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GREGGS FACTO A new nationwide cost of living index has named Lichfield, Staffordshire as the place where people must work the longest to afford a Greggs sausage roll. InvestingReviews.co.uk [https:// investingreviews.co.uk/] studied 100 British towns and cities, measuring how long a typical full-time employee must work to afford a takeaway sausage roll from the bakery. The survey found the hardest-earned sausage rolls were in Lichfield (4mins and 54secs) followed in joint second by Middlesbrough, Nuneaton, Truro and Hereford (all 4 mins and 48secs). People in those towns typically had to work around 65% longer than more affluent Londoners (2mins 58secs) to afford their sausage roll. Greggs’ spiritual home of Newcastle-upon-Tyne — where the late John
Gregg opened his first shop in 1951 — came 30th in the top 100. Geordies had to work an estimated 3mins 46secs to scrape together the necessary funds. Modelled on The Economist magazine’s worldwide Big Mac Index, the Greggs Sausage Roll Index exposes the
regional inequalities that persist despite the government’s flagship levelling-up agenda. It was calculated using Greggs sausage roll prices and local median hourly pay estimates provided by the Office of National Statistics.
K A E T S S I M E H T T O SP It looks like times are tough in the American Midwest. An Aldi store in Minneapolis has been forced to remove steaks from the chiller due to a high incidence of theft. This even though the store is already security tagging its meat. Customers seeking something juicy to go with their French fries are requested to approach a member of staff. However, the only law enforcement officers you’re likely to see in the store are the grammar
police. The sign explaining the bare shelves could have come straight from an advert for a proof-reading course, what with its misused apostrophe in ‘associates’ and the contraction of ‘thank you’ into a single word. While we’re at it, that hyphen in front of ‘sorry’ is a bit frivolous and the use of title case on every single word is quite frankly offensive. And the sign is hanging at a slight angle. Other than that though, good job!
WEDNESDAY 27TH APRIL 2022 / ISSUE 102 / SLRMAG.CO.UK I 33
