SUCCESS!!! I found decent bagels at Publix. They are in the frozen breads section.

[japple]

11. I found this earlier today and meant to put it here. Your post reminded me to.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/05/21/405190434/chew-on-this-the-science-of-great-nyc

According to popular mythology, the uniquely superb texture of the New York bagel has to do with New York City's water — specifically, its low concentrations of calcium and magnesium, which make it softer.
Then comes the key step to making what Coppedge calls a "true bagel" — boiling. Traditionally, Coppedge tells The Salt, the chilled dough rings are poached or boiled in a solution of water and malt barley for anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes. This pre-gelatinizes the starch in the dough, locking the liquid inside of it and expanding the interior. As the video puts it, it's like flash-frying a steak before grilling it to seal in the juices. The boiling also thickens the crust — Coppedge says it "is essential to produce a more 'chewy' bagel."

So why doesn't everyone boil their bagels before baking?

According to Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking, they used to. The traditional bagels that Eastern European immigrants introduced to New York in the early 20th century were always boiled, he writes. But this step gets skipped in the more modern baking method — which, McGee says, is faster and easier to automate. Instead, the shaped bagels are baked in a hot oven that is also injected with steam.