Marks & Sparks is on life support and has retrenched and closed many stores, with ones in UK open but could go under.

I believe that Galeries Lafayette bought the M & S store in Paris

Poor old M&S have just announced that they anticipate only making pre tax profits of £600-£625 million this financial year. Christmas sales down 5.6%
OK perhaps they anticipated more during the festive period but hardly 'going under' would you say.
Bless them- lets have a collection for them.
Muck
ref:
http://www2.marksandspencer.com/thecompany/mediacentre/pressreleases/2005/fin2005-01-07-00.shtml

They used to have a few stores in Canada, but they closed a few years ago.

Elaine is correct. The old Marks and Spencer store in Paris is now Galleries Lafayette's home store.

M & S shut down their operations in Paris and Brussels some time ago. It annoyed their many loyal customers in both cities (expats mostly, but locals as well). Ironically, the Brussels and Paris stores that were closed were actually profitable, unlike many stores in the UK.
I liked their food department and even bought some odd clothing items now and then.

M&S are on line
www, marks&spencer.co.uk. their mail service is very good & reasonable.

Marks and Spencer closed all their stores outside of the UK. The one in Paris actually remained open several months longer. They initinally told their employees that they were going to close in two weeks. The employees were angered and went on strike. The french gov got involved and Mark and Spencer was forced to kept the store open for about 6 months. Galleries Layfayette was allowed to buy the location only after they agreed to keep the old Mark and Spencer employees.

Muck - i'll defer to your knowledge. I only know what i read in the NYtimes Business page which for a few years has said that marks-sparks is a basket case that was left behind in the retailing scene. They've obviously done a quick turnaround.

They had poor management also. When I worked at Brooks Bros.They at one point turned the style around to try to bring in the younger crowd and drove away all the well-heeled older crowd. They finally sold us at a loss because they over-paid to buy.

BTilke
"even bought some odd clothing items now and then"
"odd" as in peculiar or occassionally?

first, second and both

They still had a store in Prague in August, there was one in Gran Canaria. in October and I remember one store in Hong Kong too a year or so ago.
The problem with M&S is that they shot themselves in the foot in the eyes of the British public several years ago.
By boldly announcing to the world that they were moving manufacture of their clothes to Asia. Now you may think this is a bold move for a successful company seeking to improve even more their bottom line.
Alas this was not the case. British people considered M&S to be a british store selling quality british made merchandise, and its reputation up to and including the 60's and 70's was built around that very strong british brandname.But when manufacture moved to Asia the customers rebelled, no longer were they buying predominantly british made merchandise but the quality was worse and the cost the same.
This single strategic decision, sent M&S in a downwards spiral which effectively made a whole generation of women (and men too) take their business elsewhere. NEXT opened up along with supermarkets selling quality clothes too and they all stole the market share from under their noses. They are only now beginning to recover.
M&S were so sure of themselves that they only recently began accepting credit cards other than their own, and this they did far too late. They were too cock sure of their strength and subsequently we see the business as it is today. Although far from destitute, the shareholders greed is demanding greater returns their forecasts are inacurate and their top management is changing almost by the week.
This is why the short term thinking strategies of these british companies will never enable them to be great again.

Ok I off the soap box now


Muck

To AggieGirl : Bonjour,

I loved buying my cheddar and bacon, tea, and other British items in the Marks and Spencer located in my town, Rouen... Their vegetarian "quiches" were good and one could also buy some Indian dishes, etc. I also bought my "papier hygiénique"/toilet paper as well as my "Kleenex"/tisues there, lol, because the Anglo-Saxon ones are always more "raffinés"/sophisticated than the ones we find in France...

Alas, they closed a few years ago...

The store in Nantes (my in-laws live there), in the south of Brittany, remained open for a few more months. Thus, my sister-in-law bought some tea for me at times... But it eventually closed too !

I know I could go the Galeries Lafayettes in Paris, but I don't often go "dans la capitale" Cordialement. Marie

Merci, Marie and all who responded.

And to add to their woes, here in Hong Kong, the premier Mall has refused to renew its lease with M&S saying that it no longer fits in with their image. Typical, brand concious Hong Kong! Felt quite sad for M&S.

I grew up in India and I remember the clothes my aunt bought me as a little girl, as presents from M&S - they were considered the best! I remember calling them St. Michaeal's then, for some reason.

Marks and Spencer closed their store in Zagreb as well but after few months reopened it in the same Mall on different floor. After closing they said they are closing all stores outside the UK, but like I said the store was reopened only few months later. So who knows...

M+S no longer operate stores outside the British Isles. But there's still a lot of franchises, outside Western Europe, operated by third parties but selling M+S branded clothes.

As far as I'm aware, no shop, anywhere, sells M+S branded anything unless it's an M+S store or franchise. Galleries Lafayette don't sell M+S food.

It's not just nonsense, but the total opposite of the truth, to believe M+S' problems come from using Asian factories. M+S lagged seriously behind other UK retailers in buying clothes made by the world's best value factories. So for most of the 1990s, its clothes were preposterously more expensive than its immediate rivals'.

But the fantasy that the British are chauvinists is nothing like as insane as the even bigger fantasy M+S are, or ever were, a basket case. M+S still account for a larger share of the UK's spending on clothing than any other retailer in the world achieves of its home country's apparel sales. Americans typically get paranoid about the fact that Wal-Mart's share of the US market is approaching M+S' share of the UK's.

If the NY Times really ever produced such a fatuous article, it'd just be another example of its famous habit of inventing stories.

I read that WalMart may buy Marks-Sparks! Does ASDA sell M&S products?

the store is gone from Canada. I really miss the tea. I was planning to get some in Paris, but the store was closed. I also checked their online store, but they don't mention food products. Anyone know how I can get it?

Deepa St Michael & St Margaret used to be the brand name for M&S