We noticed that despite the economic down turn, things seem to be looking up for Greggs the bakers. The Newcastle pasty and stottie purveyor, are planning to re-brand their Bakers Oven shops and open another 600 stores across the country. (also noticed they’re closing their 14 Belgian stores… perhaps the iced buns can’t keep up, with the chocolate and waffles?)

Now, here at the Northern Line, we are particular fans of those egg-mayo stotties with the bacon on, and of course the Greggs Cheese Pasty. I distinctly remember fighting their corner after a particularly bad experience with a Pork Farms cheese flavoured house brick.

However… I can’t help having a slight reservation, when you read that they sell 2.5 million sausage rolls a week… the ubiquitous “Geordie Dummy”… which has gone down in folk lore as the classic teenage mothers antidote to a screaming kid in a push chair.

Now… I’m not about to go all Jamie Oliver on you, ‘specially with my personal, calorific intake… I’m just saying, that while Tesco and Asda are both reducing their number of organic lines by 30 and 35 per cent respectively, as the arse falls out of the organic food industry, it seems like more than a coincidence, don’t you think, that sales of cheap, flaky pastry products are on the rise?

Anyway…on that note, I’m off for a steak bake.

By Dave on October 21, 2009