AS one of Pete Swallow’s (M&S Head of Region) loyal customers can I point out that the food halls of the M&S’s at Stockton Heath, Hale, Altrincham and the bigger stores at Chester and Cheshire Oaks are about as much good to me in purchasing fresh food as a UK Parliament coming to a decisive and quick decision on Brexit – absolutely useless.
What Mr Swallow is saying, if I read him correctly, is that the turnover from the Northwich Store not only doesn’t make a profit but its revenue has no contributory benefits to the overheads of M&S’s HQ and distribution networks.
The reasoning behind my statement is that my two or three visits a week to M&S Northwich will, if the store is closed, be replaced by visiting either Waitrose or Sainsbury’s for comparable items.
But can I also remind him of the wider picture? Some years ago I signed up to an M&S credit card.
I believe a typical average annual spend on credit cards is about £25,000 of which perhaps M&S make one per cent (my estimate) to their bottom line for operating the credit card.
I am sure there are at least 1,000 M&S credit card holders who would consider the Northwich store as being their home branch, and so perhaps if all those 1,000 decided to stop using their M&S credit cards and use another company’s this would be a fall in bottom line contribution to M&S of £250,000 if my sums are correct.
As I use the Northwich branch of M&S on a regular basis, I am not sure I can visit the store and purchase more than I am doing but if they do close the branch, I can say my M&S purchases will not default to other of its branches.
My action will be to apply and hopefully obtain a John Lewis/ Waitrose credit card and start using it for all my current credit card purchases and stop using the M&S one and probably cancel it.
I know this alone will not have an impact on M&S decision to close the store but if your other readers do and hopefully there are 1,000 local M&S credit card holders who value the Northwich store and will follow my line of thinking then perhaps a rethink may be on the cards if you will forgive the pun.
In summary, we arrived in the Northwich area in 1989 and have used the M and S store probably every week on average since then and perhaps even two or three times a week and have always found the staff most helpful.
Andrew Rossiter East lane Cuddington
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