No longer touted as ethnic food,
the bagel business is booming.
HOWARD ROSS
Special to The Jewish News
s/e - ti44=-"'
gg, onion and even
sprout, the bagel-eating
public is buying.
Concerns about health and
the quest for new ethnic food
favorites have pushed bagels
onto the menu of mainstream
America. Increasing popular-
ity has meant expanded
variety as well, with trendy
stores in some areas selling
carrot, peach-flavored and
even chocolate chip bagels.
While the business people
who make their living from
bagels may be traditionalists
at heart for lox-and-cream
cheese, to say they're crying
"sell-out" over this newfound
popularity would be a half-
truth. What they're mostly
shouting is "sell."
In metropolitan Detroit and
across the country, the bagel
'" business is booming. Ethnici-
ty, however is becoming less
an issue.
"I'd say 60 percent of our
sales come from outside the
Jewish community," said
Richard Steinik, Detroit
Bagel Factory president.
"Whereas when I started
(1967) it was more the reverse,
with at least 60 percent of
sales being within the com-
munity."
Howard Goldsmith, co-
> owner of New York Bagel
Baking Co., agrees. "Bagels
have become much less of an
ethnic food, dropping that
label over the years and
becoming more mainstream,"
he said.
Retail sales for Detroit
Bagel's six stores in metro
Detroit were $1 million last
year, Steinik said. That
translates into about four
million bagels, he estimated.
Steinik said growth during
the 1980s has been steady,
averaging around 10 percent
per year.
Now in its 30th year,
Steinik said there still is
potential for expanding.
Steinik estimates it would
require $50,000 in start-up
costs to open a new outlet in
the Detroit area.
While some bakeries still
train workers to shape bagel
dough by hand (an experienc-
ed bagel maker can produce
about 700 per hour), most
U.S. bagel factories use
automated equipment that
E
Richard Steinik of Detroit Bagel.
can turn out up to 9,000
pieces each hour.
Bagels are made with
unbleached, high-gluten
flour, malt, salt, sugar and
yeast to raise the dough. The
finished product is dipped
briefly in boiling water, which
produces its smooth, almost
shiny crust.
Goldsmith declined to give
retail sales figures for New
York Bagel, which has four
stores in the Detroit area. He
did say the company has ex-
perienced "a steady increase
in sales over the last couple of
years."
Despite its name, the corn-
pany has no actual New York
connection. Goldsmith's
grandfather and the two part-
ners who began the business
in Detroit in 1921 apparent-
ly thought it would sound
more credible with "New
York" as part of the company
name.
If New York Bagel sales
reflect national statistics at
all though, then company of-
ficials don't have much to
worry about.
Bagel sales nationwide hit
$785 million in 1989, accor-
ding to the trade journal
Bakery Magazine. That's up
from $620 million in 1988
and nearly double the $400
million annual sales reported
in the early 1980s, the
magazine said.
A good chunk of that came
out of the supermarket
freezer. Lender's Bagel
Bakery of West Haven, Conn.,
reported $65 million in gross
retail sales, said Wally
Vincently, general manager
of advertising and public rela-
tions for the frozen bagel
maker, which was bought out
by Kraft Foods in 1988.
The company sells 4.5
million frozen bagels in the
United States each day, accor-
ding to Vincenty. Detroit area
residents buy nearly 500,000
frozen bagles weekly.
Although Detroit lags
behind major east coast
population centers in frozen
bagel consumption, Vincenty
said the region "holds its
own" compared to Cleveland
and the larger Chicago
region.
The lack of a dominant na-
tional bagel factory chain and
the wide differences in local
chains make imposible ac-
curate comparative sales
estimates for fresh bagels.
Both Steinik and Gold-
smith characterized the corn-
petition between their corn-
panies for the Detroit-area
bagel market as aggressive,
but "friendly." And neither
one seems much concerned
with outside competition
from the general market, in-
cluding recent efforts by
Burger King and Dunkin'
Donuts.
"We try to run different
sales than they do or different
specials at other times,"
Detroit Bagel Factory's
Steinik said.
"I think there's plenty of
room for both of us," New
York Bagel's Goldsmith
added.
Burger King, which has
been selling ready-made
bagel breakfast sandwiches
for nearly two years, is going
after the weekday business
breakfast crowd.
Dunkin' Donuts started
selling bagels in Detroit area
stores in late January but
Bagel Factory owners are not
concerned.
"I wasn't really aware of
that, but I don't foresee it as
a major problem," Goldsmith
said.
Sidney Feltenstein, senior
vice president of marketing
for the Randolph, Mass.-based
doughnut chain, said the
company was pushing bagels
for stores "in selected areas of
the country."
"We see it as something for
customers who are more
health-conscious or people
who just want a change,"
Feltenstein said.
A plain, toasted bagel totals
120-150 calories and has no
preservatives. Calories in a
doughnut total 250-300.
Both Steinik and
Goldsmith attribute the
bagel's meteoric rise in
popularity among the general
public, at least in part, to
Lender's founder, Murray
Lender. When Lender began
packaging and freezing
bagels for mass-market con-
sumption in the early 1960s,
he whetted the appetite for
millions of potential
customers, they said.
Of course Steinik and
Goldsmith are quick to point
out there's "no comparison"
between frozen bagels and
the fresh-baked variety in
terms of taste.
Steinik said sales at the
Detroit Bagel Factory outlet
at 16 Mile and Groesbeck
Highway in Mount Clemens
are one indication of the
bagel's overall popularity in
the Detroit metro area. The
store moves as many as 3,000
dozen bagels a week. "We
really do phenomenally out
there," he said.
But it's the oldest Detroit
Bagel location, at 10 Mile and
Coolidge in the Dexter Davi-
WHICH
BAGEL
is most
POPULAR?
Which bagel is the best-
seller in metropolitan
Detroit? According to
those in the know at two
local bagel factories, it's a
toss-up between the good
ol' plain and the tradi-
tional egg.
Here are the results of
this informal poll:
NEW YORK BAGEL
(West Bloomfield store)
1. Plain
2. Egg
3. Salt, Raisin (tie)
"Raisin has always
been popular," said
Carolyn Mason, store
manager. Mason said the
Orchard Lake Road store
will sell about 1,000
dozen bagels on a typical
Sunday.
DETROIT BAGEL
FACTORY (Farmington
Hills store)
1. Egg
2. Salt
3. Cinnamon-raisin
"I don't work very often
on Tuesday (discount
day), but that's definitely
our biggest night," said
Don Haurtekeete, a
baker at the Orchard
Lake Road location.
Haurtekeete said the
store will sell 350-
400 dozen bagels on
Tuesday, compared to
about 200-300 dozen on a
typical Sunday.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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