The Lowdown

Marks & Spencer goes for brands

It is the end of an era. Marks & Spencer has given up the habit of a lifetime (our lifetime at any rate) and is selling big name brands. It is interesting to see the brands Marks & Spencer thinks its Irish customers want. Last week it put 450 non-M&S products on the shelves of its biggest stores. Smaller numbers of branded products will be sold in smaller outlets. It is good to see that many of the products which have made the cut are Irish, including teas from Barry’s and Lyons, Batchelors Beans, MiWadi and – obviously enough – Tayto. They could hardly leave out Tayto, now could they?

According to the retailer, none of its own products will be de-listed and new stuff will complement M&S’s “existing high quality, own-label products”.

Could it be they’re raising the white flag when it comes to soft drinks, sweets, beer, laundry and personal care products, which always struggled to compete with branded favourites?

So, how was your holiday?

While we’re all familiar at this stage with Trip Advisor, the website which asks people to post reviews of accommodation and holiday destinations, a comparatively new Irish site has taken the social networking review system a step further and is allowing people to review everything from restaurants and hotels to pubs and hairdressers.

On WhoseView.ie, users can review locations in Dublin, Cork and Galway as well as six cities in the UK. It has around 100,000 visitors a month and there are over 12,500 customer reviews on the site. Inevitably, there is an iPhone app for the site so you can cast aspersions or otherwise on wherever you might find yourself, on the hoof.