As a New Yorker and a longtime food writer, I'm particular about bagels from my local neighborhood shops. But sometimes, convenience calls for supermarket bagels.
I taste-tested store-bought bagels from Aldi, Costco, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods to see which sells the best ones.
To eliminate as many variables as possible, I opted for plain bagels and topped them all with a layer of the same variety of whipped cream cheese. Toasting times varied based on the size of the bagel and the whims of my toaster, but I attempted to brown them all to similar levels.
Here's how they stacked up.