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