A baker who bought 30 jars of Marks & Spencer's £2.50 Custard Cream Spread has defended his purchases after a photo sparked a social media debate about bulk buying.
Jordan Grey, 29, from Newcastle upon Tyne, runs postal cake business Cakes Contour with his fiancé Nathan. In August, M&S released the spread, described as a 'sweet, smooth, vanilla-flavoured spread studded with crunchy biscuit pieces'. Grey uploaded a picture of himself buying two trays of the spread, planning to use it in a Custard Cream Millionaires Shortbread. The post proved divisive on Facebook and Instagram, with some shoppers angry that he had bought 11 jars.
Social media backlash
'That's why nobody else can get any,' wrote one social media user. 'People like you keep buying all the jars,' shared another. Others asked why the business was sourcing ingredients in bulk from a supermarket instead of a wholesaler, and some thought M&S should impose strict limits on the product.
Not everyone was bothered by Grey's purchase. Many pointed out that there were no rules prohibiting him from buying as many jars as he'd like, and that the product isn't an 'essential' item. 'You do you ultimately. It's a shop and if there's no max purchase on the item then fine,' an Instagram user replied.
Baker's response
Grey watched the 'public inquiry into his shopping trolley' play out online in disbelief. 'If I hadn't posted about buying the jars, nobody would have known what was in my shopping trolley,' he tells Metro. 'We're simply a small business buying an ingredient to make a product our customers want, and the fact that it's turned into such a talking point has been completely unexpected.'
He says he's purchased about 30 jars of the spread in total so far, and has never cleared out an entire shelf. 'A lot of people seem to think I'm personally responsible for the spread being sold out in every M&S, which is quite a lot of responsibility for one small bakery! I always leave at least half of the available stock for other shoppers, and visit different stores rather than clearing out one shop.'
Why not make his own?
As for whether he could start making his own version of the spread, Grey says he could, but he doesn't want to. 'I could do it easily, but that misses the point. The novelty of using a new, recognisable M&S product is part of what makes our Custard Cream Millionaires Shortbread appealing to customers. It's not about whether I'm capable of making a spread from scratch; it's understanding what gets people excited about a product and what they actually want to buy.'
He adds: 'It's exclusive to M&S, so we can't simply order it through our usual wholesalers.'
Currently M&S doesn't have any rules or restrictions in place for buying the spread, but Grey says if they did, he would 'respect it'. 'If M&S introduced a limit tomorrow, we'd follow it and plan accordingly. If we didn't have the spread available at our unit, we simply wouldn't sell that slice until we could make more.'
Metro asked M&S if they planned to introduce a limit on the number of jars customers can buy, but they did not confirm. However, an M&S Food spokesperson said: 'Our Custard Cream Spread has been such a hit with customers, and we have loved seeing the ways people are enjoying it, from spreading it on toast and pancakes to using it in baking and desserts.' They added that those struggling to find a jar can check the M&S Food Digital Catalogue to find their local Foodhall where it's stocked.
