Marks and Spencers

...a well known fact that Marks and Spencer have been struggling in recent years and the company as a whole has only just started to make that long climb back up to the top. Now marketing itself as Your M&S as supposed to Marks and Spencer. Gone are the days when it was a shop that only little old ladies could shop at and now a wider range of people are being targeted. Obviously it may not compare to the likes of Top Shop and so on and so forth when ...
...this is a bad thing. Marks and Spencers food is generally very high quality, and hence why I love any trips we have to visit my grandmother, as not only will she stock up with lots of goodies, but they all taste really nice as well, in a way that you can just tell where they are from.
There are meal deal opportunities on a large range or drinks, sandwiches and wraps and for anyone that is on a diet they have the Count on Us range, which is ... more

It is a well known fact that Marks and Spencer have been struggling in recent years and the company as a whole has only just started to make that long climb back up to the top. Now marketing itself as Your M&S as supposed to Marks and Spencer. Gone are the days when it was a shop that only little old ladies could shop at and now a wider range of people are being targeted. Obviously it may not compare to the likes of Top Shop and so on and so forth when it comes to clothing for teenagers and young people, but it can be good for the basics.

What the Store is Like….

Obviously the size of the store will determine, the range of products that are available, but most of the stores are divided into the following sections: Menswear, Women's wear, Lingerie and Children's ware, bigger stores will also have a Home section, a Beauty section and/or a Foods section and most stores, no matter what the size, it would now seem have a Café Revive. It would seem that the foods sections have been fairly successful and a few M&S simply foods have now been set up.

Woman's Wear

This again is further subdivided into several different collections, these being: Per Una, Autograph, Limited Collection and Maternity.
Each collection is targeted at a slightly different range of people (i.e. different age groups and/or different styles). And each of these collections has products ranging from shoes to swimwear, coats to evening dresses (and the jewellery to accompany it), or just your everyday essentials. Now I'm not saying that everyone is going to love everything but I think that there is enough of a range to keep you entertained for a little while at least.

Menswear

This is only divided into two sub-collections, Autograph and Blue Harbour. But these contain a large range of suits, t-shirts and jeans. A tailoring service is also available on your suits, so you can get them to fit perfectly

Children's Wear

A selection of clothing for children of all ages, ranging from newborn to 13-14 year olds. Not that I spend a lot of time in children's wear but I have to walk through it everyday to get to the café and its certainly different to when I was little, the clothes ranges are up to date ( I think a new range has just been launched), and there are a particular pair of boots I have been eyeing up, it's just a shame they are too small. However, you can find anything you could possibly want here, my favourite bit, they have some fancy dress, yes some of it is seasonal (due to the fact that Halloween is coming up) but other's such as the Cinderella, or Superman outfits would have been loved by my brother and sister and I when we were little if they'd had it!!!

Beauty

This has only been developed in the past few years and it is M&S's attempt at breaking into the beauty industry. Now it may not be everyone's first choice for cosmetics and I'm not saying it's mine, but having received some of their products (ranging from make-up to bubble baths) for Christmas presents and it's actually not too bad.

Foods

The supermarket section of the store. But the only foods stocked are those made by M&S, so you won't get all your food brands such as Kellogg's or Cadbury's. I don't think this is a bad thing. Marks and Spencers food is generally very high quality, and hence why I love any trips we have to visit my grandmother, as not only will she stock up with lots of goodies, but they all taste really nice as well, in a way that you can just tell where they are from.
There are meal deal opportunities on a large range or drinks, sandwiches and wraps and for anyone that is on a diet they have the Count on Us range, which is basically the healthier option.

Café Revive

My favourite part of the store (no idea why as I spend my life there and it can be generally quite stressful for me!!).
Since the boom in the whole coffee culture way of life it is almost essential for all the big names and department stores to compete with the likes of Starbucks and Café Nero, so Café Revive is Marks and Spencers version. They are not always in the best location in the store, a couple I know of are tucked away at the back, or in some obscure corner, but others can be found right at the front of the store, by the windows (which is where they should all be in my opinion!!).
In the café you can find a variety of freshly baked cakes/ pastries, cold food and possibly hot food as well (although I don't think all cafes have this). These can be accompanied by a range of hot or cold drinks (teas, coffees, frappes) with coffees starting at the price of £1.30 and cartons of juice starting at £1. Which is not bad when you compare it to the prices of the drinks in some major coffee chains, and one good thing about the coffee and teas provided in Café Revive is that all of it is fair-trade as standard.
If you are observant you will notice that some of the food stocked in the café can be picked up within the foods department for a cheaper price. This is due to extra tax that has been added in order to take care of overheads, and hence why you cannot bring food that has been bought outside the café into it.

The company also provides a variety of different insurances, and some have a Bureau de Change. The also have the &More card (which is a credit card), which comes with a variety of sign up offers such as 20% off for the first few months. And even when this is no longer valid you can accrue points when you use it to buy things which then these are turned into money off vouchers, pretty much like the Tesco's credit cards which double up as a clubcard.

M&S has started to make a comeback , but it still has a little way to go. Yes some of their products may be more expensive than other stores but they are generally of higher quality, and so would last longer anyway, so surely that would be more cost effective in the long run. They do not have such a large range of clothing for teenagers and young adults, but some of it could be used for mixing and matching with other clothes. With Twiggy now on their side for the advertising as well as the rather tempting food adverts I'm sure they continue to climb. The customer service I have had has always been good, although I know this may not always be the case, the staff have been friendly and willing to help (obviously when I am not in my own store where I know quite a lot of the people, and so generally cause havoc, but in the other stores it has always been good - that is not to say the service in my store is not good, but I know it could sound quite biased.)

It is not a shop I would use frequently for clothing or food, but every now and again, for a little treat from the food department, or some high quality clothing it does the job!!

 

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