With breakfast pastries and coffee fresh on everyone’s minds this morning, MailOnline asked our readers which high street bakery chain they preferred – Greggs or Gail’s?
The results are in: in a landslide victory Greggs came out on top as the nation’s sausage roll sweetheart, with a whopping 72 per cent of readers voting for it as your favourite- with Gail’s receiving a mere 28 per cent of votes.
The dire defeat for the upmarket bakery comes amid a recent revolt against the chain – with many suggesting a Gail’s cropping up is a sure-fire indicator the area is being gentrified and that it could put independent eateries out of business.
Residents of Walthamstow and Worthing recently pushed back on plans for Gail’s branches to open in their area and slammed the chain for ‘ruining high streets’.
Owners of family-run cafés warned that existing local businesses were ‘struggling as it is’ and could lose custom or even be forced to close for good if a Gail’s opened near them.
In a landslide victory, Greggs came out on top as the nations sausage roll sweetheart with a whopping 72% of you voting for it as your favourite
Gail’s faced a dire defeat, receiving a mere 28% of votes in the MailOnline poll
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Gail’s Chief executive Tom Molnar has instead insisted that he only ever wanted to give the customers choice.
He said: ‘We build small sites so they are a part of a diverse high street, so whenever I build a Gail’s I think what it would be like if I was a resident here.
‘I’d encourage people to look at what we’re trying to do, rather than taglines. There’s good independents and bad, and good chains and bad chains.’
Surely, the Gail’s boss would be devastated to find out that the nation views his chain as a bad one in our damning poll results.
Despite having over 2,400 branches across the UK, Gregg’s does not receive backlash when they open a new store.
In fact, Brits love the bakery so much that Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Edinburgh had its very own Gregg’s van dishing out sausage rolls to fans. The van also appeared in Ibiza today to celebrate Café Mambo’s 30th anniversary and has been a loved feature of celebrity parties, including Vicky Pattison’s wedding and Olly Murs’ baby shower.
Greggs, which had 2,473 outlets by the end of last year, has announced further expansion plans to open up to 160 stores in 2024. Pictured: A Greggs sausage roll
A picture of the sweet treats on offer in a Gail’s bakery. Gail’s only opened its first bakery in London in 2005, but now proudly owns over 140 locations
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Gail’s was founded in 2005 with the first opening on London’s upmarket Hampstead High Street and has been dubbed the ‘middle-class Gregg’s’ as it offers expensive artisan versions of classic pastries and is frequented by ‘yummy mummies’ cramming their prams between the tables and chairs.
To some, this criticism may seem harsh but it is perhaps worse to discredit Greggs’ journey from humble beginnings to working-class hero.
Today, it is a £3billion empire with bold promises to build a Greggs in ‘every town in Britain’ but it started out in 1939 as a humble bread delivery service for mining families in Newcastle.
The first official Gregg’s store opened in Gosforth, Newcastle in 1951.
It has since sprawled out across the country with one guaranteed to be just a stones throw away from you in any town and city.
These eight locations will see a new Greggs bakery opening as part of the company’s expansion plans in 2024
The first Greggs in Gosforth, Newcastle which opened in 1951
Pensioners and working class women queue outside Greggs Seconds Shop, Westgate Road in Newcastle in July 1974
A new 21-piece Greggs x Primark collection has been designed to get the nation festival-ready
Lewis Capaldi models the Greggs clothing wear. Greggs clothing was seen everywhere at music festivals last summer thanks to a collaboration with high street fashion store, Primark
Kate Beckinsale wore a Greggs swimsuit at her Californian home after they launched their clothing range
A famous Greggs fan! Ed Sheeran posing with his lifetime supply Greggs black card
Unlike Gail’s, Greggs transcends the class system with branches welcomed in working-class and middle-class areas alike – even Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg was spotted with a box of their pastries on his desk.
It is so popular that it has even partnered with Primark twice to release ranges of merchandise including shoes, socks and hoodies – famously modelled by Lewis Capaldi and Kate Beckinsale.
Gail’s currently has 140 stores across the UK and is expanding rapidly to compete, but – as MailOnline readers have proved today – it will never beat the nations favourite puff pastry darling that is the almighty Greggs.