Costa Drive Thru kiosk at Exeter, situated near the entrance to the car park, far from the amenity building. Costa Drive Thru opened here in 2021, taking customers who want Costa products, but aren't necessarily fussed about the other facilities at the site. It means customers don't have to leave their vehicles, and prevents the amenity building from becoming overcrowded during the summertime peak as customers don't have to go inside for Costa. Exeter was one of Moto's most recent Costa Drive Thrus, & was built when lockdown prevented people from going on foreign holidays. Cornwall being a popular "Staycation" County meant Exeter was rammed in 2020/21, so Moto wanted to built more facilities here to take advantage of that. Exeter wasn't necessarily a wise choice for a Costa Drive Thru, as it's an offline site, meaning customers using Exeter services have to leave the M5 at the busy J30, which has a total of 8 sets of traffic lights on it. It seems quite pointless making all that effort to just use a drive thru, so I can't imagine that many customers would use it. It's a grey kiosk with maroon & white signage, typical of Costa. This Drive Thru doesn't provide any customer seating as it's takeaway only. Drive Thru coffee shops are quite a recent idea at motorway services, and the ones built at motorway services have influenced many more being built across the country. Welcome Break kicked things off in 2012, by using disused buildings at Fleet North & Membury to construct Starbucks drive thrus. These instantly proved very popular, & they didn't take away too much trade from the coffee lounges inside the amenity buildings. Their popularity caused Welcome Break to build many purpose built Starbucks drive thrus in their car parks. Most their sites now have these drive thrus. In 2016, Roadchef opened a Costa Drive Thru at Rownhams Eastbound. Similarly to Starbucks, it was well received & increased Rownham's turn-in rate from the motorway. Because of this, Roadchef added Costa Drive thru to any of their sites where space allowed. Moto then opened a Costa Drive Thru at Reading Eastbound in 2017, & since they have added Costa drive thrus to many of their sites. It's an idea that no one would've thought about when designing motorway services in the 60s/70s as their purpose was different back then (luxuriously catering for those who were fortunate enough to drive, with sit-down dining and buffet restaurants). Prices charged at Costa are set by the franchisee, & at Moto sites this is rapidly inflated as they know they have high customer demand. Therefore, this Drive Thru is bad value for money. Some customers would choose to park up and get a Greggs instead, as it's better value for money. Despite this, a 2022 study found that Costa is the most popular brand on the motorway network, largely due to customer familiarity. It's not the best quality photo as it's dark, but it does evidence Moto's new corporate branding, which they hadn't yet applied to the amenity building itself when I visited. Costa Drive Thru doesn't remain open throughout the night, so when it's closed, customers will have to use the lounge inside the amenity building, which is open 24 hours. Costa Drive Thru was empty during my visit at 6:45pm. It's likely busier during the day. Costa is signposted from both sides of the M5 as a drive thru, making customers aware of this facility. Costa Drive Thru isn't advertised much around the site as it's so close to the entrance to the services that customers passing in cars won't miss it.

Photo taken on 22/12/2023 by Tom Moon.

Assigned to galleries: Exeter, M5, Moto, Costa Drive Thru