M&S only selling pre-ordered Xmas Food

elisebutt65

I hardly ever shop there but was tempted in by their lovely food adverts - Only to find that I couldn't actually buy any!!!

What they don't tell you in the ads is that you have to pre-order the food and then queue up to collect it.

Zach said he fancied some of the honey roast parsnips so rather than spend ages making them, only for him to turn his nose up(as usual with veg) i thought I'd just buy a pack to see if he liked them. The whole of the XMAS section was barricaded off with a couple of sales assistants pulling down the shutter btis and said they were closing this section off now as it was pre-orders only until after Xmas!!

So why advertise the stuff then????

Totally made me feel so anti-xmas and stomped off to Tesco's instead and then did roasted butternut squash which both boys went blehh to in the end - oh well - I liked it!

andyspencerj

Not exactly true im afriad, the items advertised are available to buy in store and do not have to be pre-ordered, infact the majority of the pre-ordered food is exclusive to the ordering service, perhaps the assistant misunderstood or gave you information which was a bit ambiguous? Indeed the parsnips..and the tenderstem brocoli...gold label chardonnay..melt in the middle puddings..frizzante etc are all store stocked items...therefore why would they need to tell you to order them in advance?

elisebutt65

They've actually blocked off a whole aisle with trolleys, which is full of all the Xmas stuff and you can't get to it apart fropm the queueing system. I couldn't find any of the stuff in any other aisles.

andyspencerj

ok no probs, think im with u , if you dont mind me asking which store is this? It seems a really strange set up to close off a xmas section now, especially when today, tomorrow and the morning of xmas eve is our busiest time for these sort of items. I can understand them blocking off the section if the stock had sold out, but this would be replenshed tonight or friday night so certaintly no reason to block it off and just do pre orders until after xmas

Alfie_E

Could it have anything to do with their depot near Hemel Hempstead being affected but the oil fire? If they haven’t recovered from missed deliveries, maybe they’re putting priority on making sure all the pre-order get fulfilled.

elisebutt65

It's the Leamington Spa tore. They hadn't sold out. When we went in it was just gone 1.00 and they were pulling down the silver blinds and it looked they had finished selling the stuff for the day??? There was still loads of stuff for sale behind the blinds though - i was really ,really annoyed, seeing all this food and not being able to buy anything!

Poppy9

Did you check another part of the store for the items? My local M&S have a roped off section for pre-order collections, however all the items are also available on the normal shelves. I saw the parsnips today along with the turkeys etc. In the past I have pre-ordered a turkey. I have put it in my basket and then seen the same turkery only with a later use by date and swopped it before paying.

elisebutt65

Yup - went through the store - it's not a massive one mind you, and couldn't find anything.