M&S Penny Bazaar Discussion

Bellydancer

This morning, as usual, I had to walk my daughter to school, which is in the opposite direction to town (Maidstone). I then had an appointment at 10am, which meant me walking past M&S to get there. I walked past M&S at around 9:40am, and there was a very long queue outside. It all looked very orderly, though, and it looked to me like they were probably letting a few in at a time. There was a lady in a mop cap standing at the door, and someone was going along the line handing out leaflets. I had hoped I might be able to pop in after my appointment, but it was around 10:20 when I came back past, and a sign outside said that the penny bazaar was over for today, but would be back tomorrow.

I don't know what time it actually finished, but am wondering whether it will be worth going in tomorrow or not, seeing as I won't be able to get there until 9:40 at the earliest. Damn the school run!

sarahjane99

I'd love to have the time to get to M&S for the bargains but it's not possible. But what does interest me is how on earth, BetterBargains4U, have you won all that stuff, this year???

betterbargains4u wrote: »

Fab find.
I've just read the article and replied to this numpty Theo.

SpudGunner

There truly is no pleasing some people. What more do you want for a penny?

I am more than happy with my cufflinks and 4 teatowels (desperately needed the others were threadbare) for 5p

I do wonder what the misery guts posters on this thread expect M&S to offer for a penny - plasma telly?!

ITS A PENNY FOR GOODNESS SAKE

badly_overdrawn_boi

No you are not minnie. Lets not kid ourselves that these were genuine bargains- a significant amount of the stuff was branded tat. I happily gave a fiver in one of the charity bins and walked past the frisbee, tea towel and amazing cup. I would have much rather M & S did some decent promos for the few days than this. Some times are obsession with bargain hunting means we think everything cheap is good .....its not. It made me laugh when sir stuart rose went on the telly and said we have never compromised in 125 years particularly on our values and quality. Thats laughable when you see the rubbish they dished up today. The founder is probably turning in his grave.

mystic_trev

SpudGunner wrote: »

I do wonder what the misery guts posters on this thread expect M&S to offer for a penny - plasma telly?!

No they're saving those for next week!

shaz22

It's been fun. Hope no-one gets the sack from their job because they went to queue for 5 1p items! If so, I hope M&S offer them a replacement job!

aloiseb

I'e often tried to be friendly to M & S staff, but mostly they are having none of it. I think they must be trained to be somewhat distant. Or maybe they just think I'm mad, chatting away (shurely not)

However I haven't the heart to grumble too much, having had such lovely bargains from there, especially in the last 2 years
(I live within walking distance at school-run time of a town centre store)

May try the Penny Bazaar tomorrow if I have time.

I wish they would try for a bit more of a "credit crunch" approach to their Oxfam deal, though - it's hard to spend £35 or more at a time on just clothes, homewear and beauty when we are having to watch our spending - it would be really nice if it could be extended to being food as well, as it's my local corner shop / supermarket.

jenniewb

I agree with the many of you above who are looking forward to taking part in this offer as it is a good one.

I do however wish they had been a bit more inclusive. Not all of us have the time, energy or even ability to wait outside M&S outside for several hours even, que to pick up items that may or may not have run out. Its not very fair really is it?

I think they have so much money available for marketing, and they could have easily used thier heads to come up with something where everyone can take part. Now only a few customers will benefit.

I don't shop at M&S very often, but on special occasions. (its expensive) but their bulk customer seems to be the little old lady who spends their pension there. I doubt very much any of those customers were able to take part in a celebration they infact helped to bring about.

NotJustAny...

jenniewb wrote: »

I don't shop at M&S very often, but on special occasions. (its expensive) but their bulk customer seems to be the little old lady who spends their pension there. I doubt very much any of those customers were able to take part in a celebration they infact helped to bring about.

Well, the first lady into our store yesterday was a little old lady (who was delighted with her 'up to £50 for 1p' voucher), but it was definitely more of a mix than we usually see. With the heavy advertising and the nature of the bazaar, I think that's to be expected.

I think the reason it was done for opening was a logistics one:
a) can you imagine trying to set up the bazaar in the middle of the day when customers would know what was happening? Having done several M&S sales now, there have frequently been times when we have had to get our security guards to accompany staff taking sale rails out onto the floor due to the, ah, enthusiastic nature of some customers. Imagine that with items customers knew were going to be 1p.

b) the same thing would have happened - the difference would be people would queue for 5 / 6 / 7 hours instead of two or three. More complaints, and it could have become a health and safety risk in a lot of stores (I know, I know, 'elf and safety - but considering several stores had to get the police involved to control queues yesterday, it's a very real possibility.)

c) I would say we do run a fair amount of things currently where everyone could take part - Dine In, the current 25% off bras, the home event starting today... but I do see your point. If you have any suggestions as to what could have been done instead, fire away and I will feed them back to HO.

ThinkingOfLinking

To the people getting annoyed by the poster claiming to have jumped the queue and bought a suit, ignore it. Only certain items were included in the promotion, and anything else would not go through as 1p. Furthermore, the relevant items were set up in a little section of their own, hence it being the penny bazaar.