If people want it, then it will thrive. If they don’t, it won’t. Simple.
The bakery chain Greggs has sparked fury after it opened its first branch in Cornwall – but it won’t be selling its own version of the famous Cornish pasty.
Fury, no less. The best I can manage is a slight “meh”. I’ve used Greggs when on the road. They are okay. So what?
Workers have said the store feared its crimped on top ‘the Devon way’ pasty would upset locals and wouldn’t be welcome.
Fer cryin’ out loud. As people have mentioned here when discussing this particularly inane topic – turn the bloody thing on its side. Problem solved. I mean, seriously, is that it? Is that all you’ve got to get worked up about? The shape of a pasty? Really?
Lee Stephens said: ‘Why in the name of Satan does our county need a Greggs? Why would we require Greggs down here.
‘We have proper bakeries down here, we don’t need cookie cutter franchises like Greggs when we already have legit nom factories.’
Because there’s a market for them and people want to buy their products? You know, just a passing thought. Besides, it’s a free country and eight people now have jobs that they didn’t have before, so a good thing. And if people don’t buy their produce, they will pack up. So not an issue.
Hayley Hill said: ‘They’re surely not gonna get that much custom except tourists right? I mean Greggs doesn’t even know what a pasty is, their “pasty” is a bleddy slice.’
I think that’s a feature, not a bug…
Kathy Aspinall added: ‘I don’t mind Gregg’s but they’re pasty’s are nothing like a traditional Cornish pasty – flaky pastry for a start! No comparison really.’
So what part of them not selling pasties in Devon or Cornwall did you not understand?
Speaking before the opening, a spokesman said: ‘Cornwall is the only county where Greggs have yet to open.
‘There is a strong demand for the Greggs offer and we look forward to being able to make this available to customers in Cornwall.’
But renowned bakers in Cornwall said they had faith that locals will always pick a traditional pasty instead of any imitations.
Yup. This is how the market works. If the locals prefer the local baker, then fine. However, I strongly suspect that apart from the complainers, others will patronise Greggs and buy their products – unless they want a pasty, because, as Greggs have stated, they don’t sell pasties in Devon and Cornwall, so there’s nothing to fuss about.
Marion Symonds, 51, owner of Portreath Bakery and Made Marion Gluten Free and a long time campaigner of the traditional Cornish pasty, said: ‘I would have thought they would sell whatever they sell in their normal stores.
‘If they sell pasties in their other shops why wouldn’t they sell them in pasty world?
‘I believe that Cornish people who have had Cornish pasties with traditional ingredients will always go to a Cornish bakery.
‘There’s a chance that we will loose some trade to Greggs but I don’t think there will be a pasty war because Cornish people will always go for a traditional pasty.’
She added: ‘People will always go to a proper baker if they want a pasty made the traditional way.
‘Greggs do a budget line and people on a low income do like it.’
Someone sensible. My oh my.
I remember when they were Gregg’s of Gosforth.
That said, I went into one a few weeks ago, while passing through the UK. I asked for a steak and kidney pie and the girl in the headscarf looked at me like I had two heads.
Not sure that you can really call yourself a baker, if you can’t do a Kate & Sidney…
Doubt that the likes of Greggs would open a shop if their research didn’t show that there was demand for one.
I believe Tim Worstall made a similar comment recently. These people are complaining because they know people will want it.
” except tourists right?”
That’d be those same tourists what keep Cornwall going, keep you all in work and your bins emptied, right?
That would be the ones.
“Pasty’s”?
Plus “they’re” and “loose some trade”, I think people buying a few non-traditional pasties is the least of Cornwall’s problems.
I’m not sure how much is them and how much is the Mail’s piss-poor writing standards.
A little from column A, a little from column B….
Greggs, and to a similar extent Subway, make my life on the road more bearable.
For one thing they both do (which the typical bakery doesn’t), apart from offering decent value breakfast specials that is from early in the morning which keep me going during my usual 1000/1500 miles a week, they both make decent Latte coffees, now they do keep me going.
A bloody Cornish pasty is not the only item of food in the country, get over yourselves, its not that important.