M&S Simply Food - Penrith

Gaby

It takes a lot for me to write a bad review, especially having worked in retail for years, but the staff here are so rude, they make shopping here an uncomfortable experience.

It's mainly a couple of older women who work there. I said sorry to one of them when I accidentally stepped in front of her and she just glared at me. Similarly, I apologised to another woman when I reached for something on a shelf she was stacking and was left feeling like I'd done something wrong.
When buying alcohol two members of staff exchanged glances and stared at me, so I offered to show them my ID, to which they just fully ignored me before approving the sale.

I'm certainly not of the school of thought that the customer is always right, and I know retail workers face a lot of abuse, but I've never been anything but polite to the staff here

Rachel Houghton

Good food, well laid out store, convenient location, now... 90% of the staff are great, really helpful and friendly, apart from one older lady with dyed red hair who seems to be on the self service checkouts fairly often and who seems to have it in for me! I'm actually a regular shopper and she does this every time ?...

I once had an issue where an item hadn't scanned properly and promted an "issue in the bagging area" alert and the way she talked down to me when she came over, like I was some petty criminal was disgusting, she was so rude and curtly told me I had to scan my shopping before putting it in the bagging area! I'd clearly just missed it and stood and waited for someone to come help, like don't we all make mistakes with these self checkouts?

Again...today she was there, I went in with my 3 small children who are very well behaved and she stared at us the whole time I was putting my shopping through to the point where it was actually laughable. I kept making eye contact with her and she just had a hard stare! I was trying very hard to keep a straight face.

I never have and never would steal, I work full time and earn decent money, as does my partner... Just because I'm a young mum with 3 kids she was stood clearly watching me and making wildly wrong assumptions of me. She even sneered at my daughter when she just smiled at her. When I'd finished shopping, she then walked off and stopped staring at me, didn't even say thankyou or goodbye like she had to an elderly couple before me.

Whoever this under 40s, mother hating member of staff is...she needs some SERIOUS retraining on customer service and who to actually bother or "watch" at the tills ? ?

I don't think someone who pushes a Silver Cross pram and puts her kids in Joules clothes is likely to nick some M&S sandwiches ? If I'm treated this way again by her, she will be getting reported directly to customer services.

Karen Rathbone

I know it's only 2 days till the big day and staff must be run off their feet but when I asked for a basket as the trolleys near the entrance did not have them I did not expect to have my head bitten.off by the male assistant. The poor girl on the check out didn't have enough energy to even put my very expensive flowers into the flower bag. Doesn't make for a very positive shopping experience. Maybe M&S should make an effort to train their staff properly in the New Year.

jill

The staff are excellent, the manageress is useless. She was asked a question and her reply was "I haven't got a clue", had no interest in finding the answer and passed me back to the helpful assistant who sought her advice in the first place. The staff can manage perfectly well without her!

George Duffield

Good amount of parking. A nice range of food, reasonable prices.

Unfortunately, the shop is sometimes let down by staff - sometimes long queues, sometimes managers/ supervisors screaming for other employees (instead of using a tanoy) and sometimes them screaming at employees. Seems sketch

barbara wood

Called in the cafe for a quick snack and decided to have soup and a drink. The soup was nothing like the photograph on display which was shown in a ceramic bowl with metal cutlery and two large rolls. It arrived served in a disposable cup with tiny rolls and useless wooden cutlery. The spoon was so shallow it didn't even hold any soup. The soup itself tasted highly processed or powdered. We left the soup. Including the drinks it cost almost £13 and was very poor value for money. Expected better from Marks & Sparks.

Kate Edwards

Ordered online for click & collect, be aware even though you pick the date , you won't be able to actually pick your goods up until after 12 pm on the day. I waited for an hour in the car park waiting for the shop to open to be told this. No apologies nothing!!

Joyce Gotheridge

Just got turned away as not an NHS worker, even though my husband is a carer and we are both over 60. I totally got the restrictions at the start of the pandemic but come on you need to keep up with other stores. The car park was empty and you've just lost a loyal customer.