SALISBURY — When Zack Brown made a trip to Asheville last May, he made a stop at Einstein Bagel Company with plans to buy bagels that he could take home and enjoy throughout the week.

“Of course, they sell them in that paper bag and I brought them back and set them on the counter. And then, by the third day they’re hard as a rock. I thought there’s got to be a better way to store this, and sure enough there’s bagel containers, but that’s not going to help. Air is still going to get there, it’s still going to create a problem,” said Brown, a Salisbury native.

While contemplating the problem, Brown said his entrepreneurial spirit kicked in and he started buying materials with the aim of developing his own bagel storage container. That work resulted in the Bagel Bag, which Brown said he is in the process of applying for patents for.

“What differentiates the Bagel Bag from any other storage container out there is that it includes a 2×2 packet that you place in a mesh compartment inside the bag. What that does is activate the entire area of the bag and reduces the oxygen and the moisture levels and humidity. It balances out the entire microclimate for the bagels and creates an ideal microclimate,” said Brown.

He said that with his bag, a bagel should last about twice as long, with the average being approximately seven days of freshness.

One of the main selling points is that the bag will “last forever,” said Brown, only requiring new inset packets every once in a while.

“It’s made of long-lasting, highly durable materials. So you can just spray it with soap and water and wipe out the crumbs. The packet that is included, that lasts six months and if you want to buy another one it’s a couple of dollars,” said Brown

Now, Brown is working on turning his idea into a company, exploring three avenues to get the company off the ground.

The first is a Kickstarter campaign, where anyone can back the project with donations. The campaign does include various rewards for different donation sizes. The campaign has a goal of $2,500, which Brown said would allow him to create about 500 bagel bags at approximately half the price he does now. The campaign ends on Saturday, May 3, and Kickstarter has an all-or-nothing campaign model, meaning donors are refunded if the $2,500 goal is not reached.

Another avenue Brown said he is exploring is beginning to send out Bagel Bag samples to various bagel stores throughout the country. That process is still early, said Brown, so he has yet to hear anything back.

He also has an online store and has shipped some to Amazon so that they were available on Amazon Prime. Those have already started selling with a $24.99 price tag, he said. The goal, said Brown, is to be able to get the price down to $19.99 through bulk price cuts on the materials.

The Kickstarter campaign can be found at kickstarter.com/projects/zackbrown2020/the-bagel-bag.