Shoptalk

Having failed in his bid to buy Marks & Spencer, business tycoon Philip Green has declared his intention to hit M&S's profits hard. Certainly he has plenty of firepower - his group of companies includes Top Shop, Wallis, Burton and Dorothy Perkins.

But it's M&S and Bhs who are the big players, the ones who will come head to head in the High Street. So, trying to back the likely winner, we've been studying the form and compiling our own pre-match report.

Bhs

There is no nice way of saying this but basically, Bhs looks dingy. It is a gloomy, cluttered store where the overall impression is grey, brown and perhaps a particularly nasty pink.

But look harder.

The womenswear section is crammed with good everyday basics. Not cutting-edge style, but cheap, cheerful and wearable. Machine washable suits at £50 could save you wasting good money on work clothes.

Their swimwear is excellent - a good range of styles, from high leg to low cut and - a real bonus - they make many of their swimsuits in a choice of two body lengths.

School wear is good value, well made and with a few fashion touches to stop little madams getting too stroppy.

There are some nice bras at nice prices but the display doesn't tempt you. It is cluttered and chaotic - more jumble sale than designer rail. And many of the colours, as with so many items in the store, are unsubtle and somehow cheap. But again, if you look, there are some good styles at very good prices.

Menswear seems a disaster - all grey, brown and polyester. Cluttered display, limited choice, but there are some decent basics in there if you can bear to look.

Ironically, in view of its dingy appearance, one of Bhs's strengths is its lighting department. Excellent designs, good value for money. Likewise their homeware. Household linens are well designed basics - good colours, good value - but not displayed to their best advantage.

Verdict: Some excellent value basics in among the gloom. If you're put off by the idea of Bhs, don't be - it's well worth a visit.

M&S

Compared with Bhs, M&S is a feast of colour and light. But it's all a bit illusory. For as you get closer to the racks, you see that though the overall effect is fun, individually, things are a mess. There is too much pattern, design, too many colours, stripes and frills - on every garment. It's a bit like designs by five-year-olds. They are aimed at under 21s - who can get a better version of the same design cheaper elsewhere.

There might have been some things we would have liked, but we couldn't find them, In Bhs, the letdown is the gloom, in M&S it's the dazzle and the different sections. Some shirts are here, some there. In all of Middlesbrough's large store, we found precisely three jumpers, all slightly odd styles, none of which we liked. Where are the cheerful racks of classic jumpers in a rainbow of shades? It used to be so easy.

If you find a skirt you like, it's not the right length. Find a jacket, it's not in the right size. Find anything you like, and it's not in the right colour. This year we have bought two skirts which we love to bits - denim with a bit of Lycra, which means they have a bit of stretch and - oh joy - don't crease. They fit well, look good and are very well-made - just what you want in an everyday basic. But they took an awful lot of finding. In fact, we only saw them in one store once and then had to order them.

Menswear is much bigger and brighter than Bhs. Bigger stores have well-made suits at very good prices and their bonus over High Street rivals is that they routinely carry larger and smaller sizes either side of the same range. A good range of shirts but, again, there are styles designed to appeal to the young who don't want them. There's plenty of polyester for those that like that and, just as in womenswear, little in between.

Verdict: Seems like plenty of choice, but it's too easy to come away with nothing. If you manage to find something you like, it's usually of very good quality, well-made and long lasting.

THE TALE OF THE T-SHIRT

We all need T-shirts. Lots of them. In Bhs they're easy to find - whole racks of them - loose, shaped, sleeveless, strappy, round neck, V-neck, non-iron in baby soft combed cotton. We could easily have bought half a dozen, none of them desperately exciting, but all classics at around £8 that would prove useful and long lasting and very wearable.

In M&S, they have a new game called Hunt the T-shirt. There are some here, some there, some on a big wall display, others hiding on crowded racks.

There are T-shirts with patterns, sparkly bits, frills, gathering and tassels on the shoulder. There are even T-shirts featuring Mickey Mouse. Does M&S not realise that its core customers stopped wearing Mickey Mouse T-shirts sometime before Maggie Thatcher came to power?

What we couldn't find was a nice, plain, everyday sort of T-shirt. In past years, they've done long and loose and also did some very nice ones, slightly shaped with a bit of Lycra, that made them neater and smarter. We couldn't find any of those, either.

The lack of T-shirts sums up M&S perfectly. They have gone so far in a bid to try to be clever and exciting and different, that they have completely forgotten the basics. So we went back to Bhs and bought three of their non-iron, super soft T-shirts for £8 each.

BATTLE OF THE BASICS

SCHOOLWEAR

Both had a good range of basics - Teflon coated, non-iron trousers and skirts. Plus bargain packs of shirts and jumpers in a good range of school colours. Bhs's prices were generally cheaper, but M&S had some reductions that made them cheaper still.

Teflon coated shorts: Bhs £6, M&S £7

2 school shirts: Bhs £10, M&S £11

Teflon coated trousers: Bhs £12.75, M&S £11.99

Pinafore dress: Bhs £8, M&S £12

MEN'S SHIRTS

M&S has a wider range of colours and styles, some of them, especially at the top of the range, very well designed and excellent quality. Cheaper ranges are a bit thin in both brands. Both brands have proved to be long lasting.

Easy care long sleeve shirt: Bhs £10, M&S £9

KNICKERS

In the lacy and frilly knicker department, M&S is a clear winner - much classier, nicer colours, better made. Much of the lingerie is very well-made with good designs, and looks much more expensive than it is. With one or two exceptions, Bhs looks cheap - not helped by the overcrowded rails. In the basics, both do a wide range of cotton and cotton and Lycra. Five-pair packs of cotton knickers £5 in both stores. Bhs seemed a better fit - maybe we just have a Bhs bum.

SOCKS

M&S have a wider range and more choice.

Cotton fresh feet socks with Lycra and an anti-bacterial finish: Bhs £6, M&S £7

SO WHO'S GOING TO WIN?

Ultimately, it has to be M&S. But it will be a close-run thing and a good battle can only mean benefits and bonuses for customers. Bhs does a lot of good things, but if M&S can get back to basics, they still have a place in our hearts. They also have one big advantage - we always have to walk through their clothes department to get to the food section.

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