M&S Stevenage - Quality leader's impressive store

The recently opened M&S food store in Stevenage near London is a store well worth a visit. Located about an hour's trip from central London, Stevenage is an excellent place to see many stores at once. The retail park has many grocery and specialist stores close to each other. We visited the Stevenage retail park, and one store stood out from the crowd.

The M&S Stevenage store is a standalone store with entrances on two sides of the store. The first thing one pays attention to is the impressive way everything is in order. As M&S Food assortment size is way smaller than in Tesco, for example, it is easier for M&S to control and present the assortment more commercially.

M&S is not trying to be the cheapest grocer in the market. Nowhere near, actually. They clearly are looking for people who appreciate new ideas, easiness and quality of food. This can be seen in the fruit department, where you won’t see any wonky vegetables or overripe fruits. Everything is in order and looking great.

One part where M&S is very strong is in ready meals. Whether it is Food to Go or family dinners, M&S Stevenage offers good choices on both with exciting alternatives.

M&S Stevenage also shows how good M&S is on its own brands. A good example is the Percy Pig candies, which has become a well-known brand itself.

With solid own brands, M&S distances and blurs itself from the price comparisons. Actually, from M&S stores, it’s hard to find any branded products. That shows how strongly they drive sales to their own brands.

It is also interesting how a grocery retailer can succeed with only a handful of big brands. Price-led discounters have done that for decades, but only a few quality grocers have dared to limit the assortment to a bit more than 6 000 products. How many big retailers would dare to cut the majority of big brands away?

For a retail geek, M&S Stevenage is a must-visit. Such an inspirational store that offers plenty of good ideas to take home.