By The Case

A new store offers kosher food
and at a discount.
in bulk

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
Contributing Editor

M

iriam and Robbie Shear
were considering the price
of kosher cheese. Like a
piece of rotten Brie, it stank.
"We had started a kosher food
bank in Memphis for which we were
buying retail," Miriam Shear says.
The prices were outrageous. We
had to pay $25.19 for one block of
),
cheese.
So the Shears looked into buying
in bulk, which would reduce the
cost. But the Memphis Jewish com-
munity in need of kosher food was
small, so the Shears hardly wanted
$500 worth of dairy products at
once.
Then they went skiing and, amid
the snow and mountains of
Tennessee, they started thinking.
"I said to Miriam, 'You know,
maybe there's a business here,"
Robbie says. Kosher food is expen-
sive everywhere, he reasoned, "so we
could provide kosher food at deep-
discounted prices and sell in bulk,
with an important e-commerce corn-
ponent.''
Thus the Kosher Case Club was
born. Opening this month in Oak
Park, where the Shears now live, the
store will function something like a
kosher Sam's Club or Costco,
though not as large and primarily
offering food items. But unlike other
bulk-food stores, the Kosher Case
Club has no membership fee. Also,
the club's "free money" card sends a
percentage of every sale to a syna-
gogue or temple, Jewish day school
or charity of one's choice.

Buying In Bulk

The Shears opened their first Kosher
Case Club in Memphis as an online
business. "We reasoned that if it
worked in Memphis, we could take it
into 30-40 small to mid-sized cities
throughout the United States," Robbie
says.
It took no time for the orders to
pour in because the savings left cus-
tomers with their jaws on the ground.

"We were slashing food
prices by 40 percent,"
Miriam says.
First they sold dairy
products only, then
they offered meat, with
chicken breasts at a
price lower than
Costco. The addition of
meat brought interest
from kosher caterers
and Jewish organiza-
tions, like a synagogue
whose staff told the
Shears that, because of
their prices, "We're
holding our first kosher
seder.
Their Memphis, busi-
ness on firm ground,
the Shears expanded to
an online Kosher Case
Club in Little Rock
and, opening this
month, Louisville.
But Robbie and
Miriam, a Detroit
native, wanted to make
the Oak Park store "our
flagship" as well as the
first Case Club with a
storefront.
The store is set to
open Sept. 15 and is
moving right into the
heart of a number of
Robbie and Miriam Shear at the new Kosher Case Club, set to open Sept. 15
other businesses that
sell kosher products.
their non-kosher equivalents. With
The Shears say, though, their business Zeman's, Borenstein's, Unique Kosher
Carryout, Dunkin' Donuts, One Stop the expense of Jewish life only seem-
offers something completely new:
ing to increase — from tuitions to
Kosher, Jerusalem Pizza and BKC.)
food in bulk.
charitable needs to kosher food —
"During the last decade, we have
"Kosher food and Jewish day school
any opportunity to save money for
seen
a
surge
of
interest
in
kosher
tuition are the biggest part of the
the kosher consumer is a welcome
food, both here in Detroit and
budget for some Jewish families,"
71
one.
around the country," Rabbi
Miriam says. Through the Kosher
As to how the Shears can provide
Silberberg adds. "Honest and fair
Case Club, a bit of that burden will
competition in the kosher market will such deep discounts, it's a matter of
be reduced.
working in quantity. A typical gro-
certainly benefit the consumer."
"I'm very happy to see the addition
cery store might buy a case with 25
"Many
Jews
utilize
Costco,
Sam's
of Kosher Case Club to the growing
boxes of rice. The store must unload
Club and other big-box stores in an
number of kosher food establish-
all that rice, place it on shelves and
effort to keep grocery costs down,"
ments in metro Detroit," says Rabbi
constantly supervise its status. Bulk
adds Rabbi Reuven Spolter of Young
Elimelech Silberberg of the Sara
Israel of Oak Park. "The Kosher Case buying and selling is much less labor
Tugmari Bais Chabad Torah Center
intensive, and thus more economical,
Club will allow our families to do
in West Bloomfield.
the Shears say.
precisely
the
same
thing
in
their
pur-
(The Kosher Case Club is one
among many businesses selling kosher chases of kosher items — items that
often cost a great deal more than
food and wine in the area, including
BY THE CASE on page 86

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