£1.50 water in town, double that at STN WHSmith
Stansted’s main airside WHSmith hits you right after security, before you reach the big duty free loop. It’s the classic newsagent setup: paperbacks, magazines, crisps, bottled drinks and a few travel chargers. The issue regulars mention on Skytrax and TripAdvisor is price: think snacks and drinks costing noticeably more than the same brand’s high street branches, and far more than a Tesco Express in London.
Opening hours usually track early Ryanair banks, roughly 03:00 until the late departures around 22:00. Expect a basic paperback to sit around £9–£12, single bottled drinks well over £1.50, and grab‑and‑go chocolate bars well above supermarket multipack value. At busy times around the 06:00–08:00 and 18:00–20:00 waves, stock on popular magazines and 500ml water can run thin, which then pushes people into larger, even pricier formats.
There are occasional meal‑deal style promos (sandwich + drink + snack) that can undercut a £12–£18 sit‑down airport burger. Reddit regulars flying Ryanair say they only bother with WHSmith when those combos are live; otherwise they bring food from home or buy in town. Bookworms often grab novels from a supermarket or Waterstones before arriving, then use WHSmith only if a flight delay leaves them short on reading.
Watch out for the cramped layout at the main airside branch, which reviewers call a bottleneck near the walkway. Queues can spill into the corridor, especially before the 07:00 and 19:00 departure banks, and it’s easy to get stuck behind people comparing meal deals. One smart move: bring an empty bottle, use the post‑security water fountains, and treat WHSmith as last‑resort backup rather than your primary shop.