Marks & Spencer

This branch of Marks and Spencer is quite a big store located in Handsforth Dean, and is in a big retail complex with quite a large Tesco store.
This store can be a nightmare to get to, as it is situated on a large number of roundabout, coming from Manchester for a conference here, they must of been a good 5 roundabouts along the Handforth Bypass, but other than that it is easy to get to, get the motorway towards Birmingham (M60) and just follow the A34, hence coming off the motorway at J3.
The car park is quite big as well, with the regular Tesco car park and just one for the standard retail park.
This is quite a big store, with a good sized food and clothing section, it can be actually quite hard to find everything in away, especially due to the lack of organization with certain people sending me the wrong way, left right and centre, even the co-​ordinator for the event, and I actually had to phone the store to get someone to assist me as they was no staff about — which is totally unacceptable. The event co-​ordinatior works for Marks and Spencer, and did make false promises and taken her time to do everything.
They is 2 cafes in this store, and they are quite nice cafes, they is one big one, where the event tasted place, and it even has trackers on the tables so the server knows where you are. The café isn’t great, although some of the staff were good, running around to get me a gluten free sandwich, to the shop floor and the other café. The café still wasn’t great as my iced tea was quite expensive costing about £2.50, and it did taste home made but absolutely awful, and very watery.
The store has a good sized free from range, compared to other stores, for example the branch at Bury, where it is a struggle to even grab a sandwich, however they are far too expensive, and as the event co-​ordinator is a coeliac, she should do something about it, she even admitted to me in private she knows the range is expensive, but I know she told a few white lies in the presentation.
Overall, this isn’t the greatest Marks and Spencer’s store, even though it is huge, considering issues with the lack of knowledge from staff and staff in general, pricing, lack of organization and simply being a nightmare to get to, roundabout after roundabout, as it is located off a slip road from one, they are unavoidable really and this makes the store, one to not visit rather than to go through all the kerfuffles of the many, confusing roundabouts to visits. I can’t give this store any more than 2 stars.

Yay for M and S! This store would have gotten more stars if they had a better lingerie section! I have spent the past 3 weeks searching various stores for some matching undies to go with a cami I bought, and every store has told me to try this one. When I got here their lingerie section was the same size as the rest, I actually think the Macc store may have had more varieties. Oh well.
The Per Una selection is pretty varied here, although, I can’t help but think it’s a bit expensive for the quality. I do however love Autograph and was able to stock up on a few cute pieces for the office.

It’s a Marks & Spencer like any other, however one thing that I do think separates this one slightly is it’s location right next door to a Tesco’s. So you can pop in to do your shopping all at the same time getting your basics at Tesco’s and your fancier indulgences at Marks. They are so close they even share the same entrance! So you don’t even have to go outside between the two.
The café leaves a little to be desired, although it could have just been the night we went it. Although the food itself was nice (the mushroom panini was lovely!) everything was on paper plates, it was only half open with the other half separated off by a row of chairs and it just looked a bit scruffy. That said it could just have been the time of day.
Free parking and never too busy.