Beth Kweeday really loves Greggs. The 23-year-old tattoo apprentice from Liverpool is such a fan of the high street baker that she got a tattoo of its signature sausage roll in branded packaging on her calf last November as an eternal reminder of the shop she visits more than five times a week.
But what is it about Greggs that made her want to commemorate their produce on her body? “I really like beige food, so it’s pretty much a dream for me. And I like that it’s dead cheap as well.”
Kweeday starts her mornings with a Greggs vegan sausage roll, sometimes pops back in for a cheese pickle sandwich for lunch, and if she’s feeling peckish in the afternoon she might return for a chocolate muffin.
Surprisingly, Kweeday’s fierce love for the high street stalwart is not unique. She is one of many Greggs superfans happy to wear their passion for the chain loudly and proudly.
The retailer is now hoping that fans and casual customers alike will snap up official branded merchandise as part of a high-profile collaboration announced this week with the budget clothing shop Primark.
But fans have been finding their own ways to honour Greggs for some time. Independent sellers peddle pregnancy T-shirts with a Preggs logo, earrings painstakingly crafted to resemble Greggs pastries, Greggs-printed leggings, and any number of greetings cards, which typically convey how much the sender prefers Greggs to their recipient.
Leah Bernard, 19, who runs the Etsy shop Bernard Bits, sells earrings resembling Greggs sausage rolls in branded bags. A prototype she posted on TikTok went viral, securing 1.6m views. They’re now one of the most popular items she sells, especially among the LGBT community. “I often get messages saying ‘this is a gift to my friend who’s obsessed with Greggs’,” she said.
She thinks Greggs’ popularity is down to its heritage as a “typical British caff”. “If you spoke to someone not from the UK, that’s the first thing you’d mention. Nowhere else has it.”
Pasty, a drag queen based in London whose Greggs-inspired burlesque routine – in which she bursts out of a branded paper bag in a sausage roll costume – launched her performing career, agrees that the chain’s appeal stems from tapping into British culture.
Her Greggs routine went viral on TikTok, receiving plaudits from Kylie Minogue and Years and Years, with many commenters praising it as exemplary “British drag”, a self-deprecating, comedy-driven subversion of its glamorous American counterpart. “It’s funny and absurd. Someone said ‘try explaining this to anyone who’s not British’. I don’t think anyone outside of the UK would understand Greggs hype.”
It’s perhaps this match of UK food culture with the down-to-earth, irreverent tone that is a hallmark of British humour that Greggs fans find so compelling.
Tamsin McLaren, who runs the University of Bath’s prestigious marketing degree, said Greggs’ “tireless pursuit of understanding their customer” had made it an iconic brand. “Greggs honest and inclusive tone of voice chimes with many who are bored by false promises and inflated prices of premium brands,” she said.
The partnership with Primark is a natural continuation. The fact they are “behaving like premium or luxury brands”, for instance by launching the clothing collection at an exclusive pop-up in Soho, “enhances Greggs’ image as a brand with humour and not afraid to be self-deprecating via irony”, she said.
The brand’s success at a difficult time for the UK high street is testament to the strength of this approach. While there were several high-profile high street closures during the pandemic, Greggs plans to double the size of the business and expand from 2,115 to 3,000 sites in the near future.
Greggs’ chief executive, Roger Whiteside, has said the secret lies in its savvy marketing and openness to new trends – exemplified by the carefully timed introduction of a vegan sausage roll. Greggs superfans agree.
“They really go with the times,” said Pasty. “When my [show] was happening, they shared the clip on social media. I’m a drag queen and not many brands would do that.”
Greggs’s appeal is as much rooted in familiarity as it is in novelty, she says. “For everyone in the UK, if you’re in town and you need something quick you get a sausage roll for a quid from Greggs. It’s cheap, easy food and a staple of everyone’s memory.”
