Bagels Plus — Restaurant in Acton

Bagels Plus has the MOST DELICIOUS bagels in the area, period. However, one must go through Dante’s Inferno to get them.

There is no customer service; rather there’s a gaggle of teen-age looking girls who are more interested reconnecting with friends who stop by than they are dishing up these yummy bagels. To say that they move at a glacial pace would be a lie. In fact, moving that fast would be a vast improvement requiring neck braces for anyone in the shop.

This gaggle seems to be mesmerized by the one toaster in the shop. Which I can understand the attraction to shiny objects, but girls – it’s a toaster! Together they put the bagels in and together they wait and watch as they come out the other end. Not one of them is able to break their zombie-like stare and actually multi-task.

Which leads me to believe that the hiring process goes something like this: Q: Have you ever toasted anything? A: Yes. Q: Have you ever spread anything, like butter or cream cheese? A: Yes. Q: Do you have a pulse? A. A what? Never mind, you’re hired.

While talking about management, which I assume is the party making the hiring decision, where are you? Do you have a clue as to what goes on in your shop? Can you imagine how your revenue and customer satisfaction would increase if your staff actually moved like they had a purpose? No, hanging out at the toaster is not customer service. Chatting rather than paying attention to the next person in line is not customer service.

So, let’s circle back to customer service, in general, as it doesn’t thrive here. Imagine the experience that I and others might have if we are kindly greeted by an employee rather than treated like another interruption to their otherwise exciting life. Imagine, some kind of order behind that counter, where folks are assigned jobs – that’s right, it means the group worship of the toaster comes to an end and you assign one or two people to pull the bagel, cut it, toast it, and so one. Oh, what are other folks doing? Well, a couple could make drinks, others could prep the cream cheese – which is also DELICIOUS, and perhaps one of them understands math enough to run the cash register and make change. I know, I know, sounds complicated, so I recommend observing the staff of an area dunkin donuts or Panera. They’ve figured it.

No, I don’t stop here for bagels anymore; but my husband does. It’s torture for him, but happy...

Bagels are better than any chain place for sure, cream cheese options are ok.

That said, there's absolutely no reason not to accept any payment other than cash. If you can have an ATM and Bitcoin machine to pass on costs to your consumers while you make money off hosting the machines, then you can add 2-3% to your prices and accept cards.

Revenue will go up and more than cover the costs, plus you're doing many consumers a favor and saving them time or absurd atm fees. Consumers spend more and this is a fact, I myself would have spent $20-25 getting more food plus drinks as opposed to only the $10 in my wallet. That additional revenue alone could have covered $500-600 of card purchase fees.

In this day and age if you're intentionally not accepting modern payment you're being consumer adverse. It's not like we're going to be going back to a cash only consumer economy anytime soon so just make the transition and take down all the unfriendly signs and free up the ATM space.

Also don't just hire only attractive high school girls to work the front, it's weird and this isn't the 90's. If the owner is a woman trying to support other young women fine, but if you're a guy that's...

I really wanted to like this place because the food was fantastic. The bagels are unbelievable. The coffee is perfect. But, my wife has a sesame seed allergy, and both times that we went there we were very clear about that, asking politely if they could just clean the area a little bit because even one or two sesame seeds could cause a reaction.

Now, I wouldn't give it a low score if it were just a few seeds on my wife's Bagel sandwich. Going to a place where they have sesame seed Bagels and getting a sandwich there is a bit of a risk on our end. So I wouldn't blame them if there had been a few sesame seeds. Instead, she received a sandwich that had well over 20 sesame seeds. Three sesame seeds has sent her to the emergency room. Just for this reason I have to give this place a 2.

By giving a two, that means I will try this bagel place again in the future. And, if I do and it is improved, I will revise my rating and my review.

EDIT: Changed to one star from two because allergies need to be taken seriously. Would not have reviewed if they just said that they couldn't...