The Bagel Man

Murray Lender, whose enthusiasm and business skills put Lender's frozen bagels at the top of the national market, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 81, after complications from a fall several weeks ago.

Will Rogers, the depression-era American humorist would claim, "I never met a man I never liked." Mr Lender claimed he never met a bagel he never liked, nor ever met a person who never liked a bagel. Both men traveled extensively. And with 90% of a national market that put the product in at least 30 states, his boast would be hard to refute. The company was sold to Kraft in 1984 for $70 million, with Mr. Lender staying on as national cheerleader.

Is it irony, coincidence, or nothing at all, to admit that I really was thinking of Mr. Lender on Tuesday as I made my way down the breakfast aisle at the local supermarket looking for frozen waffles. I passed the bagel section, gave an acknowledgment left and thought to myself that while I've certainly had Lender's bagels, I always thought they were too small, surely nothing like what you can buy at the local bagel place where you get 18 for the price of 12: maritime lifesavers compared to dissolving lifesavers.

No matter. I've run into a fair share of transplanted New Yorkers who always moan about not getting a good slice of pizza, or a good bagel at wherever they've now relocated. Lender's at least bridged an ethnic food gap when geography got in the way.

Since my employment status has changed check-off boxes, I sometimes find myself in the supermarket. This has allowed me to go out on a morning mission and obtain what I really want, rather than have my wife tell me that six local supermarkets have incredibly just run out of whatever it was I just mentioned that would be nice to have now and then. It's truly amazing what there is nothing of when there is no current coupon that will help you lower the cost.  I have become the master of my gastric fate.

Will Lender's ever make it back into our freezer now that I've been turned loose to roam the American retail grocery system?  I suspect so.

It's going to rain really hard on the day my wife has a Lender's coupon and I'm slow to get out of the house. She'll buy several packages and we'll eat several at one sitting. Murray Lender didn't become the nation's Bagel Man without business sense.

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