A frugal life is an easy life!

I have never quite understood why Matalan requires membership cards?
To obtain favourable prices for goods? - Not judging by the prices on offer there.

Other than this, I cannot see any benefit for the customer.
The benefit is for the company, who (as with all clubcards/loyalty schemes) pick up valuable information on shopping habits, for demographics on the customers that shop with them and tailor their prices to maximise profits.

This demographical information is also shared with other companies that are part of the same group and sometimes, sold on for profit to other companies.

The store itself was tidy, a little quiet being a Wednesday afternoon.
Only a couple of cages were out in the aisles, one with stock inside, the other with rubbish.
The men's range of clothing was limited and not enough variety, a few plain T-shirts (which were priced at £4 - a £1 more than I found in Primark) and the usual wears.
A much larger range was available for women (A thing I have noticed alot of stores doing lately) perhaps women buy more?

The staff were dotted all around, although their customer service desk was limited to one lady, who was only able to help after dealing with another customer on the phone.
Friendly and helpful they were.
"Sale" racks, containing mostly women's and children's clothing, were not priced up, confusing as some full priced items (which had no original price on either) which were not in the sale, were displayed in the "sale" section.
Some clothing was placed under the "Up to half price" banner, but turned out to be full price but you could buy one for £10 or two for £15.

One thing that stood out, each of the various sections were named with big signs above them, presumably from a designer?
At each side of the design name, were large posters of women wearing various clothes of the design (I thought) it became apparent that not a single one of the model posters were wearing any clothing available to buy in the store!

In Matalan's cookware section, they had a couple of bays of cookware endorsed by Jane Asher, the actress come cake maker.
Well over priced, I don't know how much they are paying her to promote her range, wasted money if you ask me.
We picked up a plastic mixing bowl from Matalan's basic range, with a rubber base, for which we were over charged at the till, until I spotted the price on screen, the lady adjusted it down to what it said on the label.

Mystery shopper scores:
Layout - 8/10 - open and clean in all areas but the sale racks
Staff - 9/10 - helpful and friendly, if a little short staffed on their customer service bay
Range of goods - 4/10 - all too common nowadays, lots for women, men and children average at best
Prices - 3/10 - taking advantage of a lack of a primark in the area?

Overall:
I only went in for a cheap pair of work jeans, unable to find a pair for less than £12 and nothing like the range I have seen elsewhere.
Lose the membership cards and push down your prices, expand the range for men and lose the B celebrity endorsed products.