Bantam Bagels
After a few
Starbucksoutlets in New York City tested demand for tiny cream
cheese-stuffed bagel balls this summer, the bite-sized dough globes
from
Bantam Bagelshave rolled into in about 515
stores in the city, as well as a some locations in Philadelphia and
Indianapolis.
To grow sales, the giant coffee chain's strategy includes
increasing sales of foods like sandwiches, pastries, and meal
boxes, which are now about 19% of sales. There are more than 12,000
Starbucks locations in the U.S. Bantam hopes to expand into more of
them yet.
NBC / Via Ben King for BuzzFeed
For a better sense of scale, this is how big a bagel ball is.
Bantam Bagel co-founder Nick Oleksak has said the idea came to him
in a dream.
Venessa Wong / BuzzFeed News
Bantam, a business started in 2013 with a small storefront in
Manhattan's West Village, also sells its products online and has a
catering business that delivers to offices and events like
weddings.
The market for bagel balls is bigger than you might think.
Bantam saw a bump in sales after being featured on
Shark Tankin January. So far
this year, it has sold more than 2 million bagel balls, with sales
of over $2.1 million. As it develops corporate partnerships, Bantam
also began offering its bagel balls on Delta flights out of
Laguardia Airport about a month ago.
At about 100 calories each, they're a snacker's delight, but
they're not cheap. Each bagel ball costs $1.75 at Starbucks —
nearly the cost of a normal sized bagel — or you can get two balls
for $2.95. That's one way to control how many you eat.
Venessa Wong / BuzzFeed News
Starbucks offers three flavors of bagel balls: french toast,
everything, and classic.
Venessa Wong / BuzzFeed News
They each are filled with different cream cheese flavors.
French toast gets a buttery, maple cream cheese; everything has
veggie cream cheese; and classic gets plain old cream cheese.
Venessa Wong / BuzzFeed News
They're like the doughnut holes of bagels, although some bagel
purists may protest such bold deviations from the cherished
norm.