The Good Old Days
ISRAEL DIGEST
Specially compiled by The Jerusalem Post
Downtown Royal Oak store specializes in pop culture nostalgia.
—$1 EQUALS 2.9960 NIS (shekels) - Close Price 11/8194—
Milk: It Does A Company Good
he pop culture is
alive and well at
Decades, a busy
shop at the corner
of Main and Fourth in
downtown Royal Oak.
Owned by Royal Oak
residents Barry Shul-
man, 47, and Bill
Krout, 33, the store fea-
tures collectibles from
several decades of the
1900s, but it specializes
in the "pop" era which
began in the 1950s.
Among the more
popular items are sou-
venirs from classic tele-
vision shows like "I
Love Lucy," "The Andy
Griffith Show," "The
Brady Bunch," "Char-
lie's Angels," "Love
Boat," "Lost in Space"
and "The Munsters."
Cartoon characters
Popeye and Betty Boop,
who first appeared in
the 1930s, also are big
sellers, as are advertis-
ing signs and advertis-
ing art from the 1920s
on up, the Three
Stooges, Elvis Presley
and Marilyn Monroe.
"Some of our cus-
tomers buy things for
home decoration, others
buy things to wear, and
others buy just to make
a statement," said Mr.
Shulman, a native De-
troiter who has a mas-
ter's degree in interior
design and teaches art
and art history at
Wayne State Universi-
ty.
Barry Shulman and Betty Boop.
"We don't consider
ourselves a second-
hand store," said Mr.
Ironically, Decades itself is old
Krout, a former photo-lab tech- and new. Built between 1850 and
nician who has been collecting 1870, the building was a candy
antiques and other memorabilia shop in the 1920s and 1930s and
for years.
later a shoe store.
"We do sell some antiques and
Decades moved in two years
older items from estate liquida- ago after Mr. Shulman and Mr.
tors, but our main thrust is pop- Krout spent 10 years selling an-
culture goods," Mr. Krout said.
tiques and memorabilia at the
Mr. Shulman said Decades re- Royal Oak Farmer's Market.
ceives much of its merchandise
Mr. Shulman said the store's
from persons who are cleaning teen-age customers "seem to go
out their homes. The men also for jewelry and trendy things,"
travel extensively to private es- while the adults go for television-
tate sales.
show items, antiques and deco-
"In our business, everything rative pieces. Right now, they
old is new again," Mr. Krout said. have a big demand for 70s items
"That may be a cliche, but it's and pre-disco things.
true."
"I've also had women come in
T
PHOTO BY GLENN TR IEST
DEBBIE L. SKLAR SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
Yossele Yudovich, head ofTnu- will establish joint manufac-
va's dairy division, said the Is- turing plants in Jordan based
raeli company plans to on Tnuva's know-how.
"We are currently discussing
manufacture and distribute
dairy products in the Middle our plans with Jordanian and
East in partnership with Jor- Palestinian investors. It will
danian and Palestinian in- take us about a year to finalize
the agreement," Mr. Yudolvich
vestors.
Mr. Yudovich said Thuva, to- said. "Dairy products manu-
gether with the investors, will factured in Jordan are rela-
I distribute its dairy products to tively poor in quality. Jordan
Palestinians as well as to Jor- currently imports dairy prod-
ucts from America."
dan, Iran and Iraq.
He said the company also
BlockBuster Deal For Koffler
"I am a great believer in the
Superpharm founder Leon Kof-
fler, who also holds interest in renewed success of video rental
Tower Records and Office De- in Israel," said Mr. Koffler, who
pot, will be the sole Israeli rep- explained that after the initial
resentative of BlockBuster infatuation with cable TV, Is-
raelis would return to video-
Video.
There are 4,000 BlockBuster tapes.
"People prefer selective view-
stores worldwide that feature
a selection of over 7,000 films ing as opposed to a large
amount of out-of-date or repeat
and games.
BlockBuster is owned by Vi- programming," he said. -
Mr. Koffler, a Canadian im-
acom, which also owns Para-
mount movie studios, TV migrant, established Super-,
production studios, radio sta- Pharm some 17 years ago. The
tions and cable TV stations, in- chain has been recognized by
cluding MTV and the U.S. the Israeli business communi-
ty for its innovative manage-
movie channel Showtime.
Viacom's yearly turnover is ment and marketing
techniques.
$12 billion.
His Dream: Electric Network
Israeli energy minister Moshe
Shahal shared with the partic-
ipants of the Jerusalem Busi-
ness Conference his dream of a
joint electricity network link-
ing all the countries of North
Africa, the Middle East, and
perhaps Europe.
Mr. Shahal said the Israeli
government should start
preparing for the regional grid
and energy market now.
The planned connection of
the Israeli and Egyptian na-
tional grids is already under
way, and discussions are being
held with the Jordanians, Mr.
Shahal said.
What's In The VAT?
and drop $300 on Betty Boop
items because we're the only ones
who have them."
Decades began with an em-
phasis on jewelry, Mr. Shulman
said, but that philosophy has
changed.
"We began with mostly jewel-
ry from estate sales," he said.
"Then we headed into old and
new merchandise with a nostal-
gia theme."
So, what's in the future for
Decades?
"We're hoping to be healthy,
happy and successful," Mr. Shul-
man said. "Someday, we'd like to
open another store."
Economic activity in Israel
slowed down the past two
months based on Value Added
Tax (VAT) receipts, State Rev-
enues Director Yoram Gabbai
reported.
State revenues rose 4 per-
cent to NIS 5.9 billion last
month compared with October
1993. Since the beginning of the
year, revenues have grown by
12 percent to NIS 60.6 billion.
But VAT and customs re-
ceipts fell 12 percent last month
to NIS 2.2 billion.
Lehman Brothers Opens Office
I Lehman Brothers, a lead-
ing Wall Street investment
house, has opened its Tel Aviv
office.
Lehman Brothers is believed
' to be the leading underwriter
among several companies com-
peting to issue 15 percent of Is-
rael Chemicals (ICL) shares
abroad.
ICL ran into difficulty in
June when it was reported that
several U.S. investment banks
refused to handle the share is-
sue for fear of Israeli govern-
ment interference.
Cr)
CO
LU
LLI
CD
45