M&S shoppers unhappy with two crucial changes at new Liverpool ONE store

Marks and Spencer’s brand-new Liverpool ONE store opened for the first time on Tuesday morning as hundreds of people eagerly queued outside, but what do locals think of the venue?

We asked LiverpoolWorld readers to share their thoughts on the new shop, and two things were repeatedly mentioned. It seems that despite many loving the design and location, locals aren’t impressed with the much smaller cafe and the lack of toilets.

Rather than a traditional M&S cafe, the new store features the ‘Coffee Shop’ which is the first of its kind in the UK for the retailer.

The revamped menu includes a selection of freshly made sandwiches, freshly baked pastries, chilled drinks and selection of cakes, served ready to go so customers can decide to eat on the move, take back to the office, or sit down in the new dining area. However, the eatery has far less seating than the Church Street venue.

The other issue is the toilets, as the official M&S website states the store has ‘no toilets’ and ‘no baby changing facilities’. The store does have one toilet in the Coffee Shop, rather than the dozens of stalls the Church Street store had. Liverpool ONE does have customer toilets next to the Information Centre on Wall Street, however they cost 30p per visit.

Local reaction

Pauline Jones said: “Going to miss the restaurant can’t believe they only have a small coffee shop.” She added that John Lewis’ restaurant was busy on Tuesday and said “everyone was heading there instead.”

Edna Harkins added: “The coffee shop only has seating for 24. One toilet in the whole store, yes one and that is located in the coffee shop. I was told by M&S assistant that customers should use the Liverpool One pay to use toilets.”

Alison Tichy said: “Lovely looking store, just surprised at how small the cafe was!”

Achim Bonczek said: “Looks great.”

Robert Mcdermaid added: “Hit and miss to be honest! Bitterly disappointed there was no rotisserie, food hall generally OK. Menswear OK. Homeware very poky.”

Yvonne Hope-Bernhard said: “Pathetic sized coffee shop.. long wait and queue today… most people gave up who designed this? No toilets, only one in the coffee shop for coffee shop users only. No packets of sandwiches only single big buns … I was informed I could buy these packs of sandwiches in the extra large food hall and buy a take away coffee… my reply “do I look like someone who walks around eating sandwiches and drinking takeaway coffee”???? Absolutely badly designed… will never go back. When you think how big the coffee shop is at Cheshire Oaks way and they now offer a fab afternoon tea for £10. As you can prob gather by now the new M&S is a big… NO from me (sadly).”