Marx Bagels is heading back into the wholesale market, after COVID-19 put the kibosh on that same effort started in 2019. If you remember, Marx had inked a deal to have its bagels in Kroger stores back then. The ink was not dry, figuratively speaking, before the coronavirus caught the world by surprise, ripping through the economy like a bull in a china shop. Back to the drawing board on broadening the bagel base for Marx!
The new self-serve display kiosk at Blue Ash Kroger
“Now we’re working with Kroger again — small for now. But that is how we like to do things, like to take baby steps, and try to do things right before we go all in,” said Y.Y. Davis. He added that, since he walked through the door at Marx, he has wanted to expand bagel sales into the retail marketplace by partnering with retailers where his bagel products made sense.
“We know that 99 percent of our sales, customers come to us (at the Marx bagel counter). We let the product speak for itself. But being present in retail establishments like Kroger is something we’ve wanted to do, and this (arrangement with Kroger) is the first step in getting more of that business.”
For now, Jewish diners-out will be able to find Marx bagels in a grocery-store environment only in the Blue Ash Kroger on Hunt Road. Wife Rena Davis designed a stand-alone display for the bagels — a triumph by all accounts. The display offers individual bagels that are self-serve, in that the buyer of the bagel uses a provided set of tongs to pluck the bagel or bagels of choice from the case and into a bag. In the works is a six-pack of bagels that will be on the display stand as well.
Concurrent with the six-pack effort is another challenge. “We use no preservatives in our products. We make our bagels fresh, and we will continue to do that. But we’re working on a (more) shelf-stable product that will be as close to our in-store product as possible (for places such as Kroger).
The display kiosk in the Children’s Hospital cafeteria
In addition to Kroger, Marx has an arrangement with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for a similar stand-alone display for individual bagel sales in its cafeteria. Rena Davis had this to say: “We are on the Burnet (Avenue) campus of the hospital in the cafeteria, and they now sell our bagels. At Children’s, people come from all over the world and some of the people who come there are kosher. So, our product is perfect for them and everybody else too, because people don’t realize they are eating kosher.” She added that many of the employees of the hospital practice kosher. Until the advent of Marx bagels in the cafeteria, there was little with nutritional value for them to eat there. “We are working on having single servings of our salads, our egg and tuna and whitefish salads, and cream cheese spreads in a refrigerated case (on the display),” she added.
The work being done is toward kosher certification of the process, which is more complicated than might be assumed. Everything down to the tongs used to select the bagel of choice is kosher to start, but protections need to be put in place to assure that no food other than kosher bagels, salads and cheeses find their way onto a display that is serviced by Marx, but not watched over by them. The Vaad is involved, and the expectation is that the issue will be resolved in a way that will satisfy all parties.
Two asiago cheese bagels plated, in the forefront
One change that has grown out of the Cincinnati Children’s endeavor is that the folks at the hospital wanted an asiago cheese bagel in the mix that Marx provided. “We had to discontinue the asiago cheese bagel here (at Marx Bagels) because it was very difficult to find a supplier of kosher asiago cheese at a reasonable price.”
Turns out, asiago is an Italian cow’s-milk cheese with a DOP (protected designation of origin) classification, meaning that true asiago cheese can only be produced in a specific region of Northern Italy. Likely why a kosher version of the cheese is hard to find at a decent price. But Children’s wanted an asiago bagel, so Davis took another bite at the apple, and was able to locate a new supplier who can provide a kosher cheese at a reasonable price. In the happily-ever-after department, Children’s Hospital has its asiago bagel, and soon, Jewish diners-out who go to Marx Bagels will be able to find the asiago bagel for sale there too. Win-win.
See you at Marx Bagels!
