Fitness time: The ultra-Orthodox pay dearly for fancy kosher

In the secular public, it is customary for the ultra-Orthodox to be calculated consumers who know how to buy more for less.

The truth is that some of them, who know how to save on most of the basket components, are forced to pay for fancy kosher, a standard mark that has long since become a business and jumps the cost of living specifically for the weakest layer

Dr. Hezi Gur Mizrahi

09/02/2022

Wednesday, 09 February 2022, 18:28 Updated: Thursday, 10 February 2022, 13:59

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

• Share on general

• Comments

  Comments

The public preoccupation with the cost of living has once again raised the prevailing perception among secularists that the ultra-Orthodox public is a more calculated and cohesive consumer.

Despite this, close to a million ultra-Orthodox consumers pay double and more for the same products, just because of a fancy kosher label.

In recent months we have all been preoccupied with the issue of cost of living and price increases, but those who remember one of the triggers for dealing with the issue can go back to November 2021, when the secret network affair exploded in Shufersal's ultra-Orthodox sector. The platform.

Will the struggle against the cost of living also reach the ultra-Orthodox public?

It's hard to know: the leaders of the ultra-Orthodox public who knew how to raise any outcry against the Bennett-Lieberman program are the ones who are silent in the face of fancy kosher factories that have long since become a commandment I went to for-profit businesses.

In the price surveys we conducted this week, we identified a phenomenon that is different from the norm in the general market: if we thought that ultra-Orthodox retail chains were cheaper, then we came across some surprising data that indicate a rising price, while the non-ultra-Orthodox market is reversing (even if only temporary).

More on Walla!

When the taps are also impressive: we visited the INK Hotel in Tel Aviv

In collaboration with GROHE

Regular and elegant kosher chicken prices (Photo: Daniel Malakhovsky)

While various factors seek to combat the cost of living through market education and make us better consumers by prioritizing a replacement product that is cheaper than the brand we are used to purchasing, there are brands that have no substitute.

Therefore, while the purchase of pasta alternative to that of Osem, which became more expensive, led to a jump in sales of pastas made by Willy Food, Tomer, Ta'aman and, of course, the private labels.

It turns out that there are brands that not all of us know that charge a huge premium for their brand just because their consumer audience has no substitute.

Ironically, this is not a rich audience and a fan of luxury brands, but the opposite: an audience that is mostly below or near the poverty line: this time we are targeting the ultra-Orthodox audience who need certain products only fancy kashrut.

The issue is so sensitive in ultra-Orthodox society that it is precisely this large public that knows how to protest sharply on issues close to its heart, never took to the streets or even protested against the price differences that many ultra-Orthodox pay for fancy kosher premiums relating to various courts and communities.

Is it a fear or a forced silence so that the intention will not be interpreted as a rebellion in the minds of great men in the Torah, some of whom are associated with some of the kosher brands?

We will not pretend to rule.

It should only be noted that the training of kashrut has a very large impact on the cost of living among the ultra-Orthodox public, yes - precisely the one who is considered a smarter consumer and more aware of food prices.

In recent years the giant companies have realized the power of kosher brands and their power to influence a huge target audience and all thanks to another label on the product, Osem has transferred a huge range of its products to fancy qualifications common to most target audiences in the sector and many other companies. Their specialization was in the ultra-Orthodox market.

Osem's pasta and bamba carry the most coveted kosher label on the market, which is the "Badatz of the Haredi community." We encounter kosher labels even on cleaning products that we do not intend to eat ... and in general, It is at the forefront of their minds, for a branded industry, which uses the tools of a marketing strategy that would not embarrass any marketing manager in the giant companies.

They fight for every product and brand in the local and international market. ) Has tremendous power.

This is a captive audience, or at least loyal-choice: a public that is committed or accustomed to a particular kosher will not change its consumer culture even if it pays three times the average market price for a kosher product with a standard mark of unpretentious or unacceptable kosher.

Osher branch up to Givat Shaul in Jerusalem.

The ultra-Orthodox consumer knows how to save on shopping, but pays much more for fancy kosher food (Photo: Flash 90, Yonatan Zindel)

Although the involvement of the large companies has managed to diversify the various brands into categories with elegant kosher, in one segment they are critical and have no substitute, this is the meat and poultry market.

The ultra-Orthodox sector is a significant consumer in the field.

It has very few vegetarians and vegans and there is no Saturday night without meat and chicken dishes on the table.

Despite the meager means of some of the ultra-Orthodox public, the price differences are illogical to the secular eye - and these are products about half of which are sold in bulk and without packaging, with no differences in raw materials and taste but only in slaughter and supervision processes (or at least labeled).

In a conversation with respected rabbis, managers of one of the most elegant and powerful kashrut brands in the economy, I was surprised to find that the stigma of an outdated institution dissipates at once: a young and new generation took command and conduct very similar to marketing and image companies in giant companies Introduce the brand to more communities of potential consumers.

There is of course an ethnic difference, despite the reduction in the distance in many areas of life between Ashkenazi and Sephardi ultra-Orthodox.

For example, Badatz Beit Yosef belongs more to the Mizrahi audience and Rabbi Landau's kashrut belongs more to the Ashkenazi audience

. This example of "communities" will cost the consumer NIS 39.90 per kilogram,

Chicken legs.

A consumer product without which no Shabbat table would be complete.

One of the factors in the cost of living among the ultra-Orthodox public (Photo: ShutterStock)

Will the ultra-Orthodox muster the courage to protest against those who have become Halacha a business?

Will the struggle against the cost of living permeate the ultra-Orthodox public as well and cause them to start protesting against what appears to be a cynical exploitation of part of the ultra-Orthodox public by those who are supposed to be its leaders?

It is very difficult to know.

Processes in this public, we have already learned, are much slower and more cautious - certainly when it comes to a halakhic issue that concerns almost every believing person.

We recently published here, at Walla Money, a survey according to which many ultra-Orthodox admit that fancy kosher is not in the forefront of their minds and when it comes to kosher for Passover for example, where there is no "cancel in the sixties" or very specific products, they will prioritize consumer over halakhic.

Just what is relatively easy to do with a floor cleaner is much more difficult when it comes to the meat department.

• Of money

• consumption

Tags

• cosher

• Cost of living

• Badatz