Budget eats - Superstore Always Everything Bagels 6-pack

For budget eats, I have found that the baked-in-store bagels from Superstore are the biggest compared to other supermarkets. The prepackaged 6-packs are basically always $3.50 IF you buy TWO at a time.

The other types of bagels at Superstore -- also priced the same -- seem a bit smaller or less dense. So if you are squeezing the maximum bang for your buck in terms of a quick, filling, meal I recommend the Always Everything Bagels.

Superstore versus Walmart

This works out to 60 cents per bagel, and you can certainly get even cheaper bagels at Walmart, coming in at 50 cents per bagel.

• However, I found Superstore bagels to be fresher and look bigger -- and the biggest-of-the-big seem to be their "Always Everything" bagels topped with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, and roasted onion.
• That said, we actually weighed a 6-pack of bagels from SuperStore versus a 4-pack of bagels from Walmart and the average weight per "Always Everything" bagel was basically the same.
• It's not clear if Walmart bagels are baked in store. Something I've found odd is that often it's wet inside the bag. Are they thawed?
• There is some kind of sticky coating. Presumably it helps the "everything" of sesame seeds and poppy seeds stay on (and you get a lot more of that per bagel compared to every other type I've seen) but it also causes those same seeds to stick to your fingers. Your experience may vary but I find it slightly icky and more than slightly inconvenient.
• The flavour and texture is different. I find Superstore bagels slightly sweeter, and Walmart bagels feel dryer.

The one annoying thing I've noticed about Always Everything bagels is how far those poppy seeds can fly when you bite into one. You might think they'd just fall straight down, but no they can really go about a foot away.

• For this reason I find myself gravitating toward the slightly-lower-weight but more convenient bagels with cheese toppings. Way less fuss.

So if you're just going to eat them plain, I recommend cutting them into quarters or eighths like a pizza and eating each piece in one or two bites.

Over time, bagels can get dry and hard, whether you put them in the fridge or not. If this happens, you can not just rehydrate them but soften and puff them up a bit by steaming.