Metropol

I saw the revamped M&S at Warrington Gemini today and nearly did a wee in my pants. I have to say it's absolutely stunning inside and out.

A couple of exterior pics here.

I know several folk on here will be familiar with the old store but for those who aren't, it was a dismal 1980s metal thing from an era when it was considered acceptable for shops on out-of-town retail parks to look like industrial units with no aesthetic appeal whatsoever.

There are not one, but three cafés inside (I don't recall it previously having any!):

1. A "please wait to be seated" bistro-gastro-restaurant-thing called "M&S Kitchen"
2. A Selfridges-style "Food on the Go" deli bar
3. A more conventional, but still very swish and modern, coffee shop (although distinctly different to "Café Revive" which I've recently seen popping up in other stores)

I suspect one or more of these formats are trials. If that is the case, it seems unfortunate to pilot them in an M&S situated right next door to an IKEA, where the coffee is famously free, Full English breakfasts are 99p, pastries are 50p, etc. The results of customer demand are hardly going to be representative of a typical M&S which isn't next to an IKEA.

My only niggle would be the inconsistencies between capitalisation and lower case on the large format lettering appearing on the in-store signs and walls. I saw "Food Hall", "Food hall" and to complete the trilogy, "food hall".

The only M&S I'm now aware of that's in desperate need of a revamp is Macclesfield, which had some half-hearted tweaks in the late 90s (mainly only to the interior) but still has fittings and exterior signs from the 1970s, and just looks shabby throughout.

I don't think any of those food places are trials - all three are in the flagship Newcastle store, as well as a "Food to Go" fast-food type thing and an "M&S Restaurant" sit-down table-service affair.

I understand that Cafe Revive is being replaced by M&S Cafe (which is what the Cafe Revive branding replaced in the first place, if I remember rightly!)

tillyoshea wrote:I don't think any of those food places are trials - all three are in the flagship Newcastle store, as well as a "Food to Go" fast-food type thing and an "M&S Restaurant" sit-down table-service affair.

I understand that Cafe Revive is being replaced by M&S Cafe (which is what the Cafe Revive branding replaced in the first place, if I remember rightly!)

The signage in the nearest M&S to me doesn't appear to be able to make a decision on the 'Cafe Revive' or 'M&S Cafe' name. Overhead, some say 'Cafe Revive', but on the 'On this floor' sign we have 'M&S Cafe'.

M&S have renamed the Truro Store to Cafe, from Revive, in the last twelve months, The only menu change that has resulted is the introduction of limited reheatable hot single serving savouries from the food hall in addition to the previous cold and hot soup items.

The Sainsbury's in which I used to work has a similar identity crisis, all the nice names given to counters under the 1999 scheme ("salad kitchen", "delicatessen" and "food to go") were lost (becoming "Salad Bar", "Deli" and "Hot meals" respectively). Now, some new signage has gone up in addition to that lot, changing "Hot meals" to "HOT FOOD". To add to the confusion, the in-store plan and tannoy still refer to 'food to go'.

With the creation of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority on 1st April GMPTE has changed to Transport for Greater Manchester along with an update on the GMPTE 'M':

Previously:

No guessing where they got the idea for the new name from!

The only M&S I'm now aware of that's in desperate need of a revamp is Macclesfield, which had some half-hearted tweaks in the late 90s (mainly only to the interior) but still has fittings and exterior signs from the 1970s, and just looks shabby throughout.

You clearly haven't been near the Newton Abbot store recently then. They've half-heartedly turned it into an 'outlet store' with a few cardboard signs in the windows but all the main signeage, exterior doors, and shopfit have been unchanged since the 1970's.

Our M&S in Birkenhead had not had a refit for years to and the signs look like they were from the 80's only just this month have they started having a big refit and all new signs with "M&S" not "MARKS & SPENCER" as the old ones use to say.

In America, when JC Penney or Sears turn a branch in to an "Outlet" it's generally a sign that there is no mid/long-term future for that location, and they usually close within a few years as the lease comes up. Sometimes this is seen as the point as to when the Mall/Centre 'died'.

Sounds like the same situation as with that M&S.

My local M&S turned it's upstairs into an 'Outlet' a couple of years ago, downstairs is still a 'normal' store albeit with tiny departments - the menswear section is so small it might as well not be there. They operate as totally different stores so have big signs up telling you not to take items from one floor to another.

Round the corner there's a Matalan outlet which is a horrendous shopping experience

The M&S in the 'Strand' in the town next to us also recently turned to an Outlet, it's probably still got the 90s style M&S store that they've recently gotten rid of at all other M&S stores.

The staff were devestated at the time as they thought the end was near.