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TCDaige'CD, EDgn
Internet Hurts Tradition
Spitzer's Hebrew Book 6- Gift Center files for Chapter 11, but owner vows to reorganize with vigor.
BILL CARROLL
Special to the Jewish News
A
fter 65 years in business,
Spitzer's Hebrew Book & Gift
Center — one of the Detroit
Jewish community's landmark retail
shops — is in danger of closing its
doors permanently.
The store, on 11 Mile Road at
Lahser in Southfield, filed for bank-
ruptcy recently, seeking Chapter 11
protection.
But owner Avrohom Plotnik
remains upbeat. Under the Chapter
11 rules, a business doesn't have to
close. Its debts to suppliers are can-
celed or reduced, and the firm gets
time to reorganize; in this case, about
a year.
Plotnik, an Oak Park resident, is a
nephew of Joseph Spitzer, the colorful
businessman who founded the store in
1940. Plotnik bought the business
from his uncle 20 years ago. Spitzer
died in 1999 at age 80.
"It's my intention to reorganize and
keep going," Plotnik declared. "We'll
come out of this stronger than ever. If
I didn't believe in our future in this
business, I would close the store now
We have to keep our neighborhood
Judaica stores open for the Jewish peo-
ple."
Plotnik says he's a victim of chang-
ing consumer buying habits, citing the
Internet as one of his chief competi-
tors. He's dismayed that textbooks for
synagogues and schools, one of his
top-selling items, can be bought on
Amazon.com , so that customers can
avoid making a trip to the store.
His other top sellers, kosher wine
and Jewish music CDs and video
tapes, can be bought, along with other
Judaica items, at drugstores and super-
markets.
"Like many other retailers, we've
lost business to the Internet," Plotnik
lamented. "And we used to be the
exclusive outlet for books. Now the
publishers and other wholesalers elimi-
nate the middleman and sell directly
to synagogues and the general public -
and give them extra incentives to buy.
"Also, people who live far out in the
northern suburbs won't travel back to
Southfield and Oak Park to make pur-
chases. The fact that we're living in a
more secular world today doesn't help
us either. Our Chanukah business was
down compared to Christmas sales
elsewhere."
He plans to do more advertising and
merchandising in the coming months.
There are fewer families with chil-
dren in Spitzer's neighborhood, but
many elderly residents still live in area
apartments. With the Jewish popula-
tion at about 100,000 in the Detroit
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about Israel, plus specialty gifts from
Israel," he said. "Our customers know
the proceeds from those sales go back
to Israel.
"The Internet has cut into our book
sales somewhat, but people still like to
come into the store and flip through
the pages before buying. Many of the
books are collectors' items and go
back to the 1920s and 1930s. But we
also have modern books about spiritu-
ality and religion that are very popular
today. We try to keep these items in
inventory to attract younger cus-
tomers."
Goutkovitch, who says he has an
"eye for merchandise," travels the
world to bring back goods for sale.
He'll spend a month in Israel soon to
round up merchandise for the store.
"This will include reproductions of
menorahs, candlesticks and other
Judaica created from items dug up in
archeological excavations in Israel," he
added.
Goutkovitch says he's too busy to
make sales comparisons with his com-
petitors, but agrees it's important to
have independent Judaica stores in a
number of neighborhoods.
Another neighborhood Judaica busi-
ness is Borenstein's Book and Music
Store on Greenfield in Oak Park.
Owner Avram Borenstein was out of
town and unavailable for comment.
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area, Plotnik feels there should be
more support for an independent
book store like Spitzer's.
"Unlike the mass merchandisers, we
give personal service," he points out,
and we have some unique items, such
as electrical appliances for observant
Jews." He sells a "kosher lamp" that
stays on throughout Shabbat and holi-
days and can be shaded for various
degrees of light, and hot plates and
urns to keep food and water warm.
Spitzer's also recently took on a
kosher candy section called "Got
Nosh?" created by Adina Morris of
Southfield. It consists of a variety of
kosher candy, dried fruit and nuts,
including specialties from around the
world. The goodies are in self-serve
bins so customers can scoop their own
and buy by the ounce or pound.
For Passover, the store will have gift
packages and trays, individually
wrapped products and custom gifts
assembled from special holiday items.
In West Bloomfield, Esther's Judaica
Gift World on Orchard Lake Road
doesn't find itself in the same plight as
Spitzer's. "Business is booming,"
beamed owner Coby Goutkovitch, a
native of Israel, who lives in
Farmington Hills. He bought the store
13 years ago.
"Our No. 1 interest for customers is
the purchase of books, especially those
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