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Original poster

Are you a buyer for the M&S Bakery? Talk me through your thinking …

149 replies

Starmadrama · 02/04/2026 17:24

… in relation to hot cross buns. I’ve been in my local M&S today and the shelves were heaving with lots of flavours of hot cross buns - red velvet, chocolate, lemon etc - but the section for fruit ones was empty. Clearly there is very little demand for these bastardised hot cross buns!

I finally found a single pack of fruit buns abandoned by the till. I did think about getting the fruit buns earlier in the week but the expiry date was before Easter 🙄

Did any market research inform this expansion of the Hot Cross Bun offer I wonder?

OP posts:
Wjdbxb · 02/04/2026 21:03

I hate dried fruit so I like having options so I can have a hot cross bun. That said, the novelty flavours are very hit and miss. Aldi rhubarb and custard are by far the nicest.

SirChenjins · 02/04/2026 21:04

Rhubarb and ginger ones are the best!

sexnotgenders · 02/04/2026 21:14

WrigglyDonCat · 02/04/2026 20:50

<Rant mode>
No no no no no.

Hot cross buns are hot cross buns. You know, dried fruit, spice etc. I'll accept perhaps a little adulteration with chopped apple, but we all know what it is.

A triple chocolate hot cross bun or whatever isn't. It's a triple choc bun. Great if you like it, but it isn't a sodding hot cross bun.

And while I'm on a roll, supermarkets can sod off with calling pain au chocolat 'chocolate croissants'. They aren't, because although the basic dough may be the same it isn't a sodding crescent. The name literally says what it is. And you can bugger off with the straight croissant as well. Croissant == Crescent. Crescent crescent crescent. Get it. And don't put any other chuffing flavours in a croissant. Not only does it have to be a crescent, it also has to be buttery pastry and nothing else.

This is why I should be allowed to carry weapons and be free to use them on any abuser of food names I see fit. This nonsense would soon stop in my brave new world once I've made a few examples of people pour encourager les autres and all that.

I'm going to start selling orange apples and lemon apples, because, you know, we might as well just call everything the same thing and be done with.
</Rant mode>

I would fully support any political ambitions you may have!!!

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Baking
WilfredsPies · 02/04/2026 21:15

I think they rely on the sound of them rather than the taste. They make them sound so delicious that people snap them up, only to discover that they’re actually bloody vile. This goes on for several years until all the vile flavours have been tried and they buyer gets to the stage the OP is currently at, where they realise that the only sane option is to go with the originals, and to grab them as soon as they see them.

Blueuggboots · 02/04/2026 21:18

The cheese ones last year were fantastic, but yes, the standard hot cross buns can’t be beaten!!!

CandyEnclosingInvisible · 02/04/2026 21:20

The tiramisu and the chocolate ones are both very popular here. ARFID child vehemently opposed to any kind of cooked or dried fruit but very happy if they are substituted with choc chips.

bunnyvsmonkey · 02/04/2026 21:21

Currents, raisins, sultanas can all get in the bin.

Dearover · 02/04/2026 21:23

Davros · 02/04/2026 18:02

I don’t like dried fruit so I’ve never had a hot cross bun before. I’ve eyed up the options in M&S but haven’t taken the plunge, I might try one out if there’s any left on Saturday. The shop will be shut tomorrow

Whereabouts are you if M&S is shut on Good Friday? They only have to shut on Easter Sunday.

luckylavender · 02/04/2026 21:28

PullTheBricksDown · 02/04/2026 18:06

Just got in from my M&S which has loads of classic fruit hot cross buns, walls of them by the till, as well as all the wacky flavours. It's your branch that have gone wrong!

Same here

BinseyPoplars · 02/04/2026 21:28

locket2009 · 02/04/2026 19:13

I’m still annoyed they stopped doing the cheese and marmite HCB in M&S they were delicious

I tried to find these; really disappointed they’re not available this year

Lotsalotsagiggles · 02/04/2026 21:29

Lol.i sent my hubby for hot cross buns in m and s with strict orders only to get the normal ones...not the weird ones!

Sailingby · 02/04/2026 21:37

We got back from holiday today - and bought some fruit HCB from M&S in the airport. No other flavour allowed in our house. Only to be eaten on Good Friday.
Just like Easter eggs are to be given / hunted for on Easter Day - not when schools break up for Easter or some other nonsense. My children know the rulz.
Don’t get me started on M&S and their random flavours of Easter products… most of which are sold off after Easter half price - because guess what - people don’t want them….

Twooclockrock · 02/04/2026 22:05

I had a free lemon curd pack of hot cross buns in my sparks app. The assistant at the till in the clothes section was helping me out with my app and then said 'oh you have free lemon curd hot cross buns' and I said 'no thanks'😂

Arcadia · 02/04/2026 22:20

The apple m and s ones are good 👍

Davros · 02/04/2026 22:44

@Dearover and @llikeyourbum thanks! I knew the shops shut on one of the Easter days but I got the wrong one. Very helpful info 🐇

5to5 · 02/04/2026 22:46

Why so much putting in the bin? What a waste. Give it to the birds

Happyjoe · 02/04/2026 22:48

5to5 · 02/04/2026 22:46

Why so much putting in the bin? What a waste. Give it to the birds

100%, blackbirds love a currant bun :-)

StripedPillowcase · 02/04/2026 23:25

KeyLimeCake · 02/04/2026 18:43

I did not know that was a Christmas one, I just thought it was permanently sold out when I visit M&S (not that often)!

I guess I'll have to wait til September now to get them again.

Show quote history

I don't know for certain they were just Christmas ones (given this is a thread about M&S stock issues), I just assumed, as I never saw them before or since Christmas.

StripedPillowcase · 02/04/2026 23:32

All this talk of HCBs makes me want to dig out my cranberry and orange bun recipe, with a cross of marzipan, but they're a horrendous faff and I don't have half the ingredients in.

SabrinaThwaite · 02/04/2026 23:33

This was covered by The Kitchen Cabinet on R4.

It’s the supermarket development chefs to blame.

swifttara · 02/04/2026 23:46

Agreed. I notice they are often reduced. See also the cheese pancakes they are doing. I gave them a punt due to yellow label but bleugh.

Crispynoodle · 03/04/2026 00:12

The cheese ones?!?! Why? Not the point but I’m very upset that I can’t seem to get Easter biscuits at my local M&S

ifIwerenotanandroid · 03/04/2026 00:38

I haven't seen any Easter biscuits around this year, so I'm going to make my own.

Mulledjuice · 03/04/2026 00:43

MysticHalfWitch · 02/04/2026 18:04

I like the chilli cheese ones but they’re like rocking horse shit. I trawled three M&S one year, nada.

Lidl have cheese ones

FourForksSake · 03/04/2026 00:45

Is anywhere doing cheese &marmite this year? DD resorted to a bag of soft croissants to fill, instead.

There weren’t many trad HCB in our M&S this afternoon, plenty of untoastable snot-filled red velvet and lemon ones. The millionaire ones are nice though. We have tested them all!