Greggs Sausage Roll Index: Here’s how long people in Manchester have to work to afford a Greggs sausage roll

Greggs was founded in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1939 by a local baker named John Gregg.
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A new cost-of-living study has used data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to determine how many minutes people in Manchester and other British cities must work before they can afford to buy a Greggs sausage roll.

Independent price comparrison website, InvestingReviews.co.uk commissioned senior independent economist John Hawksworth to carry out the study.

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Out of 100 cities in Great Britain included in the study, Manchester was 28th with customers having to work 3:44 seconds before they can purchase a Greggs sausage roll.

The city with the shortest time was London at 2.58 seconds and the city with the longest time was Lichfield with a time of 4.54 seconds.

The study looked at 100 cities in Great Britain. (Photo Illustration by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)The study looked at 100 cities in Great Britain. (Photo Illustration by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
The study looked at 100 cities in Great Britain. (Photo Illustration by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

“In part the analysis is a bit of fun with the sausage roll standing in for the Big Mac as a standardised product to compare purchasing power across different places,” said John Hawksworth.

“But it does also make the serious point that there are very large variations in income levels across our towns and cities.”

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Mr. Hawksworth added: “These local earnings gaps are driven by variations in productivity across places that reflect deep-seated disparities in education, opportunity and infrastructure across the country. Narrowing these income gaps remains one of the most important economic challenges facing this and future governments.”

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