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Greggs Postpones Reopening And Will Conduct Trials Behind Closed Doors

Greggs Postpones Reopening And Will Conduct Trials Behind Closed Doors

A spokesperson said that the decision has been made due to significant interest in the 20-shop trial

Rebecca Shepherd

Rebecca Shepherd

Greggs has issued a statement to say that it will be postponing the reopening of any stores due to the risk of 'excessive numbers of customers' if they did.

Days ago, the bakery chain announced that it would be reopening a small number of stores to trial how the bakery could start trading as usual once again.

Greggs is closed amid the coronavirus pandemic.
PA

A spokesperson said: "Due to significant interest in our 20-shop trial, and the risk that excessive numbers of customers may plan to visit Greggs, we will now initially operate these trials behind closed doors in order to effectively test our new operational safety measures.

"We will continue to review this and will invite walk-in customers into our shops only when we can be confident of doing so in the controlled manner we intended."

Greggs announced that all of their 2,050 stores would close on 24 March, when the UK government imposed a nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The initial plan to reopen 20 stores has been changed.
PA

The initial plan was for Greggs to reopen 20 stores to trial how well things went and, if the feedback was positive, the hope was to then move to phase two - with 700 shops reopening.

Phase two would only be possible if the government relaxed the lockdown rules.

According to The Guardian, Greggs' working assumption was that schools would reopen on 1 June, allowing the phase two shops to reopen on 8 June.

The final phase was to have all shops reopened with new operational measures in place by 1 July.

News of the postponement of course means that we're all a little further away from getting our favourite pastry fix.

But fear not, Greggs is trying to do everything it can to remedy this, including sharing a DIY sausage, cheese and bean melt.

You don't need many ingredients, just beans and bangers (usually tinned together, you know the kind), some cheese, puff pastry and an egg.

The ingredients you will need.
Facebook/Greggs

You might be best whacking your oven on at this stage (Greggs tell us to put it at 180°C which equates to gas mark 4), then you want to cut out two squares of pastry and egg wash the edges.

Put the bean and sausage duo into a bowl and get squishing with a fork before popping the mixture in the middle of the pastry (leaving some room where the egg wash is).

Sprinkle your cheese on top of the beans and pop your identical square of pastry on top. Then you need to press your fork down on the edges of the square you've created to seal the parcel.

Do a final egg wash across the entire bake-to-be and throw it/them (depending on how many you're making) into the oven for 20 minutes - or until golden brown/piping hot throughout.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Greggs, UK News, News, Coronavirus, UK