and trousers in one range and then find yourself starting all over again in another range. If I want a cream top I don't want to go to six different departments to find them all! Keep the M&S Collection for basic stuff, perhaps limited for smart and special occasion stuff, and Per Una for of the wall weirdos like me. This would require replacing the current numptys working on Per Una and finding some actual designers - it was never the same after George Davis left. The only person speaking any sense last night was Stuart Rose - shame he moved on too. He was someone who actually listened - he might not agree with you but he would listen

As they no longer sell the knickers I like I'm afraid it's the end of the line for me. The food section in our local M&S is fairly small and an effort to get to so I give that a miss as well. Sorry M&S but that's the way the cookie crumbles

I never understand their pricing. I was looking at cream tops, more than a t-shirt but nothing fancy. I saw two that I liked. One was £17.50, the other was £39.50. Apart from minor details such as different sleeves and fabric, (both man-made) there was little to tell them apart. Guess which I bought!

They do have a nice range of summery cotton jumpers. Again, though, the price seems to vary, from £19.50 to £35, when there's little to distinguish them apart.

I buy jeans from Landsend now, when they're on sale or special offer as M&S jeans no longer cut the mustard.

What are Landsend like for quality & fit? Lots have mentioned them.

One thing M &S could do is employ better window dressers. Nothing in the windows tempts you into the shop.

Does anyone remember the days when department stores (inc M&S) had departments?

If you wanted to buy a green jumper you went to the jumper department, looked for a green one you liked and picked out your size.

Now if you want a green jumper you have to go through unumerable different ranges in different parts of the store.

Perhaps it has to be like this in dept stores which house lots of different brands - each a shop within a shop, but why do it in M&S? Are they deliberately trying to make shopping so difficult that we just give up?

Yes but 100 stores are to be opened. All of them simply food. Marks also are looking to start online food deliveries which they have lagged behind in catching on to.
Clothes shopping in the high street has dwindled in the wake of online shops. It's not necessarily the styles.
Their Marble Arch flagship closed a few weeks ago. The rent was to be raised by an exorbitant amount. M and S had recently replaced the inner lift at a cost to themselves of 2 million. Still they left rather than pay so much rent. This store was opposite a main tube station. Busy as anything.

They made a decision over a year ago to concentrate on food. Gransnetters may have noticed a Sinply Food opening nearby?
There was no plan to keep the large stores open

Don't even bother to go into M & S anymore, on those rare occasions that I go into nearest town. Expensive tat.

A simply food opened recently near us. About 10 different kinds of sushi and self service tills only.

Lazigirl, the Landsend fabric is good quality denim, quite heavyweight. The ones I've bought have had a little stretch in them, elastane of whatever it's called, and they keep their shape well.

The dark ones do shed quite a bit of dye at first - I wondered why my hands had turned blue! - but overall, I'm very happy with them.

Thanks for feedback SueD. Will give them a try as I wear jeans much of the time and M&S deteriorating in quality.

I never buy at full price, Lazigirl. £60 is a bit too much for my purse but Landsend regularly have sales and promotions. They've currently got 30% off.

My nearest food shop is an M&S food. Just a bit too handy.

With the advent of retail parks out of town its inevitable the High St stores are going to suffer. Many years ago when I was a child my mother had a 'drapers' shop and I can remember her being very worried when a local Spar opened a couple of doors away and started selling tights - it marked the beginning of one stop shopping. Luckily it seems our store in the large town nearby isn't affected but the stores in the both towns I grew up in will close. It's very sad but unfortunately I guess I'm part of the problem as I rarely go in M&S unless it's to walk through to the other street. I had £100 voucher a couple of years ago (courtesy of some insurance product) and it took me months to find something to buy with it. I hope they manage to pull it out of the doldrums but it's been tried a couple of times already and seems to have failed.

I wandered into Marks yesterday with 20% off vouchers hoping to find some blouses among other things. I sometimes think their buyers have a death wish for their employers, what is with all the floral patterns and horrible fabrics? they have more flowers than a garden centre . I think they should get rid of their current team and try and filch Unliqo's buyers who could introduce them to the concept of producing crisp cotton shirts and simply designed separates that many women want, instead of the over fussy garments that adorn the M&S rails at the moment. Less is More Marks and Spencer! That might be an over used adage but quite often it's true.

Apart from the ‘nasty’ fabrics everything seems to have a high round neck - this style makes me feel like I’m being strangled! And really doesn’t suit anyone with a large bust. I used to buy all my work trousers from M&S - the simple stylish pull on easycare ones; I’ve had some of them for years. I tried to replace them recently and the material was shocking, it was like pyjama material! I usually have to buy online as I can never buy my size in store, they don’t seem to stock long length. I am sad about their demise, they were my go to store for years. Perhaps we should bombard them with our views!

Thanks for mentioning nasty fabrics janieuk. I thought it was just me. Synthetic static-inducing summer tops that I just know would feel horrible worn in hot weather.

Recently I bought a modal shirt which has a nice soft handle to it. One wash and the buttonholes became so slack that the front kept popping open so I had to sit and put a couple of stiches in each one. Not the end of the world but frustrating.

Oh yes the high round necks - are all the buyers flat-chested? I much prefer V-necks, looked for T-shirts at M&S but for a couple of years there they simply didn't do them. Every other neckline, just not V's. Bought some lovely ones from Gap in their sale, not the range of colours you get from M&S, but white is always wearable.

varian how I agree with you! The idea of spreading stuff round is that in rootling around a store to find the green jumpers yu will see lots of other stock and be tempted to buy more.

It does not have that effect on me. I just get exasperated and storm out in paddy and go online to a site like woolovers that lines the styles up and lists all the colours and sizes, so I can go to 'polo necks', for example, click on colour and size and the job is done.

To an extent retailers have brought internet shopping on themselves by making their stores so hard to shop in.

Thank you for mentioning Woolovers M0nica. I like plain knitwear in classic styles and natural fibres (I'd been admiring the sweaters Phoebe Waller-Bridge wears in Fleabag) but was struggling to find similar on the high street.

M &S have been told so many times that they have lost their core group of customers but they never listen or take heed.
We want good quality fabrics and design, we don't want all the latest trends, there are other shops for that. Good classic clothing which is smart, elegant and flattering.
I go to Lands End for tops, don't like the cut of their trousers and Next for jeans etc.

Now I always think of M&S as being old fashioned and fuddy duddy in its clothes design. what I would call 'safe' clothing, clothes that won't go out of fashion because they have never been in fashion'. Sizing by approximations and poor quality fabrics. An occasional pearl, but mostly dross.

Given that the average teen has less disposable income than an average older customer, and seems to want new “disposable” things every weekend, I don’t know why M&S seem hell bent on trying to be ultra trendy. Based on my 5 teenage grandaughters, who wouldn’t be seen dead in anything from M&S anyway, they are wasting their time. As so many have already said, they would do much better to go back to decent quality in reliable sizes.