anything under 7 cheap cheap cheap. good div. just paid. chart looks sick

The sale was a huge success so much so dont rule out another shortly.some comments:-
Queuing to get into the car park at Cheshunt M&S yesterday ...
Quite amazing

Judging by the crowds at M&S, Brent Cross, the sale was a huge success. I had to pay for my clothes downstairs at the food checkout, so long were the queues upstairs in the clothing section
.
From what I see today on the outskirts of Glasgow their stores are chok a block full!!!
Chichester Marks and Spencers packed solid with shoppers

Just been into the York city centre M&S....
Very, very busy on ground floor (food/booze).....huge queues at all the tills...noticed that most shopping baskets contained a bottle of wine or two (20% off) and a load of food (no discount). One member of staff near warehouse door joked to a colleague that they should bring out some money boxes and calculators 'cos the tills were overrun.
Went upstairs (to clothes) again it was bedlam...in fact, I gave up after a minute or so

these are all the very reasons why i wouldnt want to shop there.
cant park easily? crowds. can't pay quickly etc.etc.it's just not what i consider a happy shopping experience. oh well i might come back when the crowd and hype disperses. i might not.thats all it is,short term hype.
regards
jkd

JKD.not to worry Lidl is just down the roadthey do a nice range in acrylic tank tops and florescent triangles just in case your car ever brakes down?
And you can do hand brake turns in the car park!
Regards
tabasco

did management employ extra staff and make extra tills available so that i have a happy experience?
are they listening?
regards
jkd

and was yesterday's big biz just a freak due to the 20% discount for one day only?

JKDmy wife made sure all her possible staff were in for the saleand every till open.... she herself was visiting another storenobody believed it was going to be such a success but they prepared as best they could.and yes cynic yesterday was a freakI have a feeling we will be seeing a couple of more freaks before Xmas.

the real prob is the lack of confidence and thus peeps just will not spend, even if they have money ..... thus, though a couple of promotional days looks good, it does bugger all to improve results overall

cynic
thats what i was mostly referring to.
i think they missed out here. a 20% one day sale seems to have shown them up.
had they got it right they might have gained and retained a lot of new customers.
as it is it smacks of panic. a 2/3 day sale with extra staff and more tills available would surely have given a much better shopping experience for us consumers and encouraged us to return in the long term. how many regular customers might they have lost due to
this one day experience?
are they listening?
jkd

t
is your wife on the board?
thats the management i refer to. if not, i'm sure she does her very best but even that on a local level is much restricted by board level decisions and instructions from head office etc.
do they listen?
regards
jkd

JKDlistenthere were extra staffall the tills were opennow do you get it?.Cynic it costs serious money to store stockafter Xmas it would have been sold off at 50% discount anywayso I would say a clever move and one step ahead of their rivals IMHO.

I must also mention food sales was up and not discounted. [dine for two apart..which is virtually a loss leader]

t
yep
i get it.
so whats new?
regards
jkd

JKDpeople dont want a shopping experiencethey wont quality and cheap at Xmasgo to Harrods if you just want a shopping experienceI bet you dont get many of your Xmas presents turn up in that green bag.
You sound like a miserable old sod that moans about money being heavy!
Regards
tabasco

heavy?
Ali Baba,so it is said, is so rich, he doesnt count his wealth, he weighs it.
regards
jkd

I am afraid that one or even a few one day sales won't help M&S. In fact it is a sign of their desperaration that they are even doing these 'events'.

The root cause of their probelms lies in the culture within the company. The atmosphere at head office is one of submission. All initiative is crushed. Only the company message and policy is allowed. Dissent is discouraged.

Only a takeover will solve this. It is just a matter of time. It is a dinosaur waiting to die. It happened to Woolworth and it will happen to M&S.

Back in the summer, a few of us had a jolly because my friend's nephew, who works in IT, had given her one of those family discount vouchers that was only valid for 4 days. They filled their trolleys mostly with socks and kiddies' clothes, and I bought a pink strappy top jobbie for a fiver and some pink lacey thingies - and filled my trolley with loads of half price food - plus the 20% discount - for the freezer. Now that was worth it.

I also spent about 40 minutes queuing at customer services to return some linen trousers I'd bought for Mr G, cos they were too short (which is another sticking point with regard to their limited length range) and spent the time chatting to the girlie in front of me. She was returning 3 bags full of clothes which she'd bought for a family holiday, having just bought all the same stuff with the 20% discount. And when I looked at the queue, I guessed that's what most people were doing.

If I'd wanted to bother yesterday, I'd have looked online - where they're also offering 10x points incentives. But their online service is rubbish, I'll warrant even worse after yesterday's special day.

Gimme asos any time ;)

I agree with Haystack. M&S is now just a store for an older generation who won't shop anywhere else.

My generation and the generation below me have been given alternatives though which simply weren't there 30 or 40 years ago and we prefer the alternatives. Consequently as the older generation of M&S customers dies, so M&S will die with them.

Sometimes hilary the older people outlive their children. Its a lifestyle thing. What goes around etc.....

Bit old for ASOS aint you choccy ?

:-)

Abserlootly, Hil.
The only reason I might pop, although I haven't even done that since the summer, is because it's next to Tescos.