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M&S giant superstore at Hedge End, Southampton
(click to view larger image)
It’s no wonder that UK clothing retail giant Marks & Spencers is in decline. A visit to one of its largest regional stores reveals a dirty, lack-lustre and thoroughly shabby retail outlet - and you'll probably want to take a shower afterwards. This is sad because at one time good old M&S was a household name renowned for affordably priced and hardwearing clothing.
Sure, M&S was never noted for being at the cutting edge of fashion but anything you bought would see several cycles of fashion before it finally wore out. Stores were clean and well laid out and everything was sized and priced correctly. Friendly, helpful staff were always available to assist you with your purchase.
Slightly apologetic sign gives no idea of the squalor inside
(click to view larger image)
What a different story today! When two members of the Millennium Editorial Team visited the Hedge End (Southampton) branch on the afternoon of 1999-08-07, to top up the ModelNet props box in the clear out sale, they actually had to blow the builders dirt from their purchases! Rack upon damaged rack of un-priced, badly displayed and poorly labelled rags hung limply from broken hangers or tossed on the floor. It took hours to find anything useful. Granted, eventually the Team bought a load of gear relatively cheaply but they’ve had to wash everything before use!
One slightly apologetic notice for the horrors that lay within was placed outside the main door. There were, however, no warnings to asthmatics or those with dust or skin allergies that M&S Hedge End’s pantyhose and other items of intimate apparel are covered in a layer of builder’s dirt, thick enough to write your name in.
The scrap of paper passes as a business card
for M&S Hedge End Manageress
Whilst much of this is appears to be a depressingly familiar shopping experience in M&S stores, if stories in the financial press are to be believed, it is not usually personally threatening. The attitude its management had towards anyone taking photographs in the store was altogether much more scary! On snapping the disgusting spectacle that is M&S Hedge End, the manageress and the shop-lad who had first alerted management to the Teams’ presence in store attempted at first to confiscate the film from the Team’s digital camera.
After learning what a digital camera was she suggested they should instead confiscate or destroy – without compensation – the £80 flash RAM chips on which the images were saved. Apparently you need permission to take pictures in an M&S store - although there are no visible notices in the building to indicate that photography is forbidden. Our journalists were given the name of a London-based marketing firm, from whom they should seek permission. The store manageress hurriedly scribbled scant details on a tiny scrap of paper. M&S Store managers don't have proper business cards we were told!
The manageress with the strangely appropriate name of Tory insisted all our images were deleted before our people were permitted to leave the store. Fortunately for us, whatever skills M&S looks for in its management recruits, brainpower doesn't seem to be one of them and poor Tory didn’t realise the flash RAM chip they deleted was, in fact, a blank one!
The eagerness with which Tory thought she had destroyed the images was only matched by the Team’s determination to save them. It is ironic that a few snaps for the digital scrapbook should suddenly become the object of such a battle of wills. Indeed this entire article was spawned by the inept and heavy-handed management that thought it could cover up its failings by illegally detaining our off-duty journalists until they gave up the evidence.
Boxes of M&S tights covered with dust
thick enough to write your name in
Click to view larger image
Perhaps Tory’s sensitivity to the store under her ‘management’ being photographed had something to do with a recent planning application to extend the already monstrous, out-of-town shed being turned down? Or was it M&S building a mezzanine floor directly above the sales floor to circumvent planning constraints? Perhaps it was due to their meeting with representatives from the Environmental Health Department earlier that week? Perhaps her store was in even more squalid than usual and she didn't want head office to find out? Maybe she'd simply had a bad day? She didn't actually deny any of the above!
Although I am a migratory bird, I have always considered myself an English Goose. As such, it is tragic to see a great British institution fall into such rack and ruin. The Hedge end store resembled a scruffy Hong Kong basement market but lacked both the value for money and quality you would expect in Hong Kong. Besides, despite being under Chinese rule, no one in Hong Kong has ever tried to confiscate our equipment or detain our journalists illegally ! If all its other stores resemble Hedge End then M&S really does deserve to be in its current predicament and its shareholders have great cause for concern.
CompetitionWe have three reels of Fuji ISO 100, 36 Exposure 35mm film to give away to the sender of the best-worst high-resolution image taken inside the most squalid M&S shop you can find. Don’t forget to tell us the store location as well as the date and time it was taken. Also make careful notes of any strange happenings or run-ins with officious M&S elite with unusual names such as 'Tory', 'Nazi' or Slightly to the Right of Genghis Khan'! Competition is open to the entire population of the planet. M&S Staff and Shareholders are particularly welcome to participate. Closing Date 1999-12-31, editor’s decision is final. Send 35mm negative or slide or preferably attach decent resolution JPEG:
page created: 1999-08-08
