M&S Foodhall — Local services in London

What on earth is going with staff these days? The lack of preparation for customer service, basic manners, and understanding that "the customer is the key to the business" is becoming more and more apparent here in London, or at least in some places. This happened on Monday, the 29th of September, around 7pm. I went up to the young man working in the bakery and asked him if he could slice a loaf for me. His response was immediate: "NO, we don't slice." I said to him, "What do you mean? I always buy my bread here and ask for it to be sliced." He just repeated that they don't do it. He didn't even bother to say, "I'm sorry, sir, I can't at the moment," or "the machine has already been cleaned," or anything at all that would justify not slicing the bread. Anyway, taken aback by the situation, I asked to speak to the manager. When the manager arrived, he witnessed the employee's attitude. I explained the situation, as I have been a customer of this shop for ages, and this was the first time this has happened, leaving me thoroughly frustrated. To make matters worse, the staff then told me that I should learn to speak English! For goodness' sake, the lad was really worked up and angry. He even confronted me all over again in front of the manager. In short, it was a completely unnecessary situation, perhaps motivated by the staffs lack of training or simple rudeness. Yes, I am an immigrant too, but I learned years ago that the customer comes first (of course, as long as it's with respect and one doesn't have to put up with certain things like what happened here). It's a shame that this whole system of customer and staff relations seems to be deteriorating day by day, with the demand for staff outstripping the sufficient training on how to deal with the public.Regrettably, this is the only assessment I am able to provide under the circumstances. This is particularly disappointing given that I have previously given this establishment favourable reviews and have even featured one of their products in a video on my YouTube channel. The current situation is most...

The previous M&S store on Notting Hill Gate was much better imo. It wasn't such a struggle to negotiate the layout and find items, and there were cashiers instead of self-service tills. The new store started off well with its beautiful spread of eye catching quality goods, but self service payment with only one cashier available (if you're lucky!) was an immediate downside. Since it first opened the store has deteriorated. There's perhaps a staff morale problem, but whoever is recruiting staff and managing the store is not doing a good job imo. And I feel for the staff at the self-service checkout: they look tense and exhausted. The last time I was there I otherwise encountered unhelpful staff: I felt ignored and/or in the way; filling shelves or date checking produce took priority over customers being able to get to the shelves. Although there was no cashier available, there were staff available standing around, one at the back of the store on their phone. I just don't think the staff feel happy there. Better management needed? My last shop there wasn't a good experience. A pity as M&S offer such interesting and quality produce. But the way the store is managed with a few indifferent and/or rude staff let's it down, so too the unavailability of cashiers. There's no accounting for older customers nor the disabled. It's not sufficient or OK to have help at hand (the tense, exhausted staff). There needs to be at least one cashier at a till available all the time, not...

Because I am quite health conscious and an ex vegetarian I am always very impressed by what shops like these are doing on their shelves. They seem to be taking on the fast food take away vendors in a way by offering readymade salads,snacks, sandwiches and beverages at very competitive prices.Marks and Spencers foodhall (standalone) launched a convenience format branded Simply Food in 2001. The stores predominantly sell food although some larger stores also stock a small selection of general merchandise. A number of those are run under franchise agreements: SSP Group, runs the stores at main line railway stations and airports. Moto, has stores at many of its motorway service areas. BP, has petrol stations with Simply Food offerings. The Simply Food brand was phased out in stand alone large stores after the rebrand in 2015 and the stores are now branded as M & S Foodhalls In march 2019 M&S announced that they would open more supermarket sized foodhalls with a floor area between 10,000 and 15,000 sq ft (930 and 1390m) that would stock their full range in order to attract more families looking to do a weekly shop. M & S also lowered the price of over 1000 of their popular lines to compete with their large supermarket rivals such as Tesco's and...