Burger King offer at Winchester South, located in the back right-hand corner of the interior, opposite the communal seating area and Costa. Burger King is a takeaway unit without any seating of its own as customers are expected to use seating opposite. Burger King would have opened at Winchester around 2008 when Moto bought the site from Roadchef. It replaced Wimpy and their sister brand “Dr Beak’s Chicken”. It’s one of Moto’s newest BK locations and doesn’t have much competition with other brands at Winchester South because there are no other fast food outlets (closest being WCP). BK would be hurt if Moto found space for KFC here, but that space is now occupied by Greggs. This pic evidences how Winchester hasn’t changed much since Roadchef sold it. The sloped ceiling is typical of 2001 Roadchef buildings and the tiled flooring in front of BK is original to when Winchester opened. Customers may be put off BK due to their unreasonable pricing structures. BK have a relaxed attitude to price inflation to keep operators happy, but don’t consider how they might put off customers. In Winchester’s case, there’s no other fast food available, so when M3 traffic sees that only BK is available, they may drive on and stop at Rownhams for McDonald’s, taking trade away from the entire site. Despite this, BK is popular as it’s a well known high street brand & customers know what to expect. It’s this reason that Pavilion introduced Burger King to the motorways in the early 1990s. Northbound’s BK looks identical to this. Burger King was empty during my visit as it was 9am and although it was open serving a breakfast menu, other brands, such as Costa and WCP, take morning trade as they specialise in breakfasts more. During the day, BK will be much busier. Burger King is signposted from the M3 South, and is advertised at points around the side, but not on the exterior of the building.

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

Assigned to galleries: Winchester, Burger King, M3, Moto