Stop & Shop Newest Kosher Player in New York Area; End of an Era for Waldbaum’s
(koshertoday.com) Two grocery chains with an impressive history of catering to the kosher consumer may soon be history while another chain that has grown steadily in the New York metro area may soon be one of the nation’s leading supermarkets with a focus on kosher. The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company announced last week that it was acquiring 25 A&P stores in Greater New York for $146 million. The acquisition will include several Waldbaum’s and Pathmark stores with a long history of kosher, many of them in Queens and Long Island. Stop & Shop plans to convert these Waldbaum’s, Pathmark and A&P stores into Stop & Shop stores.
An Ahold Company, Stop & Shop has 395 stores throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey. The A&P bankruptcy and the sale of some of its stores to Stop & Shop is particularly noteworthy because it represents the end of an era for Waldbaum’s, once viewed as the supermarket of the Jewish community. The chain was founded in 1904 by Izzy Waldbaum, a Jewish immigrant from Austria, when he began selling butter and eggs at 911 DeKalb Street in Brooklyn. After Izzy’s death at the age of 55, his widow Julia Waldbaum remained active in management. She became the iconic picture of the chain and would routinely appear in the chain’s ads and particularly on many of the ads and promotions directed at the Jewish community. She died in 1996 at the age of 99.
Savings for Private Label Kosher Items Can Add Up
(koshertoday.com) Shopping on a budget can be a tough challenge for budget conscious kosher consumers these days. One alternative is to buy private label items, or store brands, such as the many items a chain like Shoprite offers. Leah, a mother of nine, shops regularly at KRM in Boro Park where she says that savings can add up to as much as 20 percent. She watches specials in Jewish newspapers as well as discounts she sees online. But Leah also visits Shoprite and buys many private label items that can also add up to as much as 17 percent in savings.
According to new research by the Private Label Manufacturers Association, consumers can see significant savings on store brands with these types of specialty products. While the study tested gluten-free and organic foods, as well as non-food allergy-free items, the savings seem to be similar for the private label items with kosher certification. With gluten-free products, specifically, private-label products cost 17 percent less on average compared to national brand counterparts, while some store brands saved shoppers as much as 41 percent. The study concluded that consumers who buy store brand items for special dietary needs could save nearly 30 percent versus national brand products.
