bagel question

[dodecahedron]

Today I decided I'd like to get bagels for breakfast. Just three regular bagels, no sandwiches, no butter, no slicing or toasting.

95 cents for each bagel.

This is more information than I'd like to give on a message board where I can not post anonymously but I really don't get out much and most stuff people take for granted usually surprises and awes me. Last weekend I went to Costco for the first time with friends and could not believe it.

Is 95 cents for a single plain bagel the current average? I thought bagels would be more like 60 cents.

[NEOWatcher]

Today I decided I'd like to get bagels for breakfast. Just three regular bagels, no sandwiches, no butter, no slicing or toasting.

Fresh? Frozen? Packaged? Individual? What about size?

We have fresh bagels at work (company backed cafeteria) for a buck with a single (tiny) butter packet.

[BigDon]

Fresh? Frozen? Packaged? Individual? What about size?

We have fresh bagels at work (company backed cafeteria) for a buck with a single (tiny) butter packet.

Those newish tiny little butter packets, that have more money sunk in the plastic container than in the butter?

Yeah, I want to talk to somebody about those. They violate packaging and consumer laws.

(Sorry)

Dode, The high fuel prices drove a lot of companies out of business, we are still in the resettling phase, and people have to relearn what we will put up with.

[NEOWatcher]

Yeah, I want to talk to somebody about those.

The trick is to use them while they are cold and come out in one piece. Otherwise you'll just leave it all smeared on the edges of the container and end of the knife with nothing left on the bagel.

It's that "healthy for you" portion size. You get more exercise opening all those little packets to get one pat of butter.

[dodecahedron]

Individual single bagels from a bagel shop.

[Jeff Root]

dodecahedron,

Even if you don't get out very often and haven't bought bagels in a bagel
shop in a long time, you still must eat every day. I would expect that you
would pay some attention to prices of foods that you eat, even if someone
else does the shopping for you. Rising food prices were mentioned daily
in the news in the middle of last year, with the price of corn discussed the
most. When the price of one thing goes up it tends to drive up the prices
of other things. Do you grow your own vegetables and raise your own
livestock on feed that you grow yourself? Or how did you manage to
insulate yourself from a general awareness of rising food prices?

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[BigDon]

Jesus Jeff, the man is just asking about the price of a bagel!

[Jeff Root]

But Don, it isn't the price of the bagel! It's the cost of fuel for the
ovens, rent for the building, clearing snow from the parking lot,
bonuses for the corporate CEO...

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[Van Rijn]

I don't buy bagels often, so I can't answer the question, but I do want to point out that even if you don't eat them, bagels are excellent weapons.

[Ara Pacis]

Fresh bagels, the big ones, are generally more expensive than a pack of medium-sized premade bagels from the supermegamart for half a dozen for around $2-$3. At some megamarts, like Jewel/Albertson's, I think you can get day-fresh bagels for 2/$1, but that may have changed since I last visited one.

[Swift]

I don't buy bagels often, so I can't answer the question, but I do want to point out that even if you don't eat them, bagels are excellent weapons.

I don't think they are telling the hole story.

[BigDon]

I still never got an answer I asked in another thread on how, considering all the gyrations one has to go through to make a bagel, how the bakers on my ship would make them by accident while shooting for hamburger buns.

[NEOWatcher]

I still never got an answer I asked in another thread on how, considering all the gyrations one has to go through to make a bagel, how the bakers on my ship would make them by accident while shooting for hamburger buns.

With a slight change in wording... it's easy.

the bakers on my ship would make them by accident while shooting at hamburger buns

[Buttercup]

95 cents per bagel? What is that store making them out of, gold powder?

Around here they average 50 cents/per...if freshly made on-site in the store.

Refrigerated probably average 30 cents/per.

[pzkpfw]

Given the New Zealand (cough) dollar is about 50 US cents right now, and we pay about $1.50 for a plain bagel from the local bagel franchise, that seems OK to me.



(Big Don: a local-ish prune company has recently started selling prunes in plastic bags. Each prune is in that bag - in turn in its' own little wrapper. I'm no "greenie" but that really annoys me.)

[BigDon]

Pzk, and here we have existing laws in place already about over packaging.

[NEOWatcher]

(Big Don: a local-ish prune company has recently started selling prunes in plastic bags. Each prune is in that bag - in turn in its' own little wrapper. I'm no "greenie" but that really annoys me.)

Not just your local-ish. I've seen these (or something like it) advertised recently.
While on their own "Green Efforts" page it says:

Here are a few of the ways in which we’re moving towards a "green" future:
Reducing the amount of packaging used in Sunsweet products
...

[Swift]

To me, the most important bagel question is not 75 cents versus 95 cents. The question is, is it really a bagel. A lot of what supermarkets sell as "bagels" are not bagels, but what I call "a roll with a hole". Bagels are very different than rolls and other bread.

The dough is different than regular bread dough, and bagels need to be boiled before they are baked. This webpage has a lot of details about bagel chemistry, but this is the key part:

I've talked about the why's of bagel boiling, but didn't address all the additives that can, and often do, go into the boiling pot. Everything from sugar to malt syrup to baking soda to lye are used as additives, all of which have the effect of creating a darker, crispier crust. Why darker? Because sugars that are deposited on the outside of a bagel as it boils caramelize in the oven, turning the crust nut-brown (the moisture also helps in this regard, since it encourages the action of enzymes). Alkalines like baking soda or lye have the effect of making the crust both brown and crispy, in the first case because they help break starches down to sugars, and in the second because they react with oven CO2 to create a rigid, edible carbonate, the same thing that gives pretzels their crunch.

[BigDon]

To me, the most important bagel question is not 75 cents versus 95 cents. The question is, is it really a bagel. A lot of what supermarkets sell as "bagels" are not bagels, but what I call "a roll with a hole". Bagels are very different than rolls and other bread.

The dough is different than regular bread dough, and bagels need to be boiled before they are baked. This webpage has a lot of details about bagel chemistry, but this is the key part:

Exactly! That was what I was saying about the baker's on my ship being so bad they were getting this result by accident!

While attempting to make hamburger buns, which are supposed to be lighter than even regular sandwich bread!

[Gillianren]

Not just your local-ish. I've seen these (or something like it) advertised recently.

Pfft. Those aren't prunes. It says right there. "Dried plums." That's obviously totally different!

[Trebuchet]

US$1.10 per bagel in the company cafeteria downstairs. $0.30 extra for cream cheese. Seems a bit high to me as well.

[kleindoofy]

Oy vay!

[BigDon]

One of the hidden gems in the area is a restarant that sprang up to answer the demand for East Coast style fare and portions, specifically from the Jewish ethnic burroughs. (And it sounds like you're eating on the sound stage of The Nanny sometimes.)

You order a bagel and creme cheese and it comes so loaded with creme cheese I often can't finish it, I can't eat that much of it at one sitting. And after you become a regular they start being even nicer.

[Click Ticker]

Three bagels for breakfast? Even plain - that seems like alot of food in one sitting. Especially just loading up on bread. I'm not a small person by any stretch.

[Neverfly]

Three bagels for breakfast? Even plain - that seems like alot of food in one sitting. Especially just loading up on bread. I'm not a small person by any stretch.

You haven't seen me pack away the goods.
5'6" and 140 lbs. I will eat two foot long subs from subway and still be hungry. I can eat two LARGE pizzas, an entire turkey (including all the fixins'), 6 MRE's etc- all in one sitting per item.
An hour later, I'm hungry again.

I had a stunned waiter at Marie Calenders say, "You just don't give up do you?"

Don't ask me what happens at Buffets.


This is the primary reason that I know the crazy claims that the LHC will destroy the world are bogus. I have several of those mini gobstobbers floating around in my midsection and they haven't destroyed the world yet.

[pghnative]

I don't think they are telling the hole story.

Give them time....they'll get a-round to it.

[Click Ticker]

You haven't seen me pack away the goods.
5'6" and 140 lbs. I will eat two foot long subs from subway and still be hungry. I can eat two LARGE pizzas, an entire turkey (including all the fixins'), 6 MRE's etc- all in one sitting per item.
An hour later, I'm hungry again.

I had a stunned waiter at Marie Calenders say, "You just don't give up do you?"

Don't ask me what happens at Buffets.


This is the primary reason that I know the crazy claims that the LHC will destroy the world are bogus. I have several of those mini gobstobbers floating around in my midsection and they haven't destroyed the world yet.

I don't burn it like I used to. Sedentary job and too busy lately to make time to run, unless I want to function on six hours sleep - which is another thing I don't do very well.

But you are correct. 10 or 15 years ago - three bagles would be a between meals snack, and I'd lose weight in the process.

[dodecahedron]

dodecahedron,

Even if you don't get out very often and haven't bought bagels in a bagel
shop in a long time, you still must eat every day.

I've gone out of my way to live the life of a hermit. Most of the stuff I buy I'm aware of the prices and really don't go out of my way to look for new stuff therefore I'm intentionally oblivious to other changes. Heck I still remember when bagels were 35 cents back in New Jersey. Also 9/10, my good man.

95 cents per bagel? What is that store making them out of, gold powder?

moar liek gold bond powder amirite? They were from a chain store called Brueggers and there's only one good bagel shop in Colorado Springs and I gotta hike to get there. Playing Devil's Advocate I'm sure their business plan isn't geared towards selling single bagels and the lion's share of profit is made with their sandwiches.

The question is, is it really a bagel. A lot of what supermarkets sell as "bagels" are not bagels, but what I call "a roll with a hole".

At my old job sometimes the department manager would announce that she bought bagels for the team. The first few times I was like "HOT DАМN" followed by abject disappointment finding a bag of Thomas's bagels from the supermarket. One time I confronted her with "I thought you bought bagels" which only led to a confused stare. They really don't know any better outside of the northeast but you gotta love them because it can be charming at times.

Three bagels for breakfast? Even plain - that seems like alot of food in one sitting. Especially just loading up on bread. I'm not a small person by any stretch.

Dude, I'm 300+ pounds and 6'2". If you want to talk about gluttony I'm your man. 20 inch pizza in one sitting. A loaf of garlic bread from the supermarket for lunch. Stuff like that. Mind you it's not on a regular basis but taking those feats into consideration eating three bagels in a row doesn't take much in the way of intestinal fortitude. Then again I bike a lot and try not to be sedentary. If only I was more like Kingpin of Marvel Comics fame.

[Swift]

As an authority on bagels (I was born and raised in New York City and am ethnically Jewish), I would say Brueggers are real bagels, and pretty good for a chain. $0.95 sounds about right to me.

[dodecahedron]

As an authority on bagels (I was born and raised in New York City and am ethnically Jewish), I would say Brueggers are real bagels, and pretty good for a chain. $0.95 sounds about right to me.

Good Moderator! I challenge you upon your urban heritage. A true denizen of the tri-state area would be far more inclined to patronize a locally owned business rather than a chain!