WHSmith convenience store at Taunton Deane Southbound, located towards the back of the amenity building, near the toilets & gaming arcade. An awkward WHSmith to photograph, but I like the skylight above it. Brightens up the inside of a very cramped amenity building. WHSmith is the only convenience store at Taunton Deane (no SPAR), so faces no competition as its purpose of providing roadside basics & snacks is different to any other brand here. Roadchef's partnership with WHSmith began in roughly 2008 at Watford Gap. This store will be a similar age & hasn't been refurbished/changed at all since opening. WHSmith was first introduced to motorway services in 2006, however, they had several "false starts" before this. Granada revealed that WHSmith had expressed interest in being part of their "motorway shopping centres" alongside their other brands at the time, including Halfords and BHS Express. This partnership was merely an idea of Granada's, which never materialised. In 2006, Moto transformed their own-brand travel stores into WHSmith, starting with Birch Westbound & Leigh Delamere Westbound. These WHSmith stores proved to be successful, so Moto went on to rebrand all their own travel stores to WHSmith. WHSmith supplies Costa Express, Krispy Kreme donuts & Garden Square Deli products to takeaway. WHSmith remains open 24 hours daily, making it a vital facility during the night when all the other facilities are closed. WHSmith at Taunton Deane South is another example of one which has a product range too large for the store, so items "spill out" onto the concourse. This isn't an issue here as the concourse is wide enough and the excess isn't causing an obstruction. As per usual with motorway services WHSmith stores, prices are highly inflated here, with meal deals costing more than £5. Prices are inflated due to increased demand. WHSmith are the key holders of the Changing Places toilet & shower facilities here. WHSmith is present at near enough all motorway services in Britain. As a result, they aren't a unique brand so operators don't tend to advertise WHSmith much. WHSmith are treated like an essential, standard facility, such as toilets. WHSmith was fairly busy during my visit as the site was packed due to the nearing of Christmas. WHSmith's level of custom is typically determined by how busy the amenity building is. WHSmith isn't signposted from the M5 Southbound as it isn't one of Taunton Deane's core brands. It's also not advertised around the site much.

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

Assigned to galleries: Taunton Deane, Roadchef, M5, WHSmith