What is it with bakeries thinking that they can charge stupid prices for bad versions of the real thing? A few months back, when I heard that Lind had opened up in Grand Gateway, I was stoked- finally, brezels in town! I went down on my lunch break and paid 9 (!!!) RMB for a brezel. It was sad- small, poorly done, and generally wrong in all aspects except the shape and coloring. The soft bit was too porous and soft, and the arms were as crunchy and hard as beer pretzels.

So, when I went on vacation in Germany, I did some research. Put simply, Lind's brezeln (poor replication notwithstanding) are about 30% smaller and 100% more expensive than most brezeln in Germany- they are even more pricy than in Munich airport, and I am damned sure the overhead there is worse than here.

See the photo for comparison- on the left, we have a .40 EUR (3.45 RMB) brezel from Aldi- bigger, better, far cheaper- it covers my whole hand. On the right, we have a 9 RMB (1.05 EUR) brezel from Lind- barely covers my palm, and not even a good brezel. For comparison, the brezeln in Munich Airport run .90 EUR- and that's in a place where a bottle of Coke costs 30 RMB!

(I apologize for the crap photography, I was more concerned with eating than the pics on this trip.)

So, Lind, what's the story? Your brezeln are mediocre and your prices suck? I did ask you to email me about it, left my card, you didn't contact me. So, feel free to fill in your side, here or by email, and I'll hear you out- but you have some serious 'splaining to do.

This is how I see it: your overhead, both in human assets and rent is far less than in Germany, and you have reasonable turnover due to your great location and dreadful (but popular) localizations of 'German' baked goods, yet you price higher that the most expensive brezel joint in the most expensive city in Germany.

I know you're the only 'German' bakery in town, but is that reason enough to twist the knife on pricing? Have you not learned from the Paul fiasco? Expensive bread is on the out. And really, though its obvious you're after the money, you must know that turnover matters too- if you priced more reasonably, I suspect you might just sell more.

So, until Lind fixes their issues, I must recommend that people go to Marco Polo, or 85C, or Bread Talk for their poor imitations of Western baking- at least their price matches their quality.