How successful is the new M&S store really?
Footfall being an important metric used by retailers to monitor the success of a store, we decided to do our own count of footfall. Our thanks to the wonderful volunteers Lorraine, Angela and Karen and her husband for taking the time to undertake the count. We were already hearing stories of horrendous queues into the car park and people driving away again because they could not find a parking place, even before we started the count. It made us wonder; how successful is the new M&S store really?
Counting shoppers
We measured the footfall at the old store in the High Street on the last Saturday of trading. At this point the store was already half empty as much of the stock had already been moved to the new store. We then also counted footfall at the new store on the first Saturday of trading. It was save to assume the new store would be busy as it had only just opened. Interestingly Karen reported that during her time counting at the new store she did not really see anyone coming out of the store with great big trolleys of shopping at all. Most people came out with one or two items or a bag, not unlike the shoppers that used to go to the store when it was in the high street.
The result of our count are quite shocking…
Last Saturday in the high Street: 03-09-2022 12:00 to 13:00pm:
Footfall on all 3 doors for 1 hour – 947 in Lion Walk entrance; 294 in side entrance; 575 in High street entrance
Overall total 1,816
First Saturday at Stanepark: 10-09-2022 12:00pm to 13:00pm:
Footfall on both entrances for 1 hour – 735 in clothing doors; 340 in food hall doors
Overall total 1,065
These results cannot be good news for M&S
Obviously we know that footfall only tells part of the story. But I am sure if M&S invested £7.5 million into a new store they would be hoping for a larger footfall in the first weeks then they had at the old store. Could this mean that predictions about parking issues and the loss of so many existing customers who cannot get to the new store are affecting the success of this store which is 6 miles away from the original store? We will have to wait and see…
We know M&S said that sales “exceeded expectations” but what we don’t know is if they lowered their expectations due to the strength of feeling about the closure, that has been expressed to them, by so many of their customers?
Either way these results cannot be good news for M&S in the long run. Lets hope they soon see sense and commit opening a store in the centre of Colchester.
Join our campaign and get involved https://savecolchesterhighstreet.co.uk/boycott-declare-it-now/
I will not go the M&S stand park ! I don’t need to go there, plenty of other better stores!
M&s thought they knew best. Many meetings were held to make them see reason. They were intent on leaving the town. They are only interested in the young buyers. But the young buyers cant afford their prices. Or the travel costs. All we wanted was to keep the food hall. It was always packed with customers. M&S you have made the biggest mistake of you’re life.
I think M&S missed a trick by not opening a food hall in Colchester High Street in the premises that Tesco now occupies which sells very basic food items at inflated prices but is always incredibly busy. With the town Sainsbury’s now closed for refurbishment an M&S food hall would have capitalised on this just as Tesco is now doing even though they’re only selling the most limited types of food. Tesco is no substitute for M&S quality but town food shoppers now have nowhere to go. Definitely M&S have made a big mistake. As a non driver I won’t be going to the awful Stane Park.