According to Jewish law you are supposed to favor a Jewish merchant who keeps his store closed on the Sabbath (Saturday). The reason was that years ago Orthodox Sabbath observing Jews could not find employment because they would not work Saturdays and had opened their own stores to simply earn a livelihood.   However the law does allow leniency if the family is poor and simply can not afford the higher prices in the small groceries. They are allowed under those circumstances to shop at the cheaper supermarkets. Here in Monsey, NY we had a similar problem when the local Pathmark opened a kosher department. However, one of the small store owners, Mr. Mendlowitz opened his own supermarkets called Monsey Glatt & Wesley Kosher. They are every bit as big as the local Pathmark and do such a large volume of business that they can also compete pricewise as well. They do not sell any non-kosher products and are closed on the Sabbath. They are so busy that you can not get parking spaces during certain hours. I may add that the recent influx of Orthodox and Hasidic Jews from Brooklyn is so great that all the smaller stores are thriving and have expanded as well. SOL ZELLER