Store of the Week: Marks & Spencer Food

The issues besetting M&S are too numerous for me to get into a tangle with here, but one of them has certainly become that of food. Previously a bulletproof area of the business thanks to its relentless innovation in product, superior service and instore experience, food has also become vulnerable for the retailer.

Rivals have caught up in terms of quality and innovation; M&S has underinvested in its stores, introduced a labyrinthine quagmire of promotions and also unveiled a loyalty card that I’ve personally got value from only when confronted with a frosty car windscreen.

There can be no doubt that the retailer’s leadership have got stuck in to turn things around. Promotions have been streamlined, pricing has been manoeuvred downwards, the range is back on the front foot in terms of focus and innovation and we are seeing some tangible – and genuinely exciting – progress in terms of stores.

At its recent investor morning, M&S scoped out its vision for food: “We need to become BIGGER, BETTER & FRESHER to transform our Food Business and make it more profitable, selling quality products at everyday trusted value, online and in bigger stores that have the mind of a supermarket and the soul of a fresh market.”

With the latter point in mind, two new ‘test & learn’ stores have seen the light of day – a larger concept in Kent’s Hempstead Valley and this little beauty in Clapham. I was very late to the party in terms of visiting due to lots of prior commitments and a long-standing reticence to go south of the river, but I finally made it last week and was blown away.

As I’ve frequently commented here, UK grocery lost its pre-eminence many years ago in terms of best practice and ‘wow’ factor and I really struggle to think of that many examples over the last decade when a major UK grocer has caused me to stand in a shop thinking about much else aside from emigration.

I exaggerate of course: there have been some nifty bits and pieces from Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons over the last few years and the likes of Co-op and Waitrose have also offered glimpses of excellence, but none of them have come close to this level of root and branch reinvention.

M&S has obviously dusted off its passport as part of bringing this new concept together. I detected varying levels of inspiration from the likes of Lucky’s, Jumbo, EDEKA, Carrefour, Albert Heijn and Lowes and was also patriotically happy to see that M&S has resurrected Asda’s notion of an egg fixture that makes clucking noises.

Walking into the store is a veritable treat. With checkouts on the left, one naturally veers into the delightful run of floral and produce, complete with its own sexy Infarm vertical farm for herbs and salads (my money was on Waitrose being the first UK partner, but it seems like M&S were quicker off the mark).

The look and feel, fixtures, signage and execution in produce are all a total joy and are a stark contrast to my local store which exudes all the atmospheric allure of a slightly chilly dental surgery.

Lots of the other stand-outs have already been extensively documented elsewhere, but my personal highlights were the steak section, the cheese fixture, the hot pizza counter and BWS. This is a store that exudes a sense of fun and a respect for food and drink and that also encourages exploration and discovery. To borrow a phrase from someone else, it has the mind of a supermarket and the soul of a fresh market.

I guess the big question will be over the scalability of this concept or even just a handful of features from it. So many retailers have gone down the path of a sexy flagship in London to keep the journos and analysts happy while still peddling a relentlessly dismal experience to the rest of the United Kingdom.

This is a wonderful, and presumably expensive, concept so my best guess will be a steady and selective roll-out to other major cities while using successful elements from the test & learn stores as a sort of magic fairy dust to sprinkle over stores that don’t get a full makeover.

With that in mind, and if anyone important at M&S ever gets to read this, the clucking chicken button and the cheese fixture will keep me going back to the store in Harrow. I’m easily pleased and a cheap date. Regardless of its scalability, this concept represents a genuine high-water mark in the recent history of UK grocery retailing. Hats off.