Should anyone care what happens to Marks & Spencer? It’s a funny business, retail. On the announcement that the company – still one of Britain’s biggest, with a market value of about £5.3bn – will close some 60 of its stores, the immediate thought I had was whether the outlets I use would be among those shutting.

Like rural post offices, bank branches and pubs, people seem to want to keep M&S shops open even if they never set foot in them from one end of the year to the other. If they did set foot in them and buy some gear, they wouldn’t be shutting the stores. A little paradox there.

But I do shop at M&S. It’s a family tradition. We’ve always gone there, and always will.

The abiding appeal of the department store is that they stock clothes that wear well, fit well and at least some of us consider quite stylish. Usually I am clothed head to toe in M&S, from underwear to overcoat, and I’m proud of it.

M&S boss says there will be 'more stores, not less'

I should also declare a further interest in that I hold some shares in M&S too, such is my long-standing enthusiasm for the brand and confidence (however misplaced) in its ability to bounce back from whatever setbacks befall it.

Like me, though, the managers of “my” business can see that the long struggle to stay competitive in female fashion is over. Apparently M&S will never appeal to women under 40 years of age, and when trying to get down with the kids it has difficulty in keeping its older clientele simultaneously contented in their frocks and socks.

Better, then, to move on and capitalise on the brand’s extraordinary success in food, where its sure touch has not deserted it – it was always impressive in this field – and convert shops and floor space from empty aisles of slacks that nobody wants to the ready meals, snacks and fresh produce we all apparently crave.

My only plea is that M&S doesn’t chuck out the menswear along with the womenswear. Men with conservative tastes and a simple need to find trousers that fit have stayed more loyal, and profitable, than its female customer base. It would be nice to think we could still get a simple jacket or suit when we need one. How about standalone M&S Men stores as a bold marketing initiative?

The varying fortunes of M&S – poor on womenswear, good on food – may also tell us something interesting about the polarisation of consumer tastes. It is not an entirely new phenomenon, this shrinking of the “middle market” brands, but it may be accelerating.

Take food. For a decade or more, the middle market supermarkets – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, even Morrisons – have been losing ground to surer-footed rivals at each end of the food shopping scale. Lidl and Aldi have mopped up the hard-pressed budget shoppers, with the occasional curious member of the middle classes looking for a bottle of bargain bubbly. At the same time, and no contradiction, Waitrose and M&S have enjoyed record success with their upmarket, more exotic offerings.

The same is happening with cars. BMW and Range Rover do very nicely, as do value makes such as Dacia and Kia. The squeeze hits the mid-market marques, the likes of Renault, Vauxhall and Seat, say. Similarly with air travel; Ryanair and easyJet prosper, as do the super-premium offerings from the established full-service carriers – but there’s less business for those who just want an airline seat with a meal and a drink thrown in.

So, in a rather attenuated way, the stories of M&S clothing (that mid-market squeeze) and M&S food (upmarket boom) may be falling into to that self-same pattern of consumer polarisation. Marks & Spencer, however, is lucky enough to be able to switch between the two, having a presence in each sector.

The changing face of the British shopping basket Show all 12 1 /12 The changing face of the British shopping basket The changing face of the British shopping basket The nation's shopping basket The 'shopping basket' of items making up the suite of consumer price inflation indices are reviewed every year. Some items are taken out of the basket, some are brought in, to reflect changes in the market and to make sure the indices are up to date and representative of consumer spending patterns. Over 700 goods and services go in the basket to try and accurately reflect household spending. The prices of each item are then tracked over time to measure inflation, or the rate at which prices are rising or falling. Here is how it has changed since 1947. The changing face of the British shopping basket 1947: Milk, Tea and bread Many items have been in the basket for a very long time: milk, bread and tea have been there since 1947. The changing face of the British shopping basket 1956: The tin kettle If tea has been in our baskets since 1947, the tin kettle dropped out of the list in 1956. It was replaced by the electric kettle in 1987. The changing face of the British shopping basket 1962: The mangle The mangle, used to press or flatten sheets, tablecloths, kitchen towels, or clothing and other laundry, disappeared from the nation's shopping basket in 1962. The changing face of the British shopping basket 1987: The microwave The microwave made its appearance on the list in 1987. It was added with the vacuum cleaner, the washing machine, the hairdryer and the electric kettle among others. The changing face of the British shopping basket 1987: Radiosets Radiosets disappeared from the nation's shopping basket in 1987. The changing face of the British shopping basket 2001: Credit card fees Credit card fees appeared on the list in 2011. The changing face of the British shopping basket 2007: The VHS video recorder The VHS video recorder disappeared in 2007, coincidentally the Blu-Ray player was added to the list in 2010. The changing face of the British shopping basket 2014: DVD recorder The DVD recorder was removed in 2014 due to recording alternatives. The changing face of the British shopping basket 2014: Video-streaming service subscription Kevin Spacey appears in a scene from Netflix series “House of Cards.” A video-streaming service subscription was included in 2014’s virtual shopping basket. The changing face of the British shopping basket 2015: Electronic cigarette refills/liquid Electronic cigarette refills were introduced due to the increase in expenditure as more people are using e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid. The changing face of the British shopping basket 2016: Coffee-pods People are making coffee at home rather than buying it out, thanks to the popularity of coffee pods, which made the list for the first time this year.

It could be – and here I admit to pushing the socio-economic boat out quite a bit – simply another symptom of a more divided and unequal society. The “haves” travelling BA Club World class, driving a Range Rover Evoque and popping down to Waitrose for a weekly shop (and into M&S Simply Food for their lunchtime sandwich) have never had it so good. By contrast, more of the sort of people Theresa May says are “just managing” have to spend their cash carefully, opting for a Dacia ahead of a Vauxhall, and taking advantage of whatever easyJet and Aldi can offer them.

These are the outward and visible signs of economic change. Clever companies make the most of these trends.