Greggs vs Starbucks

Most geographical disputes in the UK are solved by closely examining the distribution of the national chain of Greggs bakeries. For those of you who didn't grow up in the warm embrace of Northern England Greggs is the largest bakery chain in the United Kingdom. It is loved by many for its sausage rolls, cheap sandwiches and sweet cakes.

Last year the Tab worked out Where the North is by plotting every single Greggs store on a map. By plotting the location of all 1,823 Greggs bakeries throughout the UK the Tab were able to finally determine beyond debate where the south finishes and the north begins. It is possible to determine if a location is in the north or south of England by looking at the number of people per each Greggs bakery. 25,000 people per each Greggs bakery is the Tab's benchmark. If a town has less than 25,000 inhabitants per Greggs then it is in in the north. More than that and the town is in the south.

The number of Greggs restaurants can also be used to determine how deprived an area is. In Greggs vs Starbucks Compared Esri has used the numbers of Starbuck coffee shops and Greggs bakeries to determine which areas of the UK are more gentrified and in which areas you would struggle to find avocado toast.

The map reveals the predominance of Greggs or Starbucks in each postcode area in the UK. It continues the great tradition of UK social-class obsessed mapping which brought us such seminal maps as How to know if where you live is “up and coming” (which compares the number of coffee & fried chicken shops to determine gentrification) and Fast Food England (which used the density of fast food restaurants to determine which areas of the UK you can comfortably sneer at).