I have just had a trip to Notts. from Surrey, not a bad route (M25 J10 to J17? M40 to J10, A43 to M1 J15A to J21A) althogh I do find the roundabouts on the A43 a bit tedious.
What I hate are the prices in the motorway service areas - £1.85 to £1.95 for a cup of coffee? As before we bought nothing, used the loos and drove on.
The prices are the same as the Kings Road, but the setting is different! Does anyone ever actually stop for a meal at these places?
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I agree the prices are steep, but I have some sympathy with the operators.
For every one person who buys a meal or a coffee, probably 10 or 20 just use the loo, so Mr Operator has to cover all his costs from the food etc. I suspect that if he had to charge typical market prices for the food etc, he would have to charge for parking and use of the toilet instead!
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I do exactly the same as you. I believe they are maybe in a catch 22 - the prices are so high to cover the costs of the facilities that people don't pay for (ie toilets), but if the prices were lower then they may have more people actually buying from them!
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there is a web site that gives alternatives to m`way services,think its called 5minutes away or something like that,try google for info.last trip southbound=breakfast at services cost £21.50,on the return trip went to tesco and the same breakfast cost just under £10 and the fuel was cheaper
mrs d also got brownie points on her tesco card.the only down side is that you have to know where you are going to find supermarkets.
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Like in airport restaurants, a lot of people who use them are 'on expenses'. I occasionally use them, but only when someone else is paying and then I don't really think about the cost. Otherwise they are poor value.
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The Good Pub Guide lists pubs that do food within a few minutes of motorway junctions, this is fine if the journey is a fairly leisurely one - not much use if you want to press on.
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www.5minutesaway.co.uk/
Also, for those in the RAC, presentation of your membership card gets a 20% reduction on everything bought at Moto Services (includes anything bought in shop - newspapers, mags, butties, drinks etc) Still expensive though!
Two good places we stop at on way down to Dover are Colney (J22 of M25) - Sainsbury for butties, Starbucks for coffee, and J10 on M20 - Tesco Express (with cafe/restaurant) - shop (not cafe) may even be open 24hrs
Phil
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5minutesaway.co.uk
I had a quick look. Are they paid for ads? Some of them are not that close IMHO
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If anyone is passing the Birmingham IKEA store off the M6 I can recommend their restaraunt.
Prices are reasonable, food is good and you get a bottomless cup of coffee!
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IKEA also at J26 M1 (about a mile or so west)
Phil
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If anyone is passing the Birmingham IKEA store off the M6 I can recommend their restaraunt. Prices are reasonable, food is good and you get a bottomless cup of coffee!
I'd second that. Particularly useful if your going off on the Telford spur and miss Hilton Park. Mind you as Hilton Park is a Moto site I'd prefer to avoid it anyway, much prefer Welcome Break.
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More suggestions here from Britains greatest poet.
www.mrsackroyd.com/mrsameal.htm
--
I read often, only post occasionally
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the only down side is that you have to know where you are going to find supermarkets.
If you have a sat-nav that you can put POI's in. You can do the same as the Cameras for most of the Supermarket chains.
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Davy S.
Oops, where did that screw go!!
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Straight away, i'll acknowledge that McDonalds isn't everyone's cup of tea but:
How is it their prices at Motorway service stations are the same as the High Street. Quite different to Burger King, where it's £5 for a burger meal. i do also acknowledge that the operators have high overheads and this is passed on in high costs, but McDonalds seem to cope.
I like McD's breakfast and do make a point of stopping at Fleet Services. As OP pointed out, it's nearly £2 for a cup of coffee, but you get a meal (alright, snack) for £2.49.
Don't work for them honest!
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.....but McDonalds seem to cope.
That's because unlike others, McDonalds choose to take a small and easily affordable cut in their margins to keep their prices consistant - advertising to the motoring public that they have no wish to jump on the band wagon.
That frank approach works for me as well.
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How is it their prices at Motorway service stations are the same as the High Street. Quite different to Burger King, where it's £5 for a burger meal. i do also acknowledge that the operators have high overheads and this is passed on in high costs, but McDonalds seem to cope.
I agree 100%, a med choc shake for £1.09 and a cheese burger for 79p does it for me, great value anywhere yet alone in the captive environment of a service area.
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McDonalds is a franchise - hence the prices are the same.
I would imagine at many service stations it will be difficult to recruit staff, especially at those based some distance from residental areas, because of the difficulty in travelling to and from work for them.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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McDonalds is a franchise - hence the prices are the same.
I understand that the McD services are sites owned by McD's.
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You should try having to pay £20+ for the privilage of stopping in their car park overnight!!! Now that gets my back up, even when I am not directly paying for it.
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Its easy to say that they have to keep prices up to compensate for the people who just use the toilet etc, but over in France, their 'Aires' are not expensive, serve good food, and are usually nearly full - often having to queue for food! I travel over there a lot and often have my 'steakhache frite' (burger and chips!) for about £3.
I agree that McDs does offer the best value - I know what I'm getting, and it is OK for value - especially compared to a shrivelled piece of bacon, cold burnt toast, runny fried egg and stale beans - all for the price of £5.95!! No thank you!
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>>McDonalds is a franchise - hence the prices are the same.
Not all McD's are franchise, although most are. Those in vulnerable areas are normally owned. Especially those close to a Burger King. There are a whole raft of places where franchisees may not wish to open but for one reason or another McDs want a store there. I used to consult for Burker King, and a very fascinating business it is too - not to mention that at the time in Miami the staff canteen was a Burger King - Love it.
That to one side, why would being a franchise make the prices more or less likely to be the same ?
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That to one side, why would being a franchise make the prices more or less likely to be the same ?
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Because in many franchises, the franchisor has the contractual right to dictate the prices charged to the franchisee.
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When we had Granada services you used to find a BK in nearly all of them, this was because Granada own "ALOT" of BK franchises (or used to), so they owned the site and the franchise had lots of captive customers so charged what they liked, BK has always had an independent pricing policy type of thing, where each shop could set their own rates, I don't think this was the case with Mc D's.
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Also (relatively) good value are the Marks & Spencers shops that are appearing at motorway srvices. Nice Sandwiches etc. at high street prices (but no coffee). For a really overpriced sandwich, try Ryanair.
I highly recommend Marks & Spencers "Molly Moo" cola flavoured cows.
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I go through periods of living on McDonalds or Burger King because it's so easy to get hot food and I'm incompetent in the kitchen stakes.
I know it's not the best diet but there's nothing better than being somewhere you don't know and rounding a bend only to see that wonderful M sign or "Burger King" in lights.
£4.98 for a Bacon double cheesburger XL Supersize meal isn't bad at all.
I usually have two.
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I reckon McD's food can actually be quite healthy if you know how to pick from their menu. Recently I've been really into the Sweet Chilli Chicken Deli sandwich (well, I say recently, we've had them over a year in Tyne and Wear region, we were the testing ground for the new range:)
I've now moved onto the Chicken Tikka deli sandwich though after I found out the salt content of Sweet Chilli Chicken is probably a bit more than is healthy!
I have McDonalds programmed into my Tom Tom and try to keep an eye out for them when on motorways as they are soooo much cheaper than BK.
Blue
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McDonald's milk shakes are great value for money, along with the ice-cream with a flake.
The rest is frankly awful, especially the rubber tasting buns.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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I gather you haven't tried the Deli sandwiches then?
The breakfast one is a bit rubbish, and the only other two that I have tried are the Sweet Chilli Chicken and the Chicken Tikka, but both of those are gorgeous, and, the Tikka one is actually pretty healthy...
I take it this range has spread to the rest of the country by now? You lot aren't still lagging behind the North East are you? :-)
Blue
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