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Jun 16, 2010
An Eye for an Eye, a Ban for a Ban
While the Haredi community are the experts in wielding consumer power and using the threat of boycott to influence the marketplace, it seems the until now inept secular community might finally be improving their ability to wield consumer power.
And this can be seen in the most recent ban. The haredim just put out a new ban on Electra because of their involvement with the digging up of graves in Yaffo. There have been immediate results, as the haredi community is mostly very disciplined in listening to such things and following suit. It was reported that one yeshiva immediately canceled a deal that was in the works with Electra that would have been a 500,000NIS job. Along with that there were the other smaller deals that were falling through as regular consumers began to look for alternatives.
At the same time, the group organizing the recent declaration of a ban on products bearing the hechsher of the Eida Haredis, so as not to support anti-Zionists and not to fund anti-Zionist activities, has changed tactics. Instead of calling on people to generally avoid any product that has the Eida hechsher, they now realize few people will bother themselves to play along. It takes too much effort to look for the hechsher and then look for an alternative product to buy instead.
Now, the group is going to focus on and publicize specific products that should be banned, and they will recommend alternatives, and they are going to ban them on specific dates during specific hours. They are not just banning the products, but they are trying to arrange meetings with the companies to explain what is going on and to get those companies to change the kashrus approach and switch to different hechshers. Even if they get people to be disciplined enough to play along, the ban is only for short periods of time.
For example, the first product announced to be banned is Nestle ice creams. They recently switched to the Eida hechsher, and there are other alternatives. The ban, however, is only going to be effective on a specific date for two hours in the middle of the day. They will have people outside of the large supermarkets telling them about the ban during those hours.
Very nice, but how much is the ice cream market going to be influenced by the 2 hour ban? I am skeptical, though it is a bit of an improvement over the haphazard way they banned things until now.
And this can be seen in the most recent ban. The haredim just put out a new ban on Electra because of their involvement with the digging up of graves in Yaffo. There have been immediate results, as the haredi community is mostly very disciplined in listening to such things and following suit. It was reported that one yeshiva immediately canceled a deal that was in the works with Electra that would have been a 500,000NIS job. Along with that there were the other smaller deals that were falling through as regular consumers began to look for alternatives.
At the same time, the group organizing the recent declaration of a ban on products bearing the hechsher of the Eida Haredis, so as not to support anti-Zionists and not to fund anti-Zionist activities, has changed tactics. Instead of calling on people to generally avoid any product that has the Eida hechsher, they now realize few people will bother themselves to play along. It takes too much effort to look for the hechsher and then look for an alternative product to buy instead.
Now, the group is going to focus on and publicize specific products that should be banned, and they will recommend alternatives, and they are going to ban them on specific dates during specific hours. They are not just banning the products, but they are trying to arrange meetings with the companies to explain what is going on and to get those companies to change the kashrus approach and switch to different hechshers. Even if they get people to be disciplined enough to play along, the ban is only for short periods of time.
For example, the first product announced to be banned is Nestle ice creams. They recently switched to the Eida hechsher, and there are other alternatives. The ban, however, is only going to be effective on a specific date for two hours in the middle of the day. They will have people outside of the large supermarkets telling them about the ban during those hours.
Very nice, but how much is the ice cream market going to be influenced by the 2 hour ban? I am skeptical, though it is a bit of an improvement over the haphazard way they banned things until now.
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Nestle is already one of the most boycotted products on the planet, thanks to their practices pushing baby formula in third world countries and damage to the rain forests. I boycott them already.
ReplyDeleteThe right thing for Electra and other electric device companies to do is to take the property in question and sell a portion of the interest to each of them. So Tadiran Electric has 1/4, Electra has 1/4, Yossi's Electrics has 1/4, etc.
ReplyDeleteMark
(Me not G)
ReplyDeleteThe "secular community" is not "inept". It just doesn't exist. The so called "secular" majority in this country is by definition not united in one group or listen to any one person. That is what it is all about. I thought you would have understood that.
Finally! Sometimes I felt like I was trying to do this all by myself.
ReplyDeleteMenachem - for a long time already I give preference to buying other hechshers when possible (please nobody tell me that by buying Rubin instead of Eida I am compromising my standards). I still by Eida - their hechsher is too pervasive to avoid it completely. But I give preference to other hechsherim.
ReplyDeleteHeck, I just came back from the supemarket, and I bought two tubs of ice cream. I took the Strauss brand instead of the Nestle...(the Strauss brand is better anyway)
Good to know Rafi. Thanks
ReplyDeleteboycott idea of the month: I recently decided to boycott schnorrers who come to my door.
ReplyDeleteYesterday, I received my usual assortment of knocks on the door. I firmly said no, and then went upstairs, logged on to the Lemaan Achai website, and promptly made a donation.
Smart Chesed indeed :)
I have been in support of this for a while, but it is probably much easier in the United states where most things are OU.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand how banning something for a few hours is going to do anything at all. This morning it was banned and this afternoon it's not? Come on!
ReplyDeleteIf they'll be offering alternative products, why not just leave the ban in place?
Meeting with the companies will be tricky. If a company is willing to pay the fees for an Eidah hechsher it's because they think that's who their market is. By telling them not to use Eida, you're telling them they should give up their market. If they could sign with another hechsher, they would have done that in the first place. So unless they can convince them that there's more money to be lost by STAYING with Eida, why would a company switch?