WHSmith convenience store at Clacket Lane Westbound, situated at the back of the interior of the amenity building, near the toilets and LEON. It’s a large store which was refurbished earlier this yr to include Skwishee Iced Drinks with new grocery, fresh and frozen food ranges. WHSmith opened here in around 2009/2010 and replaced Roadchef’s own-brand convenience store “restore”. More recently, WHSmith was extended to replace a former Cotton Traders store which had long since closed. It’s a modern store and a nice, spacious one to shop in. It’s suitable when the amenity building is busy. It remains open 24 hours and consists of a Krispy Kreme cabinet, Costa Express machines and a Garden Square Deli stand, typical of Roadchef WHSmith stores. WHSmith is the only shop at Westbound, meaning there’s no competition and WHSmith will happily take the essentials trade. As I visited, WHSmith was fairly quiet, but so was the amenity building. WHSmith isn’t signposted from the M25. However, generally speaking customers would expect to find a shop such as WHSmith at a service station, so it doesn’t need to be signposted.

Photo taken on 21/12/2023 by Tom Moon.

Assigned to galleries: Clacket Lane, WHSmith, Roadchef, M25