"Jewel is a well-established supermarket chain that caused no heartache and invited no wrath until a couple of months ago, when it suddenly bought a huge billboard on Chicago's North Side to announce the opening of a gleaming kosher food department at a nearby store.
To Jewel and its parent Albertsons, the move was a straightforward play for customers and profits.
To the family-owned kosher shops along Devon Avenue and in nearby Skokie, it was a threat and an affront.
"I've definitely lost a fairly significant percentage of business," said Chayim Knobloch, proprietor of Kol Tuv Kosher Foods, a store and deli located across the street from the billboard. "I've begun trimming expenses and staff."
Knobloch advertises his kosher grocery, a throwback with narrow aisles packed with goods from wine to tablecloths, as "The Heimische Store," invoking a Yiddish word that suggests home and a warm hearth. When it comes to prices, he says, he cannot win.
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Shortly after Jewel remodeled its store in September, an influential group of rabbis tried to shore up the kosher stores by mailing an appeal to thousands of Jews, urging them to stick together and shop at the smaller stores that have long served the community.
Titled "An Open Letter to the Community," the rabbis' missive said other cities had seen kosher stores forced out of business by supermarket chains. They objected to the big competitors' "aggressive manner" and said they "strongly encourage all Jews" to buy from all-kosher stores.
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Back at Kol Tuv, Knobloch closed his books one day and headed into the frigid twilight, on his way to synagogue. He said his loyal customers were behind him in the sales battle and pointed to Rabbi David Maler.
Maler said he enjoys shopping at Kol Tuv for the sense of fellowship. Then, cupping his hand over his mouth, he admitted that he has started to buy kosher goods at Jewel. "The sale stuff," he said sotto voce.
"I asked my local rabbi," Maler said. "He said, 'The sale products -- you should give yourself a break.' "
....so, I assume that Martin G., true to his stated philosophy, will take price breaks over "Heimische", but the whole situation bemuses me.