\Ail Other Nights

Getting Down To Business?

Some local Jewish stores prepare for Pesach by closing shop.

RUTH LITTNIANN STAFF WRITER PHOTO BY GLENN TRIEST

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Jewish store owners get ready for Passover with
a certain exodus of their own.
Starting as early as Purim, many business-
men clear their shelves of bread.stuffs, wipe down
counters and spread fresh paper over sparkling
surfaces.
What seems like some 40 years of preparation leads
to liberation. Jewish store owners are free of chametz and
free to enjoy the holiday of Pesach with family and friends.
Locally, Passover is big business for Jewish and secu-
lar businesses alike. Although some restaurants and re-
tailers close for more than a week, owners say they don't
necessarily lose a proportionate amount of money.
This year, Sara's Glatt Kosher Deli in Southfield shut
down Thursday, April 13, at 8:30 p.m. When the last guest
walked out the door, owner Morris Goodman and staff took
to steam-cleaning the whole shop.
"It's a pain," Mr. Goodman admits. "But the thing to
look forward to is the nine days of I relax and take it easy."
Rita Jerome, owner of Unique Kosher Catering, also
closes for Passover.
"It's a tremendous amount of work to prepare," she says.
"We're a very clean operation. We clean out the store and
make it spotless. It's a good chance to spring-clean."
Traditional store owners, like Mr. Goodman and Ms.
Jerome, enlist a rabbi's help to sell their businesses to gen-
tiles during Passover. What chametz remains in their
inventories, they relegate to a specific section of the store
and disown.
According to Jewish law, Jews must neither eat nor
be in the possession of chametz during the holiday. To com-
ply, many Jews put their non-Pesach foods in certain places
inside their businesses and homes. The rabbi assigns a
price to the goods, then sells them to a third party for a
nominal fee. In the case of businesses, the rabbi apprais-
es and sells the entire operation — chametz, building and
equipment.
The sale (Unique goes for about $8,000) lasts until the
holiday ends. Ms. Jerome sells her store through Rabbi
Elimelech Goldberg of Young Israel of Southfield, who
arranges the transaction with the congregation's custodi-
an, who isn't Jewish.
This year, ownership will be restored to people like Ms.
Jerome after sundown on April 23.
Morris Mertz, co-owner of Zeman's New York Kosher
Bakery, will be back to work that night. His cooks will
be busy preparing the next day's breads, cakes and cook-
ies.
Does a nine-day hiatus somewhat drain profits? "Of
course," he says. But Mr. Mertz doesn't consider it an op-
tion. Like other Jewish store owners, he attracts a clien-

tele precisely because he operates according to Jewish law.
"It's an obligation. It's a tradition," he says.
It's what Mr. Mertz did as a child in Poland in the bak-
ery his parents owned before they died in death camps.
For Mr. Mertz, Pesach losses tend to level out after the
holiday when matzah-weary customers, hankering for
baked goods, raid his leavened goodies. At Sara's Glatt
Kosher Deli, Mr. Goodman experiences a surge of activi-
ty before the holiday. Jews who already have cleaned their
homes don't want to track chametz back into the house.
So, they eat out.
He guesses that his pre-Pesach business makes up for
about 50 percent of the losses he sustains through his nine-
day shutdown.
The Passover tradition continues for people like Avro-
hom Plotnik, owner of Spitzer's, who although not closing
for the entire holiday, inspects the nooks and crannies of
his store with a flashlight before Pesach begins. It con-
tinues for others, like Marty Lerner of Lakewood Specialty
Food Center who, starting with Purim, puts all his chametz
on sale and begins to stock his shelves with kosher-for-
Passover food.
"I've been tempted a number of times to say I'm not go-
ing to be a Pesach store," he says. "But a lot of people de-
pend on us."
But people — meaning, consumers — could do without
the high cost. Many Jews say Passover is their most ex-
pensive holiday. They spend hundreds of dollars on seders
and hundreds more on food for the rest of the week.
Matzah, macaroons and horseradish add length to nor-
mal shopping lists. Kosher-for-Passover goods are often
more expensive than regular kosher products. For instance,
12 ounces of America's Choice kosher honey retails local-
ly for $1.39. The same amount of Kedem Traditional
kosher-for-Passover honey carries a price tag of $2.39.
Regular kosher Star Kist tuna fish costs $1.68. Kosher-
for-Passover tuna, Season brand, sells for $2.39. Any nor-
mal day of the week, it's kosher to pay $1.59 for one type
of orange marmalade. However, consumers might find
themselves paying $1.79 for an imported product, 12 ounces
of "778" special from Israel for Passover.
Jewish Law specifically addresses the issue of hiking
prices before holidays. Price gouging is a practice it strict-
ly prohibits.
Elie Rosenfeld, public-relations manager with Royil
Kedem Wine Corporation in Brooklyn, N.Y., says manu-
facturers and distributors are not violating Jewish ethics.
Consumers often don't realize that kosher-for-Passover
products require different, often costlier, ingredients.
Passover salad dressings, for example, must be mixed
with special synthetic vinegar. Products like honey and

applesauce are prepared with sugar instead of less ex-
pensive corn sweeteners.
"It's not like we're taking the same item and saying,
`OK, now it's for Passover," Mr. Rosenfeld says.
Many Kedem products, like grape juice, jellies and wine,
are prepared kosher-for-Passover all year round. The com-
pany maintains that all-purpose, all-holiday foods are more
cost effective and circumvent the need to switch produc-
tion processes during springtime.
Rabbi Joseph Krupnik, director of kashrut for the Coun-
cil of Orthodox Rabbis, believes Passover isn't as big a fi-
nancial burden as some Jewish consumers might think.
"They are making a mistake in their mathematics," he
says. "It's a psychological thing. People always over-buy
for Passover. Very often, they have enough to last them
for the next Passover."
And, he adds, they buy their Pesach goods in one fell
swoop. Naturally, sticker shock strikes.
Rabbi Krupnik concedes that Passover does get expen-
sive when people garnish their seders with specialty items:
candies and other luxuries they ordinarily might pass up.
"Macaroons. That, I will agree. Those are expensive.
But," he points out "in my Haggadah, there is no require-
ment to eat macaroons."
Business owners say competition keeps prices down. In
addition to Vaad-supervised stores like Lakewood, others,
including Farmer Jack and Hiller's Food Emporium, mar-
ket Passover products. In many cases, distributors sell
products to retailers at discounted rates. But, to attract
customers, retailers discount the goods even further.
A representative of one local grocery chain says mar-
gins of profits are lower on these special stocks.
"We lose a great deal of money on matzah," the store
spokesperson says. "Not that we're complaining. That's
just the cost of doing business."
The Coca-Cola Co. in Atlanta, Ga., in springtime man-
ufacturer a kosher-for-Passover line of soft drinks. Al-
though the price of a pop doesn't change, the manufacturer
substitutes cane sugar for the less expensive corn sweet-
ener.
"It's not necessarily a profit proposition for us," says
Mark Preisinger, manager of public relations. "We do it
as a service to the Jewish community."
From a business perspective, is Pesach worth all the
fuss for people like Mr. Goodman of Sara's, which out-and-
out shuts down?
"Anytime you close, it's not worth it," Mr. Goodman says.
"But when you are doing it for spiritual reasons, it's not
just the money you're talking about. And if you believe
in God, you believe that God will pay you back for the things
you do." ❑

