Green’s Dictionary of Slang

nickname for the Marks & Spencer group of department stores.

1939		Max Miller Nov. [stage show] You can get ’em at Marks and Woolworths.
1943		Mass-Observation Report on Juvenile Drinking 12: The other night at the club I was standing near the door and kept hearing the lads say ‘Well, see you at M.& S.’ – ‘I’ll be at M.& S. later.’ I thought, why meet at Marks and Spencer in the dark? So I said to one of my lads, ‘How are you going to find one another in the dark at Marks and Spencer?’ He said, ‘You are a boob, can’t you guess, it’s the Man and Scythe.’.
1959		A. Sinclair My Friend Judas (1963) 112: Odeons. Woolies. Marks and Sparkses. ABC cafés.
1967		J. Orton Diaries (1986) 14 June 210: I gave him a pair of red jockey pants which I’d bought him at Marks and Sparks.
1983		New Society 10 Mar. 384/1: Marks (inevitably referred to as ‘Marks and Sparks’) [...] offers a degree of style at a reasonable price.
1998		Guardian 4 Aug. 8 [headline] Church ‘less good at listening’ than Marks and MacDonalds.
1999		Indep. 23 Oct. 3: Meanwhile, in Marks and Sparks, the French Resistance is at work.
2009		T. Black Gutted 19: Got dressed in a [...] black cardigan from Markies.
2019		A. Parks February’s Son 74: ‘Boots the chemist and Marks. Aspirin [...] and a new shirt’.
2023		A. Parks To Die in June 133: ‘Marks next, I’m afraid,’ said Phyllis.