Why, oh why?

[Perry Winkle]

Originally Posted by glatt

Nice theory, but you are not familiar with the bagels in question. They are not cut all the way through. They are cut from both sides with a section in the middle that is left uncut to hold the two halves together, and you have to tear that little strip to get the two sides apart.

I think it's because people think of a bagel as a unit and they don't want to purchase a bag of bagel halves. There were probably market studies done years ago when the practice started and this was the preferred option.

I think it's probably that the bagels are harder to package if you cut them all the way through.