[Fair use for education and research purpose only]

April 28 2000 BRITAIN Title: M&S Shops Shut by Glitch in a Bra Code BY FRASER NELSON RETAIL CORRESPONDENT

The secret support vest was one of the bras M&S computers failed to recognise

--------- THIRTY-ONE Marks & Spencer stores were closed yesterday by a computer glitch which left tills unable to recognise a promotion offering #3 off any two brassieres.

Bemused customers found that several M&S bestsellers, including its modern minimiser bra, the padded bandeau bra and the halterneck secret support vest, did not register with the barcode scanners. This sent the till system into spasm, forcing managers at affected stores to close.

The troubled chain - which sells one bra in every three bought in Britain - said that the special offer was one of 27,000 price adjustments programmed into its computer on Wednesday night.

"It became clear that tills in the affected stores were working very, very slowly, so the only choice was to restart the whole system," a spokesman said. "Some stores were shut for about 30 minutes and others for an hour and a half. Only two were closed all day."

Most of the affected stores discovered the problem before opening their doors. This was the case with Chatham in Kent and Hammersmith in West London, which opened half an hour late. Others endured chaos before deciding to close. The store in Dumfries opened at 9am but had to ask all shoppers to leave at 9.35am. Stores in Hounslow and Portsmouth were shut all day.

The fiasco comes a week after M&S finally accepted credit cards. Its tills have had the technology for several years, but the company had been resisting Visa and Mastercard in the hope that its more loyal customers would stick to their M&S Chargecards.

Amanda-Jane Doran, a mother of two from Tunbridge Wells, said the fiasco had scuppered her early-morning shopping plans. "I'd just dropped the kids off at school, and I was heading for M&S for chicken, birthday cards, wrapping paper and booze which you can't get in one shop anywhere else," she said.

"But we were turned away at the door by a very nice lady who said all the computers had broken down. There were about 40 people outside and none of us believed that a company like Marks & Spencer would take long to sort this out. But I tried to get in the back door an hour later, and it was still locked."

Mrs Doran said that seeing M&S's technical support collapse would not put her off shopping there in the future.She said: "I had to go to Boots for my cards and wrapping paper, and they weren't as good. I had to give up on the chicken completely."

http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/04/28/timnwsnws03019.html

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), April 28, 2000

Answers

Dee - this is *definitely* an Infrastructure problem!

-- Sally Strackbein (sally@y2kkitchen.com), April 28, 2000.

LOL Sally

-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), April 28, 2000.