Slogan: ‘Don’t ask the price, it’s a penny’
The Marks & Spencer company was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks, a Jewish immigrant from Belarus, who began with a market stall in Leeds.
His slogan was “Don’t ask the price, it’s a penny.”
His business thrived and in 1984, he went into partnership with Tom Spencer, a cashier with the wholesaler Dewhirst, so he could expand the business.
The pair kept the fixed price concept and the first shops were called “Penny Bazaars” – the penny being one old penny, about half a pence today.
At the time, nearly every shop kept its goods on shelves behind a counter, requiring the customer to ask the assistant for it. Marks and Spencer displayed their goods on open trays, allowing the customers to rummage through for themselves.
At first the stores concentrated on haberdashery – threads, needles and wool – but in the 1920s, they began to sell both food and women’s underwear. The penny limit was dropped, with items now costing up to five shillings (25p).
The business suffered in three ways during the Second World War. More than 100 stores were damaged by bombing, while the Making of Civilian Clothing Order, due to shortages, meant materials for utility clothing were strictly limited to no more than five buttons, two pockets and four yards of stitching per item.
Food was also rationed, but strangely the order didn’t apply to restaurants, so M&S began to open cafeterias within its stores.
Post-war, the company led the way in clothing production using newly devised manmade materials such as Terylene, which it created in its own laboratories.
It was also the first retailer to introduce the “cool-chain” process in the 1960s, allowing it to sell chilled non-frozen chickens for the first time.
The company currently has 790 stores across the UK.