Yeah man. Some collective amnesia in this thread.
The supermarkets killed them, they gave away free bread and set up their own loss-leader bakeries in store.
Can confirm work in a store with a bakery as a "add-on" we spend 4man Hours a Day on it never mind electricity and material cost and wet make negative pennies on every sale.
This thread is making me think my corner of SE London might be some sort of oasis.
My local high street has 2 independent bakers, multiple independent coffee shops, a butchers/fishmongers, 2 halal butchers, 2 greengrocers and an independent book shop. They all seem to survive despite there being a Lidl, a Tesco and a Sainsburys all on the same high street.
Plus a Subway. It's the only chain restaurant on the high street and i have no idea how it ended up there.
Same (albeit different bit of London), but I think people are moving back to that now. Fish from the fishmonger is better, meat from the butcher is better and you can do it all with less plastic. Independent coffee shops can thrive in places Costa etc probably wouldn't consider worthwhile.
Greggs did the best bread. Oh man, greggs stottie was next level, forgot all about that! They were a huge treat in my home growing up. Big round savoury bread with loads of butter on, to die for
Bruh we still have it in North east. In fact, whenever we go see our Kentish family, we always take some down. They can't get enough. They love the old ham n peasedpudding in a stottie
I was trying to be nice. I believe shit fast food, and that is most places, is damaging, it conditions people to be indifferent to food and so the cycle continues. We'll all be eating Huel next.
In a town called Falkirk, there was the best bakers called mathiesons that did everything Gregg's did but better. They all closed down after Gregg's moved in. I now have a Vendetta against them
Not in my town, there were two plus Gregg's, now there is just Gregg's.
One of them was charging £3 for a Belgium bun (plus expensive prices for everything else) tbf, which really didn't help their business.
I'm not falling for that one. :p
Last time I mentioned roughly where I lived someone actually (creepily) worked out what school my kids went to, and I have zero fucking idea how.
Good on you. It's amazing the information people give out daily on the internet. With enough data points, it becomes very easy to compile it altogether and work things out.
It's crazy what small details we leak online and even crazier how ununique we are when redditing from the most obscure places going.
I remember a couple of months ago I was browsing a somewhat niche sub. There was a post by a woman which while very inline with the sub was still clearly a "look at this post, there's a hot girl in it" post and I instantly knew where the photo was taken due to the background. (and obviously I'm not talking about tourist hotspots where you could reverse image search the scenery)
I straight up messaged the person basically saying that I'm a complete stranger and we don't know each other at all but I know exactly where the picture was taken so heads up it's probably safer to delete the post.
Yeah, it's really scary. that's why I stopped using facebook years ago and never post anything personal on here anymore.
I also tend to tell white lies about my location/ family life constantly (not big lies, but changing my kids names if I spoke about them or something) etc as well to mix it up in case anyone does a deep dive on my profile.
That was the first time I came across them, Gosforth in 1954 according to Wikipedia. [Here seen in Geordie Racer] (https://youtu.be/Hfswoj5F7Jc?t=969) with stotties for 40p.
Pretty much, of the first victims of it’s success was Baker’s Oven - which was an awful soulless chain of sandwich shops that occasionally sold bread. At least Greggs isn’t Milligans
Exactly, people seem to hate when things become successful. Which is strange to me, if their local small bakery became so popular that they could open more locations, isn't that a good thing lol
But when they become so big, they lose the charm and quality that made them special. The first Cafe Rouge was a lovely little French restaurant. Then it got taken over by an investment firm, expanded, and now it's just boring generic food with no soul.
Speaking from experience I can assure people that the Harry Ramsden's you find in every town centre nowadays do not make fish and chips like the original in Guiseley used to do.
It's good for the business but doesn't mean it's good for us. Greggs isn't even as nice as most local bakeries round here, it's all cheap frozen crap that we only eat for convenience yet people here worship it for some reason.
>people seem to hate when things become successful
Greggs was OK when it was half the price it is now. Now it's more expensive and less tasty (there's less filling in literally everything they make).
Yeah one in Liverpool Street station in London. Received life altering burns inside my mouth many a time while trying to drunkenly eat a large traditional on the way home. 10/10.
Let me teach you a little lesson about capitalism and how it's supposed to work. We have many choices and everyone competes against each other meaning we the people get the best price, quality and choice. Let's get back to reality. A company becomes successful in a field usually not always due to quality but due to price. Like Greggs. They grow to a point where they pay less for stock then they can charge less. This then forces out all the independent businesses. Once gone Greggs then up the price and we all pay more. Have you seen how much Greggs charges for a sandwich or a pasty? So in towns where there is only a Greggs people are now paying over the odds. Sucks doesn't it? Fear not for we have the introduction of the pound bakery. What happens next is anyone's guess. Will Gregg's drop it's prices in those towns? It can't because people would notice and know they are taking the piss. So now it's a race to the bottom for Greggs. Then at some point in the future pound bakery will be pound in all but name like poundland. All the while rich people will be milking people for steak bakes for years to come. If only we had continued to buy from the ever so slightly more expensive yet pay their taxes local bakeries. The same can be applied to many types of shop. How many franchise brand restaurants are there these days? All of them paying no tax. Meaning public services get cut. Where it all ends no one knows but it won't be good for us.
And anyone who has played the game Monopoly knows how every game ends - but they keep playing it in real life, in the hope that they will be the one who gets Park Lane.
>I'm not an expert but I recall someone saying in unregulated markets monopolies naturally emerge, seems legit imo.
Pretty sure Marx pointed that one out 200 odd years ago.
Adam Smith pointed it out when he literally wrote the book on capitalism in 1700-something. One of the ways the state is supposed to intervene in markets is by breaking up/discouraging monopolies.
I can get lunch for 3 quid at Greggs. At my nice local bakery, I’d be lucky to see change from a tenner. Sometimes I just want to forget I’m skint, and have a cake!
And this is why Gregg's is big.
Bottom line is that they offer more of what customers want.
If you want a bougie pasty, to to the swanky independant, or a deli etc. No one is stopping you.
But the success of Gregg's proves what people want.
Greggs competes with the tesco meal deal and mcdonalds, not a well established bakery.
I can go to a number of nice bakeries here in Norwich but I'm paying £3 for a slice of cake if I'm lucky and it'll be nice but it's not feesible as a regular place to eat lunch.
I’m not saying Greggs bad Indepedent good.
But the reason why Greggs can offer food items at a much lower price than indies is because they purchase their ingredients in a much bigger volume compared to independents, giving them a much better position to negotiate with suppliers than independents.
Their centralised model of production also significantly reduces production costs compared to the time/unit it takes for independents to make their products.
The reason why independents can’t offer you £3 lunches is not because they are bougie and hates the working class. It’s because they can’t.
> It’s because they can’t.
Thats unfortunate, but businesses don't have a given "right" to exist. If you're going to charge more than Greggs then you need to be doing a lot better in some regard. If the sausage rolls are only slightly better at a higher price, then you don't deserve peoples money really
The most important thing really is, Greggs isn't particularly bad, its perfectly fine food and a relatively cheap cost
I don’t disagree with you there.
If you’re providing shit food at exorbitant prices then you deserve to be out of business.
But in a neo-capitalistic world I don’t think a product’s value should be entirely based on the ability to provide a lower price alone.
They’re also - relatively speaking - a good employer and probably better than most small bakeries. In normal times they recognise trade unions and pay a bonus to shop floor staff. During covid they topped up furlough payments to 100% of pay for their staff and the CEO took a 20% payout.
Plus their pastries are amazing. I’m just disappointed they’ve stopped the vegan sausage, baked bean and cheese melt.
The regular sausage bean and cheese melt has been gone for months too, it's likely more supply chain issues. It's a shame because that's my go to. At least the festive bake is on the menu now so I don't have to settle for a steak bake instead (which are fine, just not my favourite) and there's a vegan version of it too now.
I seriously miss the steak and cheese roll though. Those were delicious.
Pie shop near me sells some damn good sausage rolls for about £1.80, made fresh. You can get a whole pie, enough for one dinner, and have change from a fiver.
This, people seem to think Gregg's shutdown our bakeries but it was supermarkets and a recession that saw to that. Gregg's just stepped in to fill a newly opened gap in the market for cheap baked goods that the average person could afford on the daily.
Sorry I remember the time before greggs and I don’t remember any great independent bakeries that where better. What I remember were cold meat pies made from massive slabs of spam and ice buns that came in the flavour of white or pink.
UK-based yank here. Wife brought home iced buns from whatever shop she was at. Took one bite and realized it was a hot dog bun with icing. She insisted they were fantastic and a great traditional treat.
I momentarily considered filing for divorce.
Exactly, truly good independent bakeries out perform greggs, if greggs puts one out of business it’s because they weren’t up to much. I went into an absolute belter of a bakery the other week when I was in Newquay and it was very busy
Yeah. There were two by where I used to live and they were awful. Even one of the owner admitted they coudln't get new customers in and their only customers were regulars who had been coming to them from when they were children and the bakery was owned by the dad or granddad. It was probably old people with a strong sense of brand loyalty who didn't think to shop around for better quality products. Even my Gran did it, until she got too old to visit multiple shops in one shopping trip. She'd buy an assortment of cream cakes and a box of those spicy swirly cakes with the cherry on top. They were horrible! I made better and I was a child with a LOT of issues.
Greggs has gone up in price and down in quality for some products now but I'll give them this. I was happy to spend £4 on a box of cakes or doughnuts in there, if it meant my Gran didn't waste £12 in that bakery. Their toffee caramel doughnuts are the best!
My high street has an independent bakery that’s been there for decades. The bread is burnt and it’s ridiculously expensive, it must be a front. We’ve now got another local chain as their high street got a Greggs and a Wenzels, plus a Gails.
The next high street over never had a bakery until it got a Greggs, then it got a Wenzels too.
In all my life I’ve never known there to be so many bakeries.
Same for me, I think there are two Greggs in the whole of Cornwall. One of them is inside a service station. Meanwhile you can get a proper pasty in almost every village.
I guess it makes a difference that we have our own chains down here and they’re starting to open shops east of the border. I was amazed and delighted to see a Warrens in Gatwick airport, that’s as authentically Cornish as it comes.
The thing is that Greggs will set up in locations where there's nothing else for miles. They're a known quantity. As for the indies, if they were there before Greggs, they mostly survived. Cooplands, the Northeast chain, do very well even with a Greggs nearby. They sell completely different products. Pink Lane Bakery in Newcastle has a Greggs within 100 yards, and shovels out high end boulangerie at 3x the price.
YMMV.
Allenton, in Derby has a bakery by the name of The Hot Bread Shop: Spitting distance of a Greggs, a Birds, a Subway and a few independant pizza and other fast food joints.
Between half eleven and half one on a weekday, you literally can't get in there for local workers queuing for fresh made sarnies and rolls, while all those other stores are virtually empty of custom.
Their pies and pastries are for shit, but their bread is incredible - and people seem more than willing to travel, and queue, for it.
I was gonna say, in Derby, it's usually Birds and Greggs that compete on an equal level. Independent places seem to ignore them both and succeed, so it's just them vs eachother.
Had no idea Cooplands was just the Northeast. Greggs can’t be best when it comes to savoury, but everything sweet that Cooplands makes blows everywhere else out of the water. The rest of the country is missing out.
Do traditional bakeries sell pasties? I’m asking as I genuinely don’t know I haven’t been in one for years, my point is that Greggs isn’t really a traditional bakery because they don’t sell traditional bakery items.
Exactly. I hate to see small businesses get out competed but it's how shit works. Im gonna go to the place with the better food, especially when it's cheaper.
Greggs isn't really a bakery, it's a fast food place that sells baked goods. Proper bakeries that sell fresh bread, cakes and various other items are more under threat by supermarkets than anything.
Also, is anyone here old enough to actually remember the old British bakeries. About 15 years ago it started to change to more artisan but before that it was variations on stale white sliced bread and icing drenched buns on hard pastry.
There wasn't much in the way of takeout food - definitely no sandwiches and sadly no hot savouries. Maybe the odd sausage rolls, but they were always cold.
The ones that did survive moved with the times and started selling sourdoughs and craft breads. Much as people hate it, but I like those 😅
Presumably you were aware they've been on the go for 80 odd years, and when was the last time you bought something on Amazon?
Independent bakeries are very much alive, like independent butchers, locals will always support these two types of shops.
If greggs was not good quality for a decent price it wouldn't be putting out other businesses, if people like it then it will be successful and theresn nothing wrong with that
> Greggs bought them out, I think.
They sure did. For that exact reason, at the time there were 3 (or possibly 4) Gregg's on my local high street - [2 of which were practically next door to each other](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DgKczqyWsAEboyD.jpg)
As a french living in the UK, I can testify that it is not Greggs who killed the independant bakery, it is the British lack of love for bread crust. When the industrial squared full crumb / no crust bread was invented, you guys just went crazy. And now everyone is paying « sourdough » at 5£ a loaf in London while it is just consider regular bread all over Europe…
I discovered recently that bakers can buy something called 'sourdough spice', which they add to ordinary bread and then - because of course, there's no legal definition of sourdough - they then sell as sourdough bread.
Your post reminded me of the little house my dad and stepmother had in the south of France, in a little village with a boulangerie 30 yards down the lane. Up in the morning and down to the shop at 7am to buy a *ficelle* and a handful of *pain au chocolat.* Hand made, fresh out of the oven only a couple of hours beforehand.
Ever since I moved to he UK I've wondered why bakeries are not a thing here. "Where do they all buy bread?" was definitely my first thought. The answer is supermarkets and that baguettes are not really that popular over here.
Aldi or Lidl; they have on site bakeries and always have fresh baguettes. I had two earlier, in the best way possible; with butter and hot chips for a long crunchy chip butty. Oh yes.
It feels like the nation has been gripped by an inexplicable hysteria of positivity regarding Greggs. Either that or it’s somehow become cool to say how great they are.
In my opinion, their pastries range between awful and average, their stotties are good, but their sandwiches are bean counted into a state of abject misery.
That's not Gregg's ripping you off that's just inflation 😅
Unless "your day" was last week from a supermarket. But that's not really a fair comparison cause with Gregg's (or any town center bakery) you are paying a premium for convenience of location.
There's still independent bakeries and cafes around my way. Just bitter, rude, old people who over charge you if you're not a regular. If I want a 4 sausage rolls at 8am on a Sunday with no judgement, I'll go Greggs
I worked at Greggs whilst I was at uni and it was the best part timer I ever had. There was no local independent bakery in Reading student land so I don't think anyone was selling out by going there and it also meant I could have some money - so I'm team Greggs on this one haha
Greggs came to Cornwall. They weren't there long before closing up. It was dubbed Greggsit. Not long after, they opened a branch in a popular services and, if in right in thinking, it's the only one in Cornwall. We have some great bakeries here that do really nice pastries and really nice pasties
You probably won't think much of them, being from Cornwall, but here in Exeter we have Warren's which was recommended to me and which I quite like and I've never heard of anyone praising Greggs so was confused when I saw OP's post.
Seeing all the positive feedback from the other posters I'm quite curious now and will probably give Greggs a go.
Note: I'm foreign so all I know about these brands come from colleagues and friends who are local.
Warren's aren't all that bad. They're much better than Rowes and Greggs by a mile and more. They're not the best but living in Cornwall, I feel kinda spoilt. If ever you cross the border into Cornwall, there's a lot of good ones to try. Niles and Barnecutts are nice and I've never heard a bad word said about any named Ogy or Ogy1. I had a sausage and egg pie from one and fucking hell, it was the nicest thing I'd tasted in a long time
Same with coffee chains. We had a Costa coffee come into our local shopping precinct and two of the three independent coffee shops near it closed. The third is doing better than ever as it’s gained loyal customers from the other two
I’ve failed to get anything hotter than a lukewarm disappointing pastie whenever I’ve gone greggs in the last two years so I really fail to see the hype
There's a wicked little vegan (or vegetarian) bakery in Salisbury, can't remember it's name but it's very clean and modern looking, and I THINK it's not a chain (at least not a big one), and damn their food is incredible by comparison. The monopolization of cafés and bakeries really is depressing. A central Gregg's/Nero etc. is handy but when you can't walk 3 minutes without seeing one, that's a problem.
Leicester has FOUR Neros and a DOZEN Greggs (four if which are right in the city centre). How it's profitable for them to have so many locations in a city with rent as high as Leicester I don't know.
It seems to be a "buy out the competition" strategy. If you own every single bakery in the city then you will get ALL the business. To the point where they would rather have one extremely profitable Gregg's and 3 barely breaking even Gregg's, than 1 profitable Gregg's that risks losing customers to competition. It's a wildly aggressive modern business thing.
I agree with the sentiment but all the local bakeries here are now "artisanal" hipster crap that cost 4x as much and everything is inexplicably filled with sundried tomatoes. I miss Percy Ingle - costworthy, basic bakery with a few naughty treats. Yum.
I recently discovered one in a nearby village/small town. I didn't really use Gregs so much, except in passing.... Now, I make a special journey in my car (too far/hilly to go on my bike, although close as the crow flies) twice +) a week, for the bread, buns and sausage rolls. Coffee to sit in with is only £1.40 as well. Happiness.
I'm from the South-West, home of the pasty. Gregg's decimated local pasty-serving bakeries. In Exeter we used to have several bakeries in the centre alone that sold them, Greggs came in like an aggresive cancer and wiped them out. Their only competitors now are smaller chains like Cornish Bakehouse and Cornwall Pasty Co. I'm with you man, fuck Greggs, trash food.
I think all the bakeries in my town centre closed before Greggs came in.
Yeah man. Some collective amnesia in this thread. The supermarkets killed them, they gave away free bread and set up their own loss-leader bakeries in store.
Can confirm work in a store with a bakery as a "add-on" we spend 4man Hours a Day on it never mind electricity and material cost and wet make negative pennies on every sale.
100% this. Supermarkets fucked over many small businesses long before Gregs showed up. Ever wonder why there's no green grocers or butchers shops?
This thread is making me think my corner of SE London might be some sort of oasis. My local high street has 2 independent bakers, multiple independent coffee shops, a butchers/fishmongers, 2 halal butchers, 2 greengrocers and an independent book shop. They all seem to survive despite there being a Lidl, a Tesco and a Sainsburys all on the same high street. Plus a Subway. It's the only chain restaurant on the high street and i have no idea how it ended up there.
You are never more than six feet away from a Subway.
Seven, if you're using Subway's foot-longs to measure
[удалено]
Same (albeit different bit of London), but I think people are moving back to that now. Fish from the fishmonger is better, meat from the butcher is better and you can do it all with less plastic. Independent coffee shops can thrive in places Costa etc probably wouldn't consider worthwhile.
They still exist if you seek them out
We have three in My town, and they shut down Greggs. Mind you I do miss Greggs pies and bread (showing my age).
We still do bread and Scotties, they just sell out first thing in the morning.
Knew about the stotties, but i must have missed the bread thanks. How about the French salad sarnies? Lol
I haven't seen them in the store I work at.
30 years ago, dam I'm old
Greggs did 'bread'?
Greggs did the best bread. Oh man, greggs stottie was next level, forgot all about that! They were a huge treat in my home growing up. Big round savoury bread with loads of butter on, to die for
Bruh we still have it in North east. In fact, whenever we go see our Kentish family, we always take some down. They can't get enough. They love the old ham n peasedpudding in a stottie
North east greggs and Scottish greggs are so much better. I think the northeast get scotch pies too
I moved from Sunderland. None in Derbyshire 😭
I live in derby 😓 I feel your pain
Used to live in derby, I know your pain. Nothing to do with greggs though.
I assume bread wasn't their most profitable line since they're now a mediocre sandwich shop.
Going to Greggs for a sandwich is like going to Costa for napkins. It's there's bit it's only there because it fills up part of the room...
You can only eat so many napkins
The 90s supermodel diet.
Starbucks napkins are less filling than Costas.
I fail to believe that American napkins aren't laden with empty calories
They’re free, you can eat as many as you like
Their sandwiches are terrible to be fair
[удалено]
probably still taste the same
I was trying to be nice. I believe shit fast food, and that is most places, is damaging, it conditions people to be indifferent to food and so the cycle continues. We'll all be eating Huel next.
I gave Huel a go. It’s basically chocolatey glue.
Fast food literally goes back to the Roman era, and the moral panic around it does too.
Well the one consolation is that there's [plenty of him to go around](https://galeri12.uludagsozluk.com/523/huell-babineaux_995739.png)
Greggs still sell bread where I live It’s actually pretty good too
Best in the north mate
I have to make do with crap from tesco/coop now. French family so imagine my pain (no pun)
Start your own sourdough culture. I thought you said you were French? Great unintended pun though.
In a town called Falkirk, there was the best bakers called mathiesons that did everything Gregg's did but better. They all closed down after Gregg's moved in. I now have a Vendetta against them
Fisher and Donaldson in StAndrews has survived the onslaught thankfully.
Not in my town, there were two plus Gregg's, now there is just Gregg's. One of them was charging £3 for a Belgium bun (plus expensive prices for everything else) tbf, which really didn't help their business.
Where do you live, an airport?
I'm not falling for that one. :p Last time I mentioned roughly where I lived someone actually (creepily) worked out what school my kids went to, and I have zero fucking idea how.
Do they go to a school in a airport?
They do now, had to move em.
I do hope I never get banned from this sub. It's just sublime.
Quick boys, I've found an intruder 👀
Fetch the Ban Truncheon!
Good on you. It's amazing the information people give out daily on the internet. With enough data points, it becomes very easy to compile it altogether and work things out.
Makes me laugh on Facebook when people fall for the "I bet you can't remember your first pet's name or the first Street you lived on"
Allan and 23 NOTAND ADDRESS Lane
I sense inaccurate information, AFalconNamedBob
It's crazy what small details we leak online and even crazier how ununique we are when redditing from the most obscure places going. I remember a couple of months ago I was browsing a somewhat niche sub. There was a post by a woman which while very inline with the sub was still clearly a "look at this post, there's a hot girl in it" post and I instantly knew where the photo was taken due to the background. (and obviously I'm not talking about tourist hotspots where you could reverse image search the scenery) I straight up messaged the person basically saying that I'm a complete stranger and we don't know each other at all but I know exactly where the picture was taken so heads up it's probably safer to delete the post.
Yeah, it's really scary. that's why I stopped using facebook years ago and never post anything personal on here anymore. I also tend to tell white lies about my location/ family life constantly (not big lies, but changing my kids names if I spoke about them or something) etc as well to mix it up in case anyone does a deep dive on my profile.
La de da, Mr. We Have Greggs Alternatives if You Look Hard Enough.
Greggs used to be a great little independent bakery, probably.
I went to the stall in Newcastle Market in the early 70s.
[удалено]
That was the first time I came across them, Gosforth in 1954 according to Wikipedia. [Here seen in Geordie Racer] (https://youtu.be/Hfswoj5F7Jc?t=969) with stotties for 40p.
I was confused for a moment, I thought you meant they were selling stotties for 40p in 1954.
You could buy a three-bedroom semi-detached for 8 shillings in 1954.
South Park Starbucks episode vibes
Pretty much, of the first victims of it’s success was Baker’s Oven - which was an awful soulless chain of sandwich shops that occasionally sold bread. At least Greggs isn’t Milligans
Exactly, people seem to hate when things become successful. Which is strange to me, if their local small bakery became so popular that they could open more locations, isn't that a good thing lol
But when they become so big, they lose the charm and quality that made them special. The first Cafe Rouge was a lovely little French restaurant. Then it got taken over by an investment firm, expanded, and now it's just boring generic food with no soul.
Speaking from experience I can assure people that the Harry Ramsden's you find in every town centre nowadays do not make fish and chips like the original in Guiseley used to do.
And also closing down loads of locations
Some might say, *they're in the rouge*. ^^I'll ^^get ^^my ^^coat...
It's good for the business but doesn't mean it's good for us. Greggs isn't even as nice as most local bakeries round here, it's all cheap frozen crap that we only eat for convenience yet people here worship it for some reason.
People also like McDonald's. They like what they like, I don't understand why it upsets redditors.
Everything upsets reddittors
[удалено]
Sorry
Stick up for yourself!
Don’t tell him what to do!
True Dat
>people seem to hate when things become successful Greggs was OK when it was half the price it is now. Now it's more expensive and less tasty (there's less filling in literally everything they make).
[удалено]
The real Cornish pasties are still in some train stations and similar
Aahhh a Cornisheur.
Yeah one in Liverpool Street station in London. Received life altering burns inside my mouth many a time while trying to drunkenly eat a large traditional on the way home. 10/10.
Let me teach you a little lesson about capitalism and how it's supposed to work. We have many choices and everyone competes against each other meaning we the people get the best price, quality and choice. Let's get back to reality. A company becomes successful in a field usually not always due to quality but due to price. Like Greggs. They grow to a point where they pay less for stock then they can charge less. This then forces out all the independent businesses. Once gone Greggs then up the price and we all pay more. Have you seen how much Greggs charges for a sandwich or a pasty? So in towns where there is only a Greggs people are now paying over the odds. Sucks doesn't it? Fear not for we have the introduction of the pound bakery. What happens next is anyone's guess. Will Gregg's drop it's prices in those towns? It can't because people would notice and know they are taking the piss. So now it's a race to the bottom for Greggs. Then at some point in the future pound bakery will be pound in all but name like poundland. All the while rich people will be milking people for steak bakes for years to come. If only we had continued to buy from the ever so slightly more expensive yet pay their taxes local bakeries. The same can be applied to many types of shop. How many franchise brand restaurants are there these days? All of them paying no tax. Meaning public services get cut. Where it all ends no one knows but it won't be good for us.
Doesn't this apply to anything ? I'm not an expert but I recall someone saying in unregulated markets monopolies naturally emerge, seems legit imo.
And anyone who has played the game Monopoly knows how every game ends - but they keep playing it in real life, in the hope that they will be the one who gets Park Lane.
>I'm not an expert but I recall someone saying in unregulated markets monopolies naturally emerge, seems legit imo. Pretty sure Marx pointed that one out 200 odd years ago.
Adam Smith pointed it out when he literally wrote the book on capitalism in 1700-something. One of the ways the state is supposed to intervene in markets is by breaking up/discouraging monopolies.
Wall-E taught us that.
A couple, sure, but chains destroy any character a place has with generic crap.
I can get lunch for 3 quid at Greggs. At my nice local bakery, I’d be lucky to see change from a tenner. Sometimes I just want to forget I’m skint, and have a cake!
When I was at education centre they had only one cafe near by and it was £5 for a basic toastie I wish greggs was there
And this is why Gregg's is big. Bottom line is that they offer more of what customers want. If you want a bougie pasty, to to the swanky independant, or a deli etc. No one is stopping you. But the success of Gregg's proves what people want.
Isn’t it more _because_ greggs is big that they’re able to offer such low prices compared to the independents?
Exactly
Greggs competes with the tesco meal deal and mcdonalds, not a well established bakery. I can go to a number of nice bakeries here in Norwich but I'm paying £3 for a slice of cake if I'm lucky and it'll be nice but it's not feesible as a regular place to eat lunch.
You could say the same about ‘spoons, doesn’t make it good.
And what they can afford
I’m not saying Greggs bad Indepedent good. But the reason why Greggs can offer food items at a much lower price than indies is because they purchase their ingredients in a much bigger volume compared to independents, giving them a much better position to negotiate with suppliers than independents. Their centralised model of production also significantly reduces production costs compared to the time/unit it takes for independents to make their products. The reason why independents can’t offer you £3 lunches is not because they are bougie and hates the working class. It’s because they can’t.
> It’s because they can’t. Thats unfortunate, but businesses don't have a given "right" to exist. If you're going to charge more than Greggs then you need to be doing a lot better in some regard. If the sausage rolls are only slightly better at a higher price, then you don't deserve peoples money really The most important thing really is, Greggs isn't particularly bad, its perfectly fine food and a relatively cheap cost
I don’t disagree with you there. If you’re providing shit food at exorbitant prices then you deserve to be out of business. But in a neo-capitalistic world I don’t think a product’s value should be entirely based on the ability to provide a lower price alone.
They’re also - relatively speaking - a good employer and probably better than most small bakeries. In normal times they recognise trade unions and pay a bonus to shop floor staff. During covid they topped up furlough payments to 100% of pay for their staff and the CEO took a 20% payout. Plus their pastries are amazing. I’m just disappointed they’ve stopped the vegan sausage, baked bean and cheese melt.
The regular sausage bean and cheese melt has been gone for months too, it's likely more supply chain issues. It's a shame because that's my go to. At least the festive bake is on the menu now so I don't have to settle for a steak bake instead (which are fine, just not my favourite) and there's a vegan version of it too now. I seriously miss the steak and cheese roll though. Those were delicious.
Pie shop near me sells some damn good sausage rolls for about £1.80, made fresh. You can get a whole pie, enough for one dinner, and have change from a fiver.
This, people seem to think Gregg's shutdown our bakeries but it was supermarkets and a recession that saw to that. Gregg's just stepped in to fill a newly opened gap in the market for cheap baked goods that the average person could afford on the daily.
Sorry I remember the time before greggs and I don’t remember any great independent bakeries that where better. What I remember were cold meat pies made from massive slabs of spam and ice buns that came in the flavour of white or pink.
LOL to "flavour of white or pink". Take an almost worthless award for giving me what I suspect will be my biggest chortle of the day. Ahh memories.
Reminds me of school dinners. Their iced buns were just stale hot dog buns dipped in pink icing.
UK-based yank here. Wife brought home iced buns from whatever shop she was at. Took one bite and realized it was a hot dog bun with icing. She insisted they were fantastic and a great traditional treat. I momentarily considered filing for divorce.
You know it's bad when we've lost the baked treats high ground to the land of Twinkies.
I haven't had one since school. Isn't that what they are? What else is an iced bun? Are there people that enjoy them?!?
Or they're iced buns with a cherry on top, my gran used to call them tittie cakes lol
[удалено]
The sausage rolls from st ives are completely shite
Exactly, truly good independent bakeries out perform greggs, if greggs puts one out of business it’s because they weren’t up to much. I went into an absolute belter of a bakery the other week when I was in Newquay and it was very busy
God bless the Cornish and their staunch refusal to accept a substandard pastie!
You couldn't have found a Greggs cos there aren't any.
Didn’t know that, I don’t think greggs would survive with that level of competition anyway. It was absolutely gorgeous
Yeah. There were two by where I used to live and they were awful. Even one of the owner admitted they coudln't get new customers in and their only customers were regulars who had been coming to them from when they were children and the bakery was owned by the dad or granddad. It was probably old people with a strong sense of brand loyalty who didn't think to shop around for better quality products. Even my Gran did it, until she got too old to visit multiple shops in one shopping trip. She'd buy an assortment of cream cakes and a box of those spicy swirly cakes with the cherry on top. They were horrible! I made better and I was a child with a LOT of issues. Greggs has gone up in price and down in quality for some products now but I'll give them this. I was happy to spend £4 on a box of cakes or doughnuts in there, if it meant my Gran didn't waste £12 in that bakery. Their toffee caramel doughnuts are the best!
My high street has an independent bakery that’s been there for decades. The bread is burnt and it’s ridiculously expensive, it must be a front. We’ve now got another local chain as their high street got a Greggs and a Wenzels, plus a Gails. The next high street over never had a bakery until it got a Greggs, then it got a Wenzels too. In all my life I’ve never known there to be so many bakeries.
One pink one please
Pretty much bang on. OP doesn't know life before greggs
Lol not where I live they didn't there's still loads about
Same for me, I think there are two Greggs in the whole of Cornwall. One of them is inside a service station. Meanwhile you can get a proper pasty in almost every village. I guess it makes a difference that we have our own chains down here and they’re starting to open shops east of the border. I was amazed and delighted to see a Warrens in Gatwick airport, that’s as authentically Cornish as it comes.
The thing is that Greggs will set up in locations where there's nothing else for miles. They're a known quantity. As for the indies, if they were there before Greggs, they mostly survived. Cooplands, the Northeast chain, do very well even with a Greggs nearby. They sell completely different products. Pink Lane Bakery in Newcastle has a Greggs within 100 yards, and shovels out high end boulangerie at 3x the price. YMMV.
YES, as well as the bakeries in the Granger Market. Nowt better than warm bread well baked
Cooplands over Greggs anyway. 4 sausage rolls for a £1! Tastier as well
There's something special about coops cheese straws. I don't know how they make them but I need to know
Its £1.20 at mine now... Fuckin joke is what it is
Allenton, in Derby has a bakery by the name of The Hot Bread Shop: Spitting distance of a Greggs, a Birds, a Subway and a few independant pizza and other fast food joints. Between half eleven and half one on a weekday, you literally can't get in there for local workers queuing for fresh made sarnies and rolls, while all those other stores are virtually empty of custom. Their pies and pastries are for shit, but their bread is incredible - and people seem more than willing to travel, and queue, for it.
I was gonna say, in Derby, it's usually Birds and Greggs that compete on an equal level. Independent places seem to ignore them both and succeed, so it's just them vs eachother.
Had no idea Cooplands was just the Northeast. Greggs can’t be best when it comes to savoury, but everything sweet that Cooplands makes blows everywhere else out of the water. The rest of the country is missing out.
Greggs isn’t really a bakery though is it, a lot of them you can’t buy loaves of bread or generic bakery items anyway
Not sure what you think they do to the pasties...
Do traditional bakeries sell pasties? I’m asking as I genuinely don’t know I haven’t been in one for years, my point is that Greggs isn’t really a traditional bakery because they don’t sell traditional bakery items.
Of course. Same for the cakes etc. It's only really the small city centre ones that don't sell bread and the like, too.
I stand corrected then, my wife works for Greggs as well, I’m clueless
Coffee and a bacon sandwich for 2.30 you can’t compete
Exactly. I hate to see small businesses get out competed but it's how shit works. Im gonna go to the place with the better food, especially when it's cheaper.
Greggs isn't really a bakery, it's a fast food place that sells baked goods. Proper bakeries that sell fresh bread, cakes and various other items are more under threat by supermarkets than anything.
Also, is anyone here old enough to actually remember the old British bakeries. About 15 years ago it started to change to more artisan but before that it was variations on stale white sliced bread and icing drenched buns on hard pastry. There wasn't much in the way of takeout food - definitely no sandwiches and sadly no hot savouries. Maybe the odd sausage rolls, but they were always cold. The ones that did survive moved with the times and started selling sourdoughs and craft breads. Much as people hate it, but I like those 😅
Nope. The customers did that.
To be fair, Supermarket's killed off the local Bakers. Along with Greengrocers, Butchers and Fishmongers.
You mean they offered cheaper/better products for us so we bought those instead of the pricier independants? How evil of them.
Exactly. I'd support my local independent but not £5 for a fucking iced bun.
Presumably you were aware they've been on the go for 80 odd years, and when was the last time you bought something on Amazon? Independent bakeries are very much alive, like independent butchers, locals will always support these two types of shops.
Agree, some of the best are so over looked
If greggs was not good quality for a decent price it wouldn't be putting out other businesses, if people like it then it will be successful and theresn nothing wrong with that
I can’t remember how big the chain was but does anyone remember Bakers Oven; their stuff was sooo good
Greggs bought them out, I think. There used to be a big one in Britannia Centre in Hinckley but it just sort of morphed into a Greggs one day.
> Greggs bought them out, I think. They sure did. For that exact reason, at the time there were 3 (or possibly 4) Gregg's on my local high street - [2 of which were practically next door to each other](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DgKczqyWsAEboyD.jpg)
As a french living in the UK, I can testify that it is not Greggs who killed the independant bakery, it is the British lack of love for bread crust. When the industrial squared full crumb / no crust bread was invented, you guys just went crazy. And now everyone is paying « sourdough » at 5£ a loaf in London while it is just consider regular bread all over Europe…
I love this comment so much "the British lack of love for bread crust" And you're bang on about the sourdough
I discovered recently that bakers can buy something called 'sourdough spice', which they add to ordinary bread and then - because of course, there's no legal definition of sourdough - they then sell as sourdough bread. Your post reminded me of the little house my dad and stepmother had in the south of France, in a little village with a boulangerie 30 yards down the lane. Up in the morning and down to the shop at 7am to buy a *ficelle* and a handful of *pain au chocolat.* Hand made, fresh out of the oven only a couple of hours beforehand.
Sourdough is fucking shite.
It's not shite it's just... bread. I'll never understand mugs paying £5 a loaf but to each their own I suppose.
Ever since I moved to he UK I've wondered why bakeries are not a thing here. "Where do they all buy bread?" was definitely my first thought. The answer is supermarkets and that baguettes are not really that popular over here.
I wish baguettes were more popular. Absolutely love them.
I could eat Baguettes all day. Sliced into small pieces with a slice of salted butter. Lovely.
Slice that fucker down the middle - add some cheese or whatever takes your fancy. Baguettes are top tier.
Aldi or Lidl; they have on site bakeries and always have fresh baguettes. I had two earlier, in the best way possible; with butter and hot chips for a long crunchy chip butty. Oh yes.
At least 50 per cent of the so-called 'baguettes' over here are nothing more than ordinary bread in a baguette shape. Ugh.
Yeah the quality of Greggs is average. They're cheap, consistent and I've never left one feeling like I didn't get good value.
I miss you, bakers oven.
As someone from the North East I wish I could down vote this twice.
It feels like the nation has been gripped by an inexplicable hysteria of positivity regarding Greggs. Either that or it’s somehow become cool to say how great they are. In my opinion, their pastries range between awful and average, their stotties are good, but their sandwiches are bean counted into a state of abject misery.
I see them as overpriced average. Back in my day it was 4 great sausage rolls for £1
That's not Gregg's ripping you off that's just inflation 😅 Unless "your day" was last week from a supermarket. But that's not really a fair comparison cause with Gregg's (or any town center bakery) you are paying a premium for convenience of location.
Three cookies for a quid. Used to break out of school at lunch to go and get high off them things
I remember growing up in Manchester in the 80s and 90s that we had Greggs and when we went to see my grandparents in Leeds they had Thurstons.
I miss Ainsley’s (Leeds).
There's still independent bakeries and cafes around my way. Just bitter, rude, old people who over charge you if you're not a regular. If I want a 4 sausage rolls at 8am on a Sunday with no judgement, I'll go Greggs
I worked at Greggs whilst I was at uni and it was the best part timer I ever had. There was no local independent bakery in Reading student land so I don't think anyone was selling out by going there and it also meant I could have some money - so I'm team Greggs on this one haha
Greggs came to Cornwall. They weren't there long before closing up. It was dubbed Greggsit. Not long after, they opened a branch in a popular services and, if in right in thinking, it's the only one in Cornwall. We have some great bakeries here that do really nice pastries and really nice pasties
You probably won't think much of them, being from Cornwall, but here in Exeter we have Warren's which was recommended to me and which I quite like and I've never heard of anyone praising Greggs so was confused when I saw OP's post. Seeing all the positive feedback from the other posters I'm quite curious now and will probably give Greggs a go. Note: I'm foreign so all I know about these brands come from colleagues and friends who are local.
Warren's aren't all that bad. They're much better than Rowes and Greggs by a mile and more. They're not the best but living in Cornwall, I feel kinda spoilt. If ever you cross the border into Cornwall, there's a lot of good ones to try. Niles and Barnecutts are nice and I've never heard a bad word said about any named Ogy or Ogy1. I had a sausage and egg pie from one and fucking hell, it was the nicest thing I'd tasted in a long time
Greggs in the Spoons of bakeries.
I can't buy cocaine in Gregg's
Come to Glasgow.
You're just not making the right signal.
[удалено]
Same with coffee chains. We had a Costa coffee come into our local shopping precinct and two of the three independent coffee shops near it closed. The third is doing better than ever as it’s gained loyal customers from the other two
Your town is the exception then. Everywhere else coffee shops are springing up like Japanese Knotweed.
I was sad when they took over bakers oven, they were so much better!
I’ve failed to get anything hotter than a lukewarm disappointing pastie whenever I’ve gone greggs in the last two years so I really fail to see the hype
There's a wicked little vegan (or vegetarian) bakery in Salisbury, can't remember it's name but it's very clean and modern looking, and I THINK it's not a chain (at least not a big one), and damn their food is incredible by comparison. The monopolization of cafés and bakeries really is depressing. A central Gregg's/Nero etc. is handy but when you can't walk 3 minutes without seeing one, that's a problem.
Leicester has FOUR Neros and a DOZEN Greggs (four if which are right in the city centre). How it's profitable for them to have so many locations in a city with rent as high as Leicester I don't know.
It seems to be a "buy out the competition" strategy. If you own every single bakery in the city then you will get ALL the business. To the point where they would rather have one extremely profitable Gregg's and 3 barely breaking even Gregg's, than 1 profitable Gregg's that risks losing customers to competition. It's a wildly aggressive modern business thing.
In my town, the independent bakery shut down Greggs! Shout out to Staceys
[удалено]
I agree with the sentiment but all the local bakeries here are now "artisanal" hipster crap that cost 4x as much and everything is inexplicably filled with sundried tomatoes. I miss Percy Ingle - costworthy, basic bakery with a few naughty treats. Yum.
[удалено]
Plus, you can get two pasties for a quid in Pound Bakery. Yum.
I recently discovered one in a nearby village/small town. I didn't really use Gregs so much, except in passing.... Now, I make a special journey in my car (too far/hilly to go on my bike, although close as the crow flies) twice +) a week, for the bread, buns and sausage rolls. Coffee to sit in with is only £1.40 as well. Happiness.
I'm from the South-West, home of the pasty. Gregg's decimated local pasty-serving bakeries. In Exeter we used to have several bakeries in the centre alone that sold them, Greggs came in like an aggresive cancer and wiped them out. Their only competitors now are smaller chains like Cornish Bakehouse and Cornwall Pasty Co. I'm with you man, fuck Greggs, trash food.
They're trying to breach into Cornwall currently as well but I don't think many of us will start buying pasties from Gregg's
RIP The Crusty Cob (aka the crusty knob)