Greggs may be a guilty treat but it’s not guilty of much else

So we all know Greggs. Living in Durham it is impossible not to. Within just one week of being here the sight of the hungry cramming into one of Greggs Bakery’s branches becomes as iconic to Durham as the cathedral. It is a norm I have come to accept, that the population of Durham enjoys Greggs. Loves it in fact, whether people opt for their best seller of a sausage roll, or a sandwich and a coffee, people just can’t get enough of it!
However, following the load up of my BBC news homepage on the 9th November, I have come to realise that it is not just within Durham that Greggs is embraced with gusto; it is in fact a nationwide phenomenon. As the BBC article informs, Greggs serves more than five million customers per week, selling over two million sausage rolls. And apparently this is a cause for concern.
Quite justly the BBC news documents how by Greggs’ domination of the High Street the nation is consuming unhealthy produce with worryingly high fat and salt contents. Furthermore, children are being brought up on a diet of pasties and fizzy drinks, possibly affecting their present and future health if such choices of diet prevail.
An equally valid point is made that Greggs, whilst very cheap in comparison to many bakery stores, does not challenge the recession busting prices offered by supermarkets. Whilst finally, Greggs is presented as a demon that defeats local, “real” bakeries that are unable to compete with the low prices offered by Greggs’ vertically integrated structure.
Such viewpoints do induce questions as to why exactly Greggs is so popular; it makes us fat, informs poor lifestyle choices for future generations, kills off local business, and doesn’t even help us out in a recession. The haven that once provided us with a warming snack, or filling lunch, now appears to be the Satan of all places food related. It is easy to see how one could deem the retail chain as detrimental to society. However, I do not feel this is the case.
It is undeniable that Greggs’ food is an unhealthy choice. And yes, it would be much better for us to buy a salad or a pack of sushi. Yet, we cannot hold Greggs responsible for making us unhealthy; the choice of what we decide to eat is our responsibility.
Wherever one shops, choices will always have to be made between healthy and unhealthy alternatives. In Tesco, do you opt for the apple or the chocolate bar? The wholemeal or the white? The frozen peas or the frozen chips? The point is, if we choose to eat something from Greggs, we are knowingly making the decision to be unhealthy.
Who can blame a business for taking advantage of a burgeoning market when people are willing to make such choices? Greggs makes no attempt to deceive customers that the produce is healthy, and following the recent media driven focus on healthy eating, people are fully aware of what is healthy and what is not. Therefore if people are eating from Greggs, it is because they really want to, they know the health implications just as well as they know the alternatives.
In relation to the argument that Greggs’ domination puts other local bakeries chains out of business, it is important to note the presence of such businesses within Durham. Saddler Street alone sees Greggs, Peters Bakery and Nichols all looking onto one another, with all three chains having bases in the North East. Some may feel that such chains do not represent the “local”, yet seemingly this is how the bakery industry has developed. And whilst the other chains may not match the sales and success of Greggs, they are still maintaining their position within a competitive market.
It is also undeniably true that Greggs is not cheap in comparison to supermarket chains. However, can bakeries and supermarkets really be validly compared in a price war? Just as people choose to buy an unhealthy snack, people choose to buy from a bakery over a supermarket. Customers desire the reassurance of freshness, and the “treat”-like quality that buying products from a bakery can induce. The service offered by Greggs is much preferred over a rushed homemade sandwich, or the stale and soggy combinations that are typical of so many cheap supermarket products. It is therefore the combination of relative cheapness, quality and convenience that make Greggs so successful.
Therefore it is easy to see why people choose to eat Greggs, but let us not blame Greggs for the apparent damage it does to our society, instead let us blame the choices that we make in supporting Greggs, as it is our choices that are the true creator of such a thriving industry. But until we feel strongly enough to stop making such choices, do not feel guilty about grabbing the odd sandwich, they are rather nice you know.