June 6, 2026
I visited the Einstein Bagel shop on State Highway 64 in Bradenton, Florida, for the first time. No other customers were in the store. A young woman was writing something in a pad on top of the glass of the Bagel display case. When she looked up, there was no welcoming statement. I approached and said, “May I get two everything bagels, two cranberries, and two cinnamon raisins?”
She replied, “Yes,” then walked away to a cash register and stood without speaking. I walked over and said, “So I pay for it now?”
She said, “Yes,” so I swiped my card. Then she walked away, saying nothing as the receipt was being printed. I took the receipt off the machine myself while she went back to whatever she was writing in her notepad.
I then walked over to her and said, “Are the bagels delivered here at this counter. Not looking up to me, she grunted something, forcing me to say, “Did you say yes?” She nodded and went back to writing.
Another worker, a man, nudged up next to her and removed several bagels from the display case. He too said nothing. He then went to a work counter and started cutting the bagels that he had just removed from the display case. As he was putting cream cheese on them, I said to the woman, who was still writing, “He isn’t putting cream cheese on the bagels I just ordered.”
She answered, “No.”
Suddenly, the man working on the bagels turned to me and, without a word, walked to the display case, removed the bagels I ordered, placed them in a bag, then walked to the counter I was standing at and dropped them in front of me. Then he walked back to what he was doing.
No thank you, no eye contact, no acknowledgment. I thought to myself, “What rude, ungrateful people!”
Do the people at Einstein Bagel think their product is so good that they can treat customers in such a manner? Within the vicinity of that store, there are at least six other places to purchase good bagels. Each one of those places offers courtesy and smiles.
Dan Brady
Badenton, Florida.