Bank holidays and Christmas are the Hunger Games of opening times. Eclipse Park usually shortens the hours. For example, closing at 5:00 PM on Easter Sunday. I once walked in at 4:30 PM looking for hot cross buns, and an employee physically blocked me. “We’ve just sold the last one to a lady in a floral dress.” I wept. Not metaphorically. Actual tears.
Check the store’s website before visiting on a holiday. Or better yet, call. But don’t call at 8:01 AM—they’re still unboxing the cheese. Call at, say, 10:15 AM, when the nice lady at customer service has had her first coffee. She knows all.
First look inside flagship M&S store which opens tomorrow at Eclipse
The Car Park Conspiracy
Here’s a shocking twist: the car park opens 30 minutes before the store. So if you arrive at 7:30 AM, you can sit in your car, eat a sad pasty from a competitor, and stare at the M&S entrance like a hawk. “Soon,” you whisper. “Soon the Percy Pigs will be mine.” This is peak middle-class madness.
Also, the car park has a two-hour free limit. That’s enough time to buy a week’s worth of groceries, judge everyone’s trolley, and argue with a self-checkout machine. If you exceed two hours, the automatic barrier charges you £1.50. It’s basically a tax on indecision.
