The extortionate cost of buying anything from a cup of tea to a litre of fuel has always been one of drivers’ biggest complaints about motorway service stations.
So will the new facilities opened last month at Britain’s latest service station, Cobham, between J9 and J10 of the M25 in Surrey, be any different?
We recorded the price of a basket of goods from the various shops located on the Cobham site – plus petrol and diesel at the filling station – and compared it to prices at the nearest supermarket, a Sainsbury’s in Cobham village less than 10 minutes away.
Regular visitors to service stations won’t be surprised to see that prices for almost every item were cheaper off the motorway, but it’s eye-opening to see how much of a premium businesses operating on the motorway charge customers. A bottle of water comes with a near-200 per cent price increase, while the Shell filling station charges 6p a litre more for fuel than Sainsbury’s.
Andrew Long, CEO of Extra – the company that operates Cobham services – said: “We can’t control the pricing. We encourage the shops to be competitive, and we know that McDonalds has a ‘same price anywhere’ policy. It’s helpful that we have competition in the building.” He added that stores have added costs in the fees they have to pay to Extra, which is a mixture of flat-rate rent plus a percentage of turnover or profit, plus the need to be open 24/7.
| Sainsbury's Cobham | Services | Difference (£) | Difference (%) | |
| Restaurant cooked breakfast | £4.29 | £7.99 | £3.70 | 86% |
| Chicken sandwich triple pack | £2.80 | £3.99 | £1.19 | 43% |
| Highland spring water 500m | £0.50 | £1.49 | £0.99 | 198% |
| Regular cappuccino | £1.85 | £2.50 | £0.65 | 35% |
| Walkers crisps grab bag | £0.60 | £0.99 | £0.39 | 65% |
| Cadbury’s Dairy Milk 49g | £0.59 | £0.79 | £0.20 | 34% |
| Litre of petrol | 138.90p | 144.90p | 6p | 4% |
| Litre of diesel | 143.90p | 149.90p | 6p | 4% |
| Semi-skimmed two pints | £0.89 | £0.89 | £0.00 | None |
Disqus - noscript
A business
taking advantage of a captive market, perish the thought. Next your be telling
me companies price things in the aid of making a profit... what is the world
coming to!
While I agree the prices are too high, no-one is forcing people to pay them. Fill up with fuel at a local petrol station before you leave (not everyone who fills up at motorway services has been 'caught short' and run low on fuel!), take food with you etc - it's not rocket science!
As piffle says, they are businesses, and will charge what people are willing to pay!
i worked at the sainsburys in cobham before i went to uni, and the amount of people who would come from the motorway was huge. theres no real reason apart from the ease of getting on and off the motorway for anyone to go to the new services
I've never understood why petrol is MORE at service stations, don't they tend to be located on MAIN routes that lorry's pass by anyway!?