The pasties deflate along with our wallets. Picture courtesy of jhmosty
Greggs shrank all the pies. A shining beacon of all things baked and wrapped in pastry, the popular Newcastle born bakery is currently under scruitiny for shrinking its pastries whilst increasing the price.
Why are they shrinking the pastries?
The various pastries, sandwiches and cakes have decreased in size in the aftermath of the notorious pasty tax. Greggs lost the fight against Chancellor George Osbourne and David Cameron’s government as they imposed a 20% VAT increase that was to be added to hot takeaway food. Before the budget and the pasty tax, VAT was not charged on hot baked goods, and still isn’t on most food and drink. Greggs were able to avoid this tax if the goods were ‘hot and left to cool’ – which it tried, but with no avail as many customers complained. Instead, Greggs has slightly increased the price whilst slightly decreasing the size of its produce.
How much are they shrinking?
The biggest decrease in size is in their bacon rolls, which have shrunk by 18% (152g to 124g last May). Following this are the lemon drizzle dohnuts by 8%, then the yumyums and cheese and bacon wraps at 7%. The chicken sub sandwiches are down by 6%, followed by the popular pasties and pizza slices which are 5% smaller, according to research by The Grocer.
How is the customer losing out?
Apart from the slight decrease in size, and increase on price, their firm favourite and recently ‘improved’ steak slice now contains 15% less protein than before. However, their best selling product, the sausage roll hasn’t decreased in size.
What has Greggs got to say?
Greggs said back in January that it was facing ‘significant’ price rises on ingredients such as flour, pork, poultry and beef. As well as food inflation, rising energy prices may also have an impact. They also say that changes in weight are normally results of improvements in specification such as reducing fat, salt or sugar, and that these decreases will be better for the customers of Greggs.
Are the shrinking pasties here to stay?
Greggs haven’t answered this specifically, but a spokesperson for the comsumer campaigning company, Which? has come forward on the matter, saying that the recent spurt of shrinking products can be a way of raising prices, and that the trend will most likely continue.
Will other bakeries be following in Greggs’ footsteps?
With Greggs already being bigger than McDonald’s in the British fast food market, with over 1,600 stores in the UK the pasty tax will undoubtably hit the smaller and independent bakeries more harshly. The second largest pasty retailer, West Cornish Pasty Co spoke against the pasty tax at the time, but has since not altered their products. It did however gain interest and free advertising following David Cameron’s recent pasty slip-up saying the last pasty he bought was from them in Leeds station. However, the Leeds Station branch of the West Cornish Pasty Co closed in 2007.
sj.humberstone 