Yeah, yet more premises to convert into boozers. Big enough to have a return of the Wine Shades AND the Penny Farthing.
I believe this to be true, and Peel Retail Park is the preferred location. As in most M&S places these days, the food section outdoes the other sections by a fair margin, and the Barnsley store can’t capitalise enough on it. Sad, but not unexpected.
Thinking way ahead of myself here, but Aldi are just doing a trial in one shop in London, and Amazon have done one in the past where there are no checkouts. It's going to be the future, and could surely save a shop like M&S Barnsley. Do away with the clothing, put a decent café in there, and automate the foodhall. Everyone's a winner (Inc staff, as they do other jobs rather than being on the tills). Too soon for Barnsley? (*OK it;s only been trialled in other parts of the world, so it really probably is too soon for Barnsley)
Re m and s, I have wondered if it's relatively low operating costs have given it a comparative edge in the past. I hope it stays. Re car parking. I'm afraid to say I find it an absolute faff. Looking for change and a meter that works, now find the app doesn't always work and can't get the thing off my previous car. Woe betide anybody who overstays 6 minutes or overhangs the small bays etc . I got a ticket about 8 years ago, successfully appealed to adjudicator against some metronomic bod from the council.i won hands down. I did a foi request and found council had lost 55% if appeals in preceding three years. Over zealous enforcement me thinks. And why not let workers park. They're all now voting with their feet and not buying lunch in m and s, vicious downward spiral.
They should stop selling clothes extend the food section and put a cafe in.I remember when I was contracting to M&S on food delivery one Christmas and I had a delivery to the Barnsley store.I thought great local delivery.Little did I know but it was full of turkeys.They did not have the capacity so I was stuck there with a 40ft trailer for 12 bloody hrs.They wanted to send me back the next day but I told them to b##llaks.Happy days
The Amazon go store requires you to check in using an app with registered payments details. You go through a gate and then hundreds of cameras and sensors monitor what you take off the shelves. You’re billed as you exit.
I think the idea is that you're filmed putting everything in to your basket, and so theft becomes almost impossible ... not sure how it works in practice though.
M&S are poorly run - maybe not from a profit perspective, but SR Gents (remember them!) was driven into the grounds by M&S forcing renegotiation of the contract every six season tightening the screw on the margins until they were unsustainable. They are also having major issues in NI and France due to their Chairman (Archie Norman, ex-Tory MP and Brexiteer) not realising that would affect their supply chains... Their clothing seems to be aimed at much older people than me, which is literally a dying market (BHS went down the same route previously). As others have said, their food is vastly outperforming clothes (see also WH Smith), so don't be surprised if they really scale back clothing, etc and concentrate on food in physical stores. As for a coffee shop in Barnsley - what would that offer that Costa, Greggs, Spoons, or even Falcao Lounge and half a dozen others offer already?
It’s well documented that they’re scaling back clothing stores and opening more foodhalls. Most M&S stores have a cafe. The discussion of the cafe arose from people suggesting ways the current store in Barnsley could accommodate the loss of clothing and remain in town, not that a cafe offers something different to what’s already available in town. If M&S does relocate to the Peel Centre I would be very surprised if there wasn’t a cafe included, despite the fact a Starbucks is about to open in the car park.
Annoyingly, an M&S Food Hall opened near me a couple of years ago, maybe? Not that long ago anyway but it shut down last year. It was really handy for grabbing nice birthday presents and a card for friends/colleagues (flowers, wine, posh biscuits etc.) Half the store was always reduced each evening though which was great for me but in hindsight was an indicator of it not surviving.
We will make sure it is the future because it offers us a whole new level of surveillance. As far as we are concerned, you exist only to consume more and more and more. Think of it as battery-farming human beings for profit. “Ultimately, the walk-out model offers retailers far more behavioural data, going beyond what can traditionally be collected from POS systems. Brands can gain insight into what products are picked up and returned to shelves, how long the customer stands in front of what shelves and what products they select as a result, as well as better understanding the in-store behaviors of visitors who exit without making a purchase. This could level the playing field between online versus offline analytics and insights, offering the type of information that retailers could previously only obtain via their e-commerce websites.” The Drum (Marketing Magazine)
Went in a M&S food hall the other day. Then I walked back out and went to Aldi. Working in food production and knowing the "difference" in how food is produced for different retailers I couldn't bring myself to pay those prices.
I get that lots of supermarket branded products are produced for them by other manufacturers, and also get that some are literally the same items repackaged. However, there’s still a difference in quality with some M&S products that I’d rather pay a bit more for. Their sandwiches and ready meals aren’t made with chicken from Thailand for starters.
I'm sure some of it is and M&S are a little more hands on than some of the other Supermarkets. But I have seen first hand the slight little tweaks that are made to M&S products just so they can put on exclusively for M&S or similar. I haven't ever actually been in a M&S food Hall before this and as was blown away by the pricing.
M&S food is miles better than other supermarkets and the choice they have is great. Well worth the extra money in my opinion.
Peel centre is ok but there are no facilities not sure if the building works up there are going to include some toilets
Like I say I don't know for all the food they have produced for them but I know for some of the lines it's certainly not miles better in terms of how it's made and the ingredients. It is however a fantastic marketing policy they have which makes people belive that to be the case. As they say the first bite is with the eyes. As I say working in food production I'm very cynical. I walk around supermarkets and I can usually tell when things have been produced in the same factory as the "private label" alternatives to brands. Struck me as farm shop pricing for processed food.
