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2026-07-05 17:47:08 - Paul D. Foy -
MarksAndSpencer

I thought I'd do a stream of consciousness post on Marks and Spencers. I do shop at other supermarkets so I'm not neglecting other supermarkets and other supermarkets have value and some good points but I'd like to do this post on Marks and Spencers. First of all I should declare that I am a shareholder in Marks and Spencers and I've been for a reasonable amount of time. Perhaps it's worth inquiring as to why I am a shareholder in Marks and Spencers. I bought the shares when I felt that they were fairly lowly priced and seemed to offer something which was quite good and quite distinctive and worthy of a re-evaluation in some sense so I thought it was a good investment. Now anybody can pass on goods on the whole. It's not all that difficult so there are a few important features in getting it right. I feel that there are two things principally: Quality and Price. If something is not of good quality it's not going to last very long so I think that's important and if something is mispriced so that people can't afford it or they feel it's too expensive for what it is or it doesn't fairly value the product then that is also a bad point. Now, on the quality front I feel Marks and Spencers is very good. It's not bad there. It's one of the better players there. You can do simple comparisons, you can compare the amount of tea in the teabags of Marks and Spencers and elsewhere, you can compare the taste of the tomatoes with others from other places or you can compare the tenderness and the taste of the meat. It's all it's all very universally quite of a good quality so they seem to have got that right and that seems to be a big selling point which this supermarket has got in its favour which is one of the reasons I invested now on the price front that is a very sensitive topic. thing for a supermarket as I told one of the employees and I don't think they're an upmarket supermarket on the whole marks and spencers and I don't think they're doing too badly on that front either not at all you can buy very cheaply priced flour they have many discounts often on the product so you can pick up a joint of pork which may make 6 meals yes 6 meals, good meals and that might cost you a ten pounds thirteen pounds proper price so they're doing good on that front I don't think they I don't think they're just catering for the the wealthier older people they're catering for the they're sensibly catering for everybody it seems to me which is a very good investment case because there's a lot of growth there's a everybody's a lot of people there's a lot of potential growth there Mow I had I had an interesting interaction with one of the employees the other weekend when I was this weekend when I was in Marks and Spencers she was sitting on the till serving me checking in the goods and I was packing them and now Marks and Spencers has recently installed automated tills where you can process yourself large quantities of goods and um okay most supermarkets are doing that and they were a bit they were a bit they were a bit later on doing that so I was I was inquiring this situation because my mother prefers, as an upmarket supermarket, to be served properly. I'm not I'm not too fussed about it if the machine is convenient, I'll use anything, but I inquired of this shop assistant if she actually liked sitting on the till processing the goods because I have come across a little resistance or a little not feeling too pleased about doing this from some shop workers and no, she seemed to find that okay and she seemed a little befuddled as to why they were going for the automated route when customers like my mother prefer to be served well. I assured her that there is nothing to do with you on the whole. It was to reduce costs and increase the profit for shareholders and so I thought well, that's perhaps a bit of a selfish thing there. It's all very well for me, but it's doing her out of a job and benefiting me, but it's not all that straightforward because reducing costs means more people can use the supermarket. It's more accessible for poorer people, poorer people get better quality of food etc. etc. so it's a moot point and there's perhaps a wider advantage to moving down the automated route than perhaps meets the eye so it's possibly, I think, an inevitable development.