Motorway sandwich prices: Mary investigates

5:00pm Thursday 11th September 2008

Motorway Service Stations have been found to be charging over double for their food compared to supermarkets.

Mary investigates.

We sent out a research team to to survey over 60 service stations in England and Wales, found Moto's Reading Services to be the worst offender. A family of four could expect to pay up to to £26.68 for a basic lunch, compared to the average price at a supermarket for the same items of up to £12.24.

Top ten most expensive lunches. Maybe.

Cheaper up North

An analysis of the top ten shows that it is Welcome Break's Sedgemoor services in Somerset that charges the most for a Ginsters BLT sandwich. The top ten is made up of six service stations on the M4, and all but one are run by Moto. Only one station in Northern England appears in the top ten, which indicates that it is more expensive to get a snack on motorways in the South of the country.

Not only is the cost of food at Motorway Service Stations important, but value for money is high the British motorist's agenda as shown in a recent survey by motorwayservice.info, where 40% of people asked said it was the most important improvement needed at Service Stations.

So, find out there you can save on your sandwiches, with our new Food Checker Tool.

What's for lunch?

4 sandwiches
4 packs of crisps
4 KitKats
4 500ml bottles of water

Mary's top tips:

By knowing where the supermarkets are, within a one minute's drive of a junction, a family of four could save up to £14.

Prices within the Moto brand varied depending on location. For example the most expensive place to buy a four fingered Kitkat is Reading at 89p and the cheapest is Port Abraham in Wales, at 60p. If you happen to shop in WHSmith at a Welcome Break Services you are more likely to pay 58p for a Kitkat. Similar variations can be seen in the price of a 500ml bottle of Buxton water.

Whilst Roadchef's food is consistently priced in their Restore shops, the cheapest sandwich available was to £3.09. At Welcome Break the cheapest sandwich was to £2.29. The same Ginsters Cheese and Onion sandwich costs as much as £2.59 from many Moto service stations. In many instances people are paying 30p more if they happen to stop 20 miles up the road.

Savings between the service stations may seem small but there is up to £3.72 between buying the surveyed items at Reading and the cheapest service station, Tebay. The Cumbria based service station is the only one of its kind in the country, as it is not only independent but has a farm shop.