The £25 silver metallic handbag has been returned by several customers claiming the new accessory had a mal-odour.
Others have noted their smelly complaint on the store’s website.
A Marks and Spencer spokesman insists that the bag is a popular product with “extremely low rates of return.”
The spokesman did confirm, however, that the bag in question had been returned numerous times due to its smell.
Caroline Smith, 50, is one such customer who found the bag’s smell unbearable. She bought the handbag as a birthday gift for her mother but said she was too embarrassed to use it.
She said: “It’s a really horrible smell as if she’s carrying around some smoked mackerel. Mum’s tried everything. She’s filled it with perfumed tissues and hung it out to air, but nothing works.”
One online customer said the bag had a “horrible adhesive smell” and had to hang the bag, which is made in China from polyurethane, outside for three weeks before it lost its “peculiar” stench.
This isn’t the first smelly bag to come from a Marks and Spencer Warehouse. A customer from Bristol said a clutch purchased at the store had a “fishy smell that won’t go away.”
Another customer in Somerset claimed a crocodile skin shopping bag purchased at M&S reeked of a foul stench.
The brand prides itself on quality, affordability and trustworthiness, but this latest product has some shoppers turning up their noses in disgust.
