Ever since Royal Bagel went out of business the only real option to get bagels in Atlanta is Einstein Bros. Nothing against those guys but it is just not the same.

There was a group of traditional Jewish folks that used to while away their Sunday mornings with a bottle of Scotch outside the Royal Bagel.

When I was in NYC I became quite fond of a particular type of bagel sandwich. The Kokomo Kid refers to it as a Lance Weatherby special.

I went to Einstein’s recently to get a special. It did not quite play out that way as the following email that I sent via www.einsteinbros.com describes.

This morning I went to my local Ansley Mall Einstein’s and ordered
something that I had been buying for years. A plain bagel with lettuce,
tomato, and onion.

The counter clerk informed me that this was a Veg Out and would cost
$5.49. I pointed out to him that according to the sign in the store a
Veg Out was feta pine nut spread, a garden veggie shear, veggies, and
included a choice of fruit or potato salad and a pickle and all a wanted
was the above mentioned bagel which included no side, no pickle, and no
feta pine nut spread. I was told that it was corporate direction that
my order be charged at $5.49. I ordered a bagel with cream cheese for
$1.99.

I mentioned this to the store executive manager. He also told me it was
corporate policy and there nothing he could do. That is why I am
writing you and would like this note to be forwarded to whomever was
responsible for setting this product/pricing policy.

I have been ordering plain bagel with lettuce, tomato, and onion from
your store for years. It cost me a bit less then $3. Your new pricing
policy is absurd. I would like to understand the rationale for this
move.

What I really want is to be able to order a bagel with cream cheese and
add on three veggies. I crave them.

I did not mention in my note that they threw the special away because I would not pay for it.

I few days later a received this reply:

The correct way to price a bagel with a spread, plus 3 veggies would be
as follows:

Bagel and CC
First veggie is free when you have a spread on a bagels
Second veggie is $.50
Third veggie is $.50

When there is anything more than that, it goes to the price of a vegout.

I will pass along your comments to the store management team and make
sure we are being consistant.

I am sorry for any confusion, and would like to send you a couple of
free lunch coupons, could you email me anaddress where I can send them
to?

Fair enough. This was from Joe, the District Manager. I declined the free coupons.

Recently I got the craving again. Went into Einsteins with some trepidation (exactly how I want my customers to feel when doing business with me). Ordered it up. They priced it out just like Joe said. He had followed up with staff training.

Good man.

Now if they would just empower their employees to make rational decisions when dealing with customers.

They experienced some bad WOM on this one.