Marks & Spencer’s Penny Bazaar Bonanza

M&S deluged with penny bargain hunters

Major Marks & Spencer stores across the country were mobbed by hordes of people seeking 1p bargains, but thousands had to leave empty handed. Marks & Spencer celebrated its 125th anniversary by bringing back the Penny Bazaar — the Victorian market stalls that kicked off their business — for a three-day special event.

M&S set up stalls within major stores to sell a range of products, including mugs, knickers and purses for just 1p.

In total, M&S has 2 million items on sale for just 1p, over three days, with all the money raised going to local charities.

But the stock on the first day ran out much earlier than expected — on average 60 items per second were sold and 174 stores sold out of all of their products within an hour — and thousands of shoppers were disappointed. Bargain hunters had started lining up outside the flagship Marble Arch store in London at 5am. And by lunchtime 900,000 customers had visited M&S stores across the country – three times the usual level for a Wednesday morning.

The M&S penny bazaar bonanza was the most popular subject on Twitter as customers swapped information about which stores had stock left.

A spokesman was forced to apologise to all those who kept their pennies but left empty handed, but added that the company is re-stocking all of its stores with more penny bazaar items for sale on Thursday and Friday.

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