Food feedback
Published: 11 April, 2006
The new hot food 'To Go' offer is implanted in the established 'grab and go' area of sandwiches, boxed salads, cold drinks, etc, and adds a new dimension to M&S food, cunningly located nearest to the office district in Milton Keynes.
With ten till points (eight were open on the Saturday visit), and a short, focused, hot food and drink menu, the emphasis is on quality products and speedy service. Time to put the offer through its paces!
After joining (and then having to rejoin) the snaking, confused queue, I decided on my purchases from the menu board that runs above the whole length of the counter. Once at the front of the queue, a screen pointed me to an available till where the order was placed - Thai Chicken Noodles (£3.25), Fat Chips (what else do you expect! £1.20), Sausage Roll (£1.50) and Caffe Latte (£1.50).
Within 90 seconds, the food order had been completed, packaged and handed over (minus the Latte which took a reminder and a further minute to receive). This certainly met the speedy service expectation. As for the food, my expectations were high having been seduced by those wonderful M&S adverts on the TV and in the main, met. The Thai Noodles were spicy, hot and flavoursome; the chips thick, crisp and piping hot; and the sausage roll meaty. The Latte was adequate - hot, but not creamy.
Overall, the experience was good. A bit more work is required on signage and wayfinding, but service and food quality ticked the boxes. With a few tweaks, M&S will be challenging the fast food providers on the high street, but with a more relevant menu for the consumer.
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