Greggs

I don’t visit Greggs very often as I much prefer other bakers but that isn’t to say I don’t like it here. When I visit here it is usually for the breakfast deal of any breakfast barm and any hot drink or orange juice for £2. For city centre prices I don’t think it can be rivalled for the quality. The sandwiches are usually very fresh and the baked goods always nice and warm. The staff are pretty friendly and helpful. Actually this has made me fancy a pasty for lunch… guess where I will be later…

When I use to work as a street fundraiser I really did love Gregg’s. Standing out in the cold and being ignored by the public on the street on a minute-​by-​minute basis could get pretty demoralising. Sometimes, all I needed was a hot chicken pasty from Greggs to sort myself out, and I felt way better all of a sudden.
The great thing about the mixture of being a street fundraiser and Greggs is that they are absolutely everywhere. Whatever town you are sent to fundraise in, there will be a Gregg’s almost wherever you turn.
Greggs is always much better in the morning. Everything gets a bit lukewarm, but first thing in the morning all the pies and pasties are lovely and hot.

Onto another pride-​swallower now… the naughty Greggs. The love that dare not speak its name. The cheap thrill. No, like, REALLY cheap. Come on, where other than the average bakery can you get something for lunch for less than a quid that would fill your tum until late that night and give you that satiated, if a little indigestion-​ridden feeling?
Greggs deserves a special Manchester mention because not only is it a Northern franchise (now with over 1,400 bakeries nationwide), it’s recently opened up a huge factory in Openshaw, part of this here city we live in. It was this factory and the Greggs franchise itself about which Manchester Confidential wrote an informative and very amusing article. Through this I found out that every product you buy from Greggs is fresh and made by experts who taste test every batch of produce, rejecting it if it’s not up to scratch. Jam is injected into doughnuts by hand; cakes and buns are iced by hand. That’s a LOT of cakes, buns, and doughnuts.
I’m a sucker for a custard slice and I must say, Greggs is one of the better offerings I’ve tasted since the demise of my beloved Mellors in Southport. But they’ve got so much more than your traditional slices and pies and pastries. They have muffins with a lemon curd centre. They have gargantuan gooey American chocolate cookies (which even my foodie friend succumbed to and insisted I share with her). They innovate. Alongside your classic sausage rolls and cheese pasties you can find pizza slices and mango chicken sandwiches. There’s something for everyone, hence why you’ll find construction workers and executives, local sales assistants and marketing directors in those same queues that snake around the shops every lunchtime. The Spinningfields branch just on the edge of Quay Street is hence a huge hit, and it practically receives a stampede when that hour long break is designated to every office worker in the vicinity. As ManCon appropriately pointed out, they’ve got Pret, Carluccio’s, Eat and Bagel Nash around the corner. Yet Greggs is still rammed.
Perhaps not one for the New Year Detox, but to heck with it. If we can’t indulge our guilty pleasures in moderation, we’re clearly lying to ourselves.