Hashkafah.com: 30 Rabbis Sign Ban Prohibiting Pesach Price Gouging - Hashkafah.com

Brooklyn, NY - Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) and Mr. Alexander Rapaport of Masbia Soup Kitchen have joined forces to draft a religious ban prohibiting Passover price gouging in the Orthodox Jewish community. This decree, known as a kol koreh or a public pronouncement, is not a new phenomenon in the religious Jewish community. There is a great deal of precedent in Jewish law for rabbis to issue edicts against monopolies or other situations which are deemed spiritually reckless.

Signed by 30 prominent rabbis, this kol koreh employs strong language. The headline declares, “One must be extra careful in circumstances where a monetary loss will be incurred.” States the edict, “Now before Passover, especially when the economy is so bad, we are reminding people of the Jewish law concerning monopolies.” The rabbis further caution store owners to have mercy on the consumer all year around, but particularly at Passover when there is so much need. “And it is forbidden to take advantage of market prices before the holiday and to raise prices without a justifiable reason,” warns the decree.

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As part of his ongoing campaign to fight Passover price inflation, Hikind’s office also conducted a survey over the last six weeks to determine if store owners are capitalizing on consumers in one of the worst financial climates in recent history. Basic Passover items such as sugar, coffee, and quartered chicken, among other products were surveyed.

In Brooklyn, a 5lb bag of kosher-for-Passover Domino sugar sold from $2.79 to $3.69, while Gefen, CRC, and Lieber’s sugar sold for as much as $6.99 a bag depending on the store and the certification. The same held true for a 7oz. can of coffee. Under its own label, the price for kosher-for-Passover Taster’s Choice ranges between $7.49 and $9.99. On cans which feature an added certification, the price jumped to as high as $14.45 per container. Other brands like Maxwell House, Elite, and Lieber’s were even cheaper than either Taster’s Choice options at most Brooklyn stores.

Surprisingly, the price for quartered chicken remained fairly static from February to March in Brooklyn with prices hovering near $2.69/lb or slightly higher. Some stores even dropped their prices by as much as 50 to 70 cents per pound in March. Queens residents saw a forty cent increase per pound in three of their major stores, with a much smaller, per-pound increase in the Five Towns.

“My advice to every consumer shopping this Passover is ‘buyer beware,’ said Hikind. “While it may be inconvenient to patronize several different stores this Passover, the overall savings will definitely add up.”



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What is CRC sugar? Isn't CRC a hechsher, not a brand?

This is good, but I feel like there ought to be some kind of follow-up process.

Torn, on Mar 23 2009, 10:29 PM, said:

Central Rabbinical Congress

For Pesach, they make their own products (bagging actually) to be able to rip off the uber frum who think they MUST have Hisachdus sugar.

when i saw this on VIN, i thought "oh no, another ban", but let's hope this one will be upheld.

Seriously! I just got back from Pesach shopping and spent 120 - and I really didn't buy so much! And no meat. Things were much more expensive than last year. I don't know what large families do.

oh my, you are already shopping for pesach?!

I have this fear that they'll run out of food; it used to happen to me in DC.
Sometimes they run out of potato chips so I make sure to buy a lot!
I didn't get any matzah though. I just couldn't bring myself to buy it. yuck!

Elana, on Mar 23 2009, 11:06 PM, said:

Yeah! Finally focusing on something that's important.

rachel b., on Mar 23 2009, 11:08 PM, said:

Large families can spend between 800-1000 for basic Pesach needs.

Elana, on Mar 23 2009, 11:15 PM, said:

I hope to do so tomorrow or the next day IY"H (if I call myself off this chair , and do something).

the earliest i'm buying pesach food will be the sunday before pesach; the latest - monday well, no, monday morning pesach food must be in the house already. ok, sunday. ooooy!

(but i'm not home for the first days, so it's really for those few days before teh yom tov and for chol hamoed, and if i stay home for the last days, i'll buy on chol hamoed)

artscroll, on Mar 23 2009, 10:31 PM, said:

Agreed. Words, if not pesach food, are cheap. This way the rabbis can pat themselves on the back but without follow up I'm not sure what else is being accomplished. After all, any proprietor is simply going to use the 'justifiable reason' caveat to self-justify raising prices.

Melech, on Mar 24 2009, 09:34 AM, said:

What should they do to follow up?

TheDuncePolice, on Mar 23 2009, 10:43 PM, said:

TheDuncePolice, on Mar 23 2009, 11:26 PM, said:

Actually, I find this pronouncement virtually meaningless as well. As noted in the article, the problem is not a lack of cheaper products. Sugar is available at a reasonable price, just not the brand of sugar that has a frum name on it. A more beneficial proclamation, and one which would cut to the core of the issue, would have been that there is no spiritual gain in selecting a Lieber's product over a Domino's product.

Making a generic proclamation that prices should be reasonable is pointless. There is no realistic or practical way to measure "reasonable" or "fair." Like others have noted, this is done for show and not for any real benefit. Brands like Lieber's can charge so much more b/c there is a demand for it. If the rabbis were really interested in lowering prices they would make an attempt to lower the demand for products which currently capitalize on the deamnd for "frummer" products.

TheDuncePolice, on Mar 24 2009, 09:45 AM, said:

Nothing that they will actually do. In theory, a chart with the pre-pesach prices of various foods for each 'heimish' and non-heimish store, along with the pesach prices for each of the items in each store, along with last year's prices, should probably do the trick. If my mom lived there, she could probably tell you all the prices for each item in each store off the top of her head.
But publish a list like that, and I guarantee that there will be price adjustments due to both the free market and social censure that results.
But simply saying, 'don't raise prices too much unless you have to' is not efficacious, in my opinion, it's window dressing.

But they'll never do it.

TheDuncePolice, on Mar 23 2009, 10:43 PM, said:

Oh, that's right. I remember seeing those. Unbelievable.

Very Lucky Guy, on Mar 24 2009, 09:50 AM, said:

But it ain't ever gonna happen...

Very Lucky Guy, on Mar 24 2009, 09:50 AM, said:

While it is nice in theory, I don't think they can do it. There are many who have never eaten more than basic eggs, potatoes, matza. Many never ate sugar, nor potato starch etc... Being machmir or uber machmir, and having a brand that 'they trust' to oversee the KFP production is the only way they are now eating the sugar and stuff. It's even hard for me to explain this as you, as well as others, who come from a different school of thought can never grasp it.

Melech, on Mar 24 2009, 09:50 AM, said:

Thank you for explaining.

TheDuncePolice, on Mar 24 2009, 10:26 AM, said:

The alternative to CRC staples is not using these staples at all, not going over to cheaper brands. That's why they can charge an arm and a leg.

TheDuncePolice, on Mar 24 2009, 10:26 AM, said:

Yes, but the issue seems to be product prices shooting up at Pesach unnecessarily. If there are products that must be more expensive on pesach because of the added supervision, and for which there are no substitutes, that's a whole other issue. But the kol koreh in the opening post seems to be addressing another issue entirely, which is price gouging. That is to say, price gouging when there are reasonable alternatives available. And that's where publishing the prices helps.
And even with regard to special-certification products with super-duper-kashrut, if a price list were published comparing the prices of those products to those of products with 'lesser' certifications, then the shopper could make a determination if the extra meticulousless is worth the expense.

Melech, on Mar 24 2009, 10:46 AM, said:

I imagine most people ARE aware of the difference in price already, and those who choose to go with the more expensive brands do so knowingly. A chart might be an in-your-face way of getting people to think again, but most people already know the difference. There's no way you can NOT notice when a bag of sugar is seven dollars or a container of coffee is fifteen. It's just swallowed as part of the expenses of being frum.
Issuing a kol koreh that Dominos is OK for Pesach might work for some, but a lot of people (I think) would still be 'machmir'.

Melech, on Mar 24 2009, 10:46 AM, said:

No. The KK, as far as I understand, was to say that CRC and other super-duper-kosher stuff, should not charge as much as they do, because there is no reason to do so, other than to prey on the uber frum. It's basically telling them that even though you sell holier than thou sugar, or coffee, there is no reason to charge a higher than thou price for it.

Most people do do price check and exclamations of - I can't believe it's so much more to buy the CRC sugar, or salt or whatever. Many people choose to buy the cheaper, (just as kosher) brands, while others will opt for the super-duper ones, otherwise they wouldn't have eaten it (proof is that many didn't eat these stuff before CRC or whoever started making their own production).