Re: Fat chance
"[...] M&S to buy some bog-standard cheap black trousers for work. It's got to the point where I'm highly unlikely to actually find anything with a 30" waist on ther shop floor."
Take a tape measure. Even the same M&S trousers on a rail can vary up to two inches from the label size. A friend bought me a T-shirt from M&S that was "small" - and it was like a spinnaker on me. Now she buys me "Fruit of the Loom" T-shirts whose "medium" size is a nice snug fit.