Maybe it is because our stores buy locally (next year from us!) but we always have really good apples even at the Megalo-Mart. But else where the bagged apples are the best. The big polished "buy one at a time" apples really are not that good. They are what our neighbor who raises cider apples calls "Water Bombs".
Sounds like you’re an apple grower...Maybe you know what’s happened to Jonathan apples? My late wife made incredible apple pies with Jonathans, but lately they’re about impossible to come by...One story I was told is the Jonathan orchards have (mostly) been torn out and replaced with the new patent apple varieties like Honey Crisp...More profitable...