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M&S CLOSING - Is it a BREXIT conspiracy?

Question

deep down in M&S results at 0800 CET today

"We are proposing to close all of our 53 wholly-owned stores in these ten markets, including ten in China and seven in France, as well as all of our stores in Belgium, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. We are therefore today starting consultation with c.2,100 employees about our proposals"

xl

What a bullsh...conspiracy theory!

Please blame all online-shoppers and on-line shops (for sure in Western Europe) for having exploded their sales to deliver home ...and for customers only do window-shopping for ordering later at home!
Sorry, I don't support online as it will empty and run-down all our city shops ...to be seen already a lot across countries.

And for matters of facts just search online for M&S news since beginning 2015 ..sales down .....sales lowered again ...a lot of them you can find.

Nov 8, 2016 12:07
anon

It certainly isn't a Brexit conspiracy - it's a Belgian one. Massive social charges and taxation on salaries, means quite simply that running a shop like M&S is uneconomic in Belgium. And, why on earth did they choose one of the most expensive locations in Belgium to place their shop? It's hardly a surprise.

Anyone who knows anything about the economics of retail could have told you a year and a half ago, when the shop opened that it wouldn't survive.

Nov 8, 2016 12:33
CM

It's not a Brexit conspiracy, nor is it a Belgian one.

The fact is that people don't really want to buy what they're selling - the clothes aren't much cop and the houseware is very expensive.

It's a shame about the food hall though, which was the one part of the shop that always seems busy.

Nov 8, 2016 12:51
AnnieK

Since they opened I've bought €2.202,38 worth of food from them so I've tried to keep them afloat. :-) However I never buy anything else there.

It's such a shame and I will really miss the store, their food products are generally of excellent quality. Some of the best ready-made meals I've tasted - and not even that expensive by Belgian standards.

It would have been better business to have a pared down version of the shop, with just a food hall and a café twice the size of the current one - they would have for sure made money. The café is always packed when I visit (and they would have made even more money if they had tried to install some non-Belgian customer service at the café as well, instead of constantly running out of food in the middle of the day).

Nov 8, 2016 13:49
Drifter

I cannot find much in their Brussels store. In Marble Arch, I always come out with nice clothes. The selection here is like Belgian women's wear (which may make sense of course, they have to think the local populations' style when they open a shop abroad) but it is quite different from the one's in London. Men's department is full of business suits etc. So I do not go there anymore. When I go I always shop some food, nice biscuits boxes for gifts and nice Indian food. Wish it stayed!

Nov 8, 2016 15:26
kasseistamper

When I moved here 20+ years ago they had a store in rue Neuve in Bxl and, I think, another one in Antwerp.
They were closed down maybe 10 years ago as they were not making money.
I can't understand why they then reopened some years later only to find out, for a second time, that they are not making money!

Nov 8, 2016 15:48
Drifter

The old one was at Rue Neuve, I guess, where H&M or Hema are. However, that one was more similar to the ones in the U.K. This one was somehow upscale but did not work.

Nov 9, 2016 07:09
CC_R

Blame M&S for moving away from their core consumers know many people who lived in there who now don't shop there in the UK because they think it's gone down the toilet as far as quality and style. I think only food is keeping them solvent

Nov 9, 2016 19:55
ClaireDD

I like their lingerie section too. Great quality and great prices. And they have a good selection in the larger cup sizes. I am going to have to return to Hunkemoller, which is only half as good at the same price.

Nov 20, 2016 22:47