M&S great at Christmas and can be surprising (Marks & Spencer)

Member Name: bucksfizz66

Product:	Marks & Spencer
Date:	10/06/09 (18 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Larger stores have lots of choice and ideas under one roof

Disadvantages: Smaller stores are uninspiring and off/online services need to be aligned

I truly believe to get the most out of a Marks and Spencers shopping experience you have to go to one of the larger stores, I personally use Fosse Park off j21 of the M1/end of M69. The smaller stores have a very limited range and don't really get the retail juices flowing for me.

Fosse has a large clothing section, foodhall, cafe, home and gift section. The clothing section and the cafe have seen the main focus of my attention, but before I progress on these - the home section of this store is now taking on the appearance of a store in a closing down sale, sad really it was better before.

Clothing is available predominantly for women with their Per una, Autograph, Classic, Value and standard ranges, their plus range is no longer available in store but only online I think this is a shame why are petite people not segregated out in this way?, the mens section is smaller (of course) but adequate. The male accessories available here are pricey and I have never been tempted to indulge. There is also a childrens clothing section, to be honest I'm not a great fan of M&S childrens clothes but at Christmas they came up trumps with a fab Hannah Montana dress for my daughter.

Christmas is a great time at M&S as there range of gifts is inspiring and often reasonably priced or part of a 3 for 2 offer. their Little Readers books present great value at £2.50 / £3 each. it is a store to persevere with as it often yields some great surprises.

There are notes around the store to advise that if you cannot find the size of item you require then store availability can be checked and the item transferred to a local store for you. I thought this was brill as i went to get a coat last winter but my size was not in the store, at the customer service desk the assistant valiantly rang around stores but all to no avail - when she said to me "do you have the internet at home?" she said "I cannot find the coat locally you will be able to check online if it is available from the internet". Which I did and it was available. I'm not entirely sure how common the practice is for the stores and their internet sites to have separately allocated stock that the other could not check but I think this could be better aligned - even if there were internet terminus' in store to enable shoppers to access the M&S site to check online availability.

The cafe is much needed to recooperate during the retail challenge and as much as i love your cafe and its toasted sandwiches and yummy cakes I think £3 for a sandwich is a bit much - we all know what bread costs.

Summary: It's still a definitive choice for the UK shopper