Greggs near me: We visited as many Manchester spots as possible in 20 mins - including new Market Street store

Greggs is fast becoming a national institution with stores opening on almost every street corner of every city and town in the country. And Manchester, which has just welcomed its thirteenth store to the city centre, is no exception when it comes to its love of the popular bakery chain.

The company, which specialises in cheap, on-the-go food, appears to be going from strength to strength, despite the cost of living crisis. It recently reported that sales are up by a fifth compared to this time last year.

What’s more, Greggs has also just won a legal battle that will allow its Leicester Square spot in London to stay open until 2am instead of 11pm. Hopefully this is a sign Manchester will get a late-night Greggs – the Oxford Road location is sure to give the nearby McDonalds a run for its money.

In total, the Manchester central area has around 20 stores, with thirteen inside the ring road alone. Elsewhere, there are branches in every borough, town centre, as well those located at retail parks, petrol stations and even inside supermarkets. This is just slightly below Greggs’ home city of Newcastle, but nowhere near the frontrunner, Glasgow, which has a whopping 39.

The new city centre Greggs is located on Market Street, right in the heart of the busy retail district and just a few minutes’ walk away from several other branches – as we recently found out on our Greggs tour of the city centre to find out: how many Greggs is too many Greggs?

Can you have too many Greggs in one city?

To answer this, we challenged ourselves to see how many we could visit in 20 minutes, starting out at the top-rated store according to Google Reviews, Brazennose Street. Although it is tucked away off Albert Square, this one is a particularly popular one at the moment. Not only is surrounded by offices, but the ongoing Town Hall restoration nearby means it’s one of the go-to spot for the construction workers.

From Brazennose Street, it took just 2.55minutes to get the next one, located on Cross Street. This is one of the smaller ones, but still gets foot traffic from people moving between St Ann’s Square, Albert Square, Exchange Square and Piccadilly Gardens.

Next it was time to visit the newest edition to the Greggs map of Manchester, Market Street, which took just 3.32 minutes to get to from Cross St. This one is one of the bigger city centre spots. Considering it’s been there a matter of days, it already seems like it’s always been there. We also got to try the new Vegan Mexican Chicken-free Bake, which may be my new favourite vegan option.

From there, it was just another 2.10minutes to the first of two Piccadilly Gardens Greggs. The one closest to Market Street is fairly small and there is usually a queue at busy times of the day. There is so much going on in this area of town, that there is often a security guard on duty there too. Luckily, the next nearest Greggs is just 1.52minutes away, on the other side of the square.

We then headed to the Princess Street Greggs opposite Manchester Art Gallery, which took us 3.45minutes, the longest stretch on our tour, and then to St Peter’s Square which took another 2.13minutes. This one has seen better days, as one of the window panels has been replaced with a wooden board. From there, it was just another 3.12minutes to where we started on Brazennose Street.

In total, we visited seven different Greggs store in a speedy 19 minutes and 29 seconds, which begs the question: do we really need that many so close together?

Looking at the number of customers that were at each Greggs, it’s clearly popular and the price has a lot to do with that. Not only is it cheap, it’s also quick and convenient. We all know the Greggs menu by heart right now, so getting what you want is normally very fast. Yes, sometimes your pasty is lava-hot when straight out of the oven, and other times they’re stone cold, but they are always mess-free and perfect for eating and walking – which, in my case, was straight to another Greggs.

What’s the new store like?

Market Street Greggs is one of the larger stores in Manchester. When we visited on Wednesday afternoon, the shop had a steady flow of customers. It sells all the favourites, including sausage rolls, steak bakes and pizza slices. There is also a chiller section with their full selection of cold drinks, sandwiches and salads, as well as hot food options including popcorn chicken and wedges.

The store will be open 6:30am-9pm on Monday-Saturday and 8:30am-7pm on Sundays. It is available on Click + Collect orders via the Greggs App. It will also serve breakfast until 11am.

Shop manager Tammy Hikin said: “We can’t wait to welcome both Greggs fans and new customers to our brand-new shop. We’ve got an amazing range of tasty bakes, hot drinks, sweet treats and savouries available for takeaway or Click + Collect.”

Gillian Long, retail operations director for Greggs, said: “Our new shop in Manchester Market Street has brought 20 new jobs to the local area, as well as providing customers with a modern, convenient new place to experience their favourite Greggs food.”