Skymonster
Established Member
- Joined
- 7 Feb 2012
- Messages
- 1,743
I don’t see it as being overly deceptive. One thing franchises are pretty good at is standards, and one can usually be assured of getting as good a Starbucks / Costa / McDonalds / Subway / etc at any similarly branded outlet. The good thing is, whichever company runs the outlets, there is now far more choice and consistency/ quality at stations that there was in the BR days. The major issue to me is that this has sometimes come at a cost of the consumer. Only those consumers can work out for themselves whether that cost is justified or whether they will walk round the corner to the proverbial Tesco Express / Sainsbury Local / etc.Whether or not it is unfair or not I would argue that it is somewhat deceptive, letting consumers believe there is meaningful competition operating, which is assumed to be in their interest as "consumer sovereigns".