WHSmith convenience store at Maidstone, located right of the main entrance and “corridor”, between the McDonalds outlet and gaming arcade, and opposite the seating area. Fairly small WHSmith store with lots of its product range “flowing” into the concourse, as with most motorway WHSmith stores. This store remains open 24 hours a day and becomes much more important during uncivilised hours of the day. My visit was at 9pm, and only McDonalds and this store were open. WHSmith houses some Costa Express machines and a Krispy Kreme cabinet, they are also the keyholders for the showers and Changing Places toilet facility. This WHSmith appears to have been lightly refitted in 2023 and would’ve first opened in 2008/9 when Roadchef rolled the brand out to replace their own-brand convenience store “restore”, which Maidstone would’ve opened with in 1997. WHSmith is a well-known name at motorway services, but is frequently penalised for price inflation. An example would be getting charged £3 for a regular bottle of water. These pricing structures are extortionate and would put customers off. WHSmith isn’t competing with any other shops at Maidstone, as the 2015 plans to extend the building to include a SPAR never came to fruition. Despite the refurbishments, this WHSmith still feels somewhat time warped, especially compared to those at Clacket Lane, which are larger stores and have been more extensively revamped. This is also now the only WHSmith store on the M20 as the site at Folkestone permanently closed. WHSmith was practically empty during my visit, as was Maidstone as a whole due to my late time of calling. During the day, I would assume the store would be much busier. WHSmith is not advertised much around the site and is overlooked by popular franchised outlets here such as McDonalds and Costa, but is still signposted from both sides of the M20, so motorists can expect to find it here.

Photo taken on 09/04/2024 by Tom Moon.

Assigned to galleries: Maidstone, WHSmith, M20, Roadchef