Daniel Stephenson visits Marks & Spencer most days.
Not for the big weekly shop. For the cookie cups.
For the avocado oil crisps. For what he calls “the magic.”
The 31-year-old chef turned content creator started going regularly after an M&S food hall opened near his home in Farnham, Surrey.
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Since then it has become, by his own admission, a daily ritual and a £250-a-month habit.
“I just love the quality and unique food they make,” he says.
“There’s always something new to try.”
Cookie Cups, Caesar Dips and a Cult Following
Ask him what he’s into right now and Stephenson doesn’t hesitate.
“The cookie cups – the base is perfect, it has a nice crisp bite and the fillings are always sweet and creamy. And savoury, it’s the avocado oil crisps with the Caesar loaded dip.”
He’s a chef by trade, which perhaps explains why he takes supermarket snacks this seriously.
“As a foodie, that means a lot to me,” he says of M&S’s quality.
“I equally love the cold picky bits as much as I love the bakery.”
His content has built steadily around this obsession: food reviews, hot takes, and a stream of videos from inside his local store.
The Viral Golden Hour Video
One post took off faster than the rest. Stephenson had gone in to try the new dip range when he walked out and looked up.
“It was a sunny day, around 5pm. I looked up and saw the golden hour sun hitting the front of the store and just thought, ‘Wow, that looks beautiful, I need to share this.'”
He filmed it. “It felt like a magical moment, as if the universe itself was shining a light on this amazing store.”
Thousands of views followed. Then came the comments. Including one from Tesco.
“I replied, ‘Not here, this is a tribute to M&S,'” Stephenson says.
“It got a lot of love from people and my comment got 10 times more likes than theirs.”
‘I’ve Been Called the M&S Guy in the Street’
The persona has stuck. M&S’s own product development team has started liking and sharing his videos, something Stephenson finds genuinely gratifying.
“It’s cool to know they’ve seen my stuff and I hope they feel the love.”
Not everyone is warm about it. “Some people accuse me of being rich or middle class because of how often I go.” He takes it in his stride.
He’s recently launched his own marketing agency alongside the content work, but food and specifically M&S food remains the thread running through everything.
“My best-received videos happen when I’m just experiencing M&S,” he says.
His advice to anyone on the fence about splashing out on fancy crisps:
“You only have one life. Buy some picky bits, eat a pack of cookies and enjoy the time you have.”
Why It Matters
Stephenson is a case study in what creator authenticity actually looks like in 2025: not polished brand deals or scripted hauls, but a genuinely strange devotion to a supermarket food hall that happens to resonate at scale.
For brands, it’s a reminder that product-led UGC, when it’s real, converts in ways no paid campaign quite manages.
The M&S food hall has become a genuine cultural moment in British retail, with the brand leaning hard into premium convenience and snackable innovation.
Stephenson isn’t the only one filming in the aisles. He’s just the one who turned it into an identity.
Watch whether M&S moves to formalise the relationship.
Creators with this level of organic loyalty don’t stay unofficial for long.
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