M&S premium food/convenience store at Winchester Southbound, situated opposite customer seating ahead of the entrance, next to Burger King. M&S opened in 2017 and is a fairly large store compared to other Moto operated ones. It replaced EDC, a former Moto restaurant brand. This indicates that, since 2017, Moto have been forgetting the era of restaurant, sit-down buffet food at their sites in favour for facilities like M&S. Both sides of Winchester were late to the game in terms of opening M&S Simply Food stores as Moto had began using M&S in 2003, however, Winchester was bought by Moto in 2008 and for ages, WHSmith did the job in terms of shopping. M&S do a nice range of ready meals, suitable for HGV drivers. M&S is a well-known high street name with many holding it in high regard, & it being provided at Winchester makes the site more attractive to passing trade. M&S might even increase Winchester’s turn-in rate. The store itself is a curvy shape, inkeeping with the modern 2000s architecture of Winchester South’s amenity building. The interior is brightly lit with a black floor, typical of all M&S Simply Food stores. M&S Simply Food are common on the motorways due to Moto, but they are also easy to find at Network Rail stations, operated by SSP. M&S is quite expensive, but all products sold are off a very high quality and worth the price as it’s not massively inflated compared to high street M&S prices. M&S was surprisingly quiet during my visit, but Winchester South as a whole was pretty quiet and typically is due to it’s location after the A303 exit. M&S is signposted from the M3 South and is advertised around the site, one of the few brands that actually is.

Photo taken on 03/04/2024 by Tom Moon.

Assigned to galleries: Winchester, Moto, M3, M&S Simply Food