“Twelve euros for two packets of cakes.” Virginie* still can’t believe it. On the way to the holidays, on the way to the South, this mother of a family did not expect such a salty note simply for the snack of her children. “Even the cashier seemed sorry. When telling us the price, she said, ‘Yes I know, it’s very expensive. Like Virginie, there are many French people who fail to strangle themselves in the face of the sometimes exorbitant prices of basic products such as simple sandwiches or bottles of water sold on the country’s motorway service areas. Food that is up to twice as expensive as in city center stores or supermarkets.
Motorway companies do not deny the higher rates encountered once the toll gates are crossed. These prices are justified, according to them, by the missions that they are required to respect with regard to the State within the framework of their concession contracts. What inflate the operating costs of these places. “We have an obligation to provide a certain number of public services to the areas, for example to have a human presence 24 hours a day, 7 days a week”, explains Vincent Fanguet, director of operations for the group. Sanef, which manages 72 service areas out of the 369 concession areas that make up the French motorway network (525 in total). “We must also offer services free of charge to everyone, such as toilets, showers for drivers, playgrounds, picnic tables or outdoor rest areas,” adds the spokesperson. .
“These services have a cost, linked in particular to personnel costs. It is therefore passed on in the selling prices”, corroborates one from the side of the company APRR, 100 areas in management. Specialist in transport economics, Yves Crozet sums up the economic model of motorway rest areas well: “It works on a system of equalization between what is free and what is paid for. What is paid is expensive because it is necessary to cover what is free”, deciphers the professor emeritus at Sciences Po Lyon. The location of service areas, often located in fairly isolated places, also affects operating costs. “Logistics are expensive because it is not easy to deliver stores on motorways”, confirms the specialist in mass consumption Olivier Dauvers, who also adds that these stores, most of the time very small, “do not allow to make economies of scale as in mass distribution”.
The management system for motorway shops also carries an additional cost in itself. These are not operated directly by the motorway companies; their management is delegated to specialized companies, via calls for tenders. For example to distributors (Carrefour, E.Leclerc and Casino mainly) or to oil companies, like TotalEnergies, which operates 106 motorway stores via its Bonjour brand. In exchange for their operation, these companies must pay royalties to motorway concessionaires. “They are very high, because the motorway companies provide traders with an almost captive clientele”, notes Olivier Dauvers.
“The areas have a monopoly position, at least locally”, abounds Marc Ivaldi, director of studies at the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS) and teacher at the Toulouse School of Economics (TSE). Few motorists choose to leave the expressway and drive several kilometers to find a bakery where to buy a snack, rather than stopping in a rest area. However, according to the motorway companies, the fees charged have no impact on the final price of the products. “The level of the royalty paid to us is around 3 to 4% of the turnover of the shops. It is totally marginal in the price paid by customers,” says Vincent Fanguet, from Sanef. Among the other sources of costs, TotalEnergies also highlights “investments to modernize the areas”, which are “carried 100% by the sub-concessionaire”.
It remains tempting to wonder if these sometimes delusional prices do not hide undue margins. For Yves Crozet, one should not make a bad trial. “There are areas, on highways that drain a lot of people like the A6 or the A7, where the shops are profitable. But some, which are not very busy in winter, are not,” observes the economist. Olivier Dauvers completes the picture: “Carrefour or E.Leclerc will always prefer to open a supermarket rather than fight for the concession of a motorway convenience store.”
Moreover, these prices and the revenue generated have at least the virtue of maintaining an excellent quality of service. “On the motorways where there is no concession, as in Brittany, there are service areas without toilets. None of the businesses want to provide it because it is too expensive to maintain”, observes Yves Crozet, while considering at the same time that it is “above all not” necessary to renew the concessions, considered as “cash machines”.
Aware of the negative repercussions of this pricing policy for their image, motorway companies compete with commercial proposals. “On ten areas of our network, we guarantee our customers coffee at a maximum of 1.10 euros, a bottle of water at 1 euro and a lunch formula at 5 euros”, we boast at Sanef. Its competitor APRR has been deploying low-cost service stations, called Fulli, since 2019. Here, it is the price of fuel that is reduced, and not that of services. “The 7 Fulli service stations already open charge prices comparable to those of stations located outside the motorway network, posting prices lower by 8 to 15 euro cents per liter compared to other motorway stations”, affirms the ‘business.
*Name has been changed.
