John wrote:

I came away feeling they deserve their plight.
I was met with:

Assistants (M&S) talking loudly amongst themselves (complaining about their
manager) when they could have been helping me to spend more money.

Assistant in M&S unable to deal with an item as it didn't have a bar-code.
She went off to find an alternative - but failed, so I had to go.

Depressingly familiar. M&S seem to be staffed by people who used to work
for British Rail/DWP/Local Authority before being sacked for
incompentence and lack of response to customer service.

I had a similar experience at Tesco. I filled up at a "Pay at Pump"
position and it failed to give a receipt. I wandered into the shop to
ask for a written receipt and was faced with an arrogant baggage
refusing to issue one. It took 20 minutes to get a receipt as she argued
variously that (a) she didn't have to give one and (b) there was a
"repeat receipt" button on the machine and (c) any machine would give a
copy receipt if I entered my card and pressed a button for "repeat
receipt".

I pointed out that I had done all of the above before entering the shop.
Eventually someone with clue emerged from the back of the shop to tell
here that the pumps were broken and that she had to hand write a
receipt. Something she could have done when I walked in to the shop.

If they go bankrupt I won't lose any sleep.