Marks & Spencer

This is a small-​ish branch of Marks & Spencer so I often find that it doesn’t stock what I want. The front of the store on the ground floor is devoted to women’s clothes and the Per Una section while the back has the food and wine departments. Children’s and men’s departments are upstairs along with a café which appeared in 2007.
A small area of the store is devoted to household goods such as towels and kitchenware, but the range displayed is extremely limited.
Some M&S ranges (eg the Plus women’s clothing range and the Big & Tall men’s equivalent) aren’t stocked in Staines so you have to travel further afield for these. I’ve also found that the most popular sizes in clothes and (particularly) in shoes sell out quickly and aren’t restocked.
The majority of the staff are of the standard you’d expect from M&S, but some of the weekend staff leave a bit to be desired. While I was waiting to pay last Sunday one teenage girl assistant was telling her colleague some very intimate details of a medical problem she has, while serving customers and in full hearing of a queue of around 10 people!
Queues at tills tend to be long, but the staff do apologise for the wait which makes you feel a bit better.
So, all in all, the Staines branch of M&S is fine for the basics, but if you need anything beyond this you’ll have to make a journey to a bigger branch.