A price study by 'What Car?' magazine has exposed motorway service stations that are ripping off drivers.
The study revealed WH Smith and M&S to be the worst offenders, whose service station outlets are adding staggering mark ups on common items.
The biggest single mark up is the 91 percent hike on a 750ml bottle of Buxton water at WH Smith. Its high street shops charge £1 per bottle, whereas it costs £1.91 at service stations.
M&S adds 25 percent to the cost of its Scottish Water. It charges 80p on the high street but £1 at its service station branches.
Coca-Cola costs 18 percent more in a WH Smith service station than it does in the company's conventional shops, and Burger King was found to charge 12 percent more than it does on the high street.
The fact that service stations are charging higher prices won't come as a surprise to anyone who uses them, but the scale of the price increases is shocking.
A previous 'What Car?' survey found that two thirds of drivers feel that they are ripped off every time they use a service station.
Service station fuel prices are also notoriously higher than those at non-motorway petrol stations, and the 'What Car?' survey confirmed this.
It found that average petrol prices were 5.2 percent higher and diesel cost an additional 3.4 percent. That means the average driver using a service station to fill up will pay £77 more per year.
'What Car?' Editor Steve Fowler urged drivers to avoid service stations where possible. He said: "With fuel prices at an all-time high, the 5.2 percent average motorway fuel mark-up is hard for consumers to fund, and a 91 percent mark-up on a bottle of water is utterly unacceptable. It is unforgivable for retailers to take advantage of motorists in such a brazen manner."
Service station mark-up examples
Item / National average / Motorway price / Mark-up
Unleaded / 123.8p / 130.2p / 5.2%
Diesel / 128.3p / 132.7p / 3.4%
Buxton water / £1.00 / £1.91 / 91%
Double espresso / £1.70 / £1.96 / 15.3%
Walkers crisps / 69p / 79p / 14.5%
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