Vastly overpriced monopoly (Motorway Services)

Member Name: twiglet27

Product:	Motorway Services
Date:	25/10/04 (214 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Location, Lavatories

Disadvantages: Cost, Service

Having just returned to the Midlands from Sheffield I though I would review motorway services while the experience is fresh in my mind.

In their favour, motorway services provide handy toilet stops at regular intervals (unless you are between Oxford and London and plan to go round the M25 anti-clockwise). In addition, they are a good place to pull of the road and rest if you're feeling tired. Also, if you are a couple of DINKY's (Dual Income No Kids Yet) and can afford to part with large sums of cash for no particular reason, then they are an important part of creating that UK holiday experience. This is not true of all services (Moto ones especially), but anybody who has been to Westmorland will know how pleasant an experience it *can* be. That really is about all the good points.

The main problem I have with them is price. Upon walking into the services on the M1 just south of Junction 34 (I forget the name) I thought a bottle of water would be nice. I would have purchased one had they not cost £1.30!!!!!! That is what is known in the trade as 'daylight robbery' (except it was night at the time). Let me put that in perspective: THAT'S A .75L BOTTLE OF WATER FOR NEARLY TWICE THE PRICE OF 1L OF PETROL!!!! This is not good value, and the reason I especially object is that motorway services have a guaranteed customer base and by extension a monopoly in the areas in which they operate.

Any talk of higher overheads due to land prices, provision of free car parking, and free lavatory facilities is rubbish. The services receive free advertising in the form of 'tiredness kills' signs and like in the preceding few miles, they pay their staff fractionally above minimum wage (the only time that McDonalds and Burger King employees are actually in a higher wage bracket!!), and they have a continuous stream of customers to whom they charge inflated prices. Anybody who has worked in retail management will tell you that the biggest cost is labour, and it is only really a problem if you have staff working and no customers for them to serve. Motorway services seem to be only area of UK retail left where the till staff don't have time to sit around discussing their social lives because they continually have custom.

With the exception of Westmorland, which is staffed and managed entirely by the locals, very few Motorway services offer the sort of experience that would draw in customers if they were not so conveniently situated. The food is lacklustre, the service non-existent, and the facilities often poor (Sandbach services on the M6 - ugh!) Even at Westmorland my wife and I paid nearly £20 for beans on toast and tea for two - this is what is known as a rip off. There's a cafe on the Romford Road that would have provided twice the quantity of food, of at least the same if not better quality, for half that price - and that's with London property prices. In fact at Tamworth services on the M42, it was the one time that purchasing chocolate from Thorntons was cheaper than going to the 'convenience store'.

If they were to lower their prices to something reasonable then I would recommend them to all, but 50-100% markup in a monopoly is unethical. Go to the supermarket beforehand and prepare for your journeys - you could afford another holiday with what you save!

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