I am not going to talk about the starvation in Gaza claim. I tend to believe our side more than their side, but honestly we only know what we are told (same as with many other details of the war) so I cant argue and debate the facts and details, as my information is as weak as yours, whether you know it or not, but I do believe our people, yes even PM Netanyahu, more than the Hamas people.

The benefits of competition are clear and obvious and should not need to be pointed out. Sometimes they are so immediate they are surprising.

Cofix is a new coffee shop in Israel. They are talking about opening 300 branches across the country, but they only just opened one so far, in Tel Aviv, this past week.

What's so special about Cofix that they deserve mention?

Cofix is selling everything in its store for 5 NIS. Everything - coffee, pastries, sandwiches. Everything for just 5 NIS.

Cofix claims that the chains in existence have been ripping us off, charging ridiculous amounts for coffee and burekas and sandwiches. The owners of Cofix want to show that they can charge a small amount and still make a profit. They have lines out the door. And in just one week they have the large chain coffee shops scared.

Just the other day a couple owners of some of the other chains spoke out about how the food at Cofix is low-quality and serving good quality costs more, with a whole bunch of other excuses for their high prices. Cofix is currently one shop - they could easily ignore it and see if they find a way to survive a month or two before relating to them. There is no way one coffee shop can possibly be making a dent yet in the sales of chain shops with tens and hundreds of locations, though in the future it could be a concern - if they actually survive and show they can make a profit at that price.

And now Aroma has announced that they are soon going to be cutting the price of coffee by a few shekels per cup. The Director of Aroma just said that they wont be able to drop the price to 5 NIS like Cofix, but the customers should not feel as if they are being taken advantage of.

One could make a study based on this situation. I find it startling how quickly a little bit of real competition can affect the market.



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Donate to the Schneider Hospital so I can run the Schneider benefit marathon..

I find the following videos to tell a fascinating story, both of Internet marketing and also of what holds our interest..

The first video is of a now-famous incident of a Fedex delivery guy. As you can see in the video, the delivery guy walks up to the fence and tosses the package over. No attempt to wait for the gate to be opened, and he did not even ring a doorbell or intercom buzzer! he just tossed it over.

This video created quite a stir as it quickly went viral. Since it was uploaded on December 19, just 3 days ago, it has over 4 million hits! The package was a computer monitor, which broke after it was tossed over the fence.



In response, Fedex management released the following video of a senior Vice President of Fedex talking about the incident, what they have done to fix it and how that is not standard behavior for Fedex representatives. Damage control.



This video has over 4000 hits in the one day it has been up. Multiply that by three, and you don't get anywhere near the 4 million of the original video.

When newspapers print inaccurate headlines that hurt someone, they get seen by tens, hundreds of thousands of people. When they print the retraction or apology, they get placed on some inner corner or page 28 and hardly anybody notices. Maybe the Fedex VP needed to be holding a furry kitten or a laughing baby, and then his video would have gone viral as well.

Only in the world of YouTube and short attention spans is the Fedex delivery guy more interesting and captivating than a senior vice president.

The picture is of the store front window of the chain clothing store Zara from a mall north of Haifa.

If you look at the picture, you might notice that they have "Merry Christmas" splayed across the window, along with the display consisting of Christmas holiday colors and Christmas trees.

The only problem with this situation is that the store, as mentioned, is located in Israel. Not in Spain where the main headquarters is, not in Europe or the USA, not in a Christian country, but in predominantly Jewish Israel.

It is a shonda that a store in Israel has such a display. Even if there excuse is true, that they are dictated by the main office in Spain what to display (and all stores have uniform displays), it makes no sense that they would not adjust the display to the local market. Even if they insisted in Christmas trees for the non-Jewish market in Israel, they are foolish for not catering to the much larger Jewish market and putting in symbols of Hannukah, like menorahs and dreidels.

It makes no sense, and was likely done without thought. But after the first few hundred calls of customers complaining about it, they should have removed the display right away.

I hope people "punish" Zara for the stupidity, and for their insistence on remaining stupid instead of taking it down right away after the first few calls, and shop elsewhere.

What kind of excuse is "We wanted to allow our customers to enjoy.. the atmosphere of the holiday and the internationality..." anyway?

Pashkvilim (those great forms of communication used in frum neighborhoods in Israel) have been passed around Mea Shearim recently. These pashkvilim have been calling for a boycott of Hogla.

Hogla is a disposables company making items ranging from diapers to toilet paper. The claims against Hogla calling for the boycott of their products are that the factory operates on shabbos or the company purchases raw materials from other companies that do.


The local Haredim say they are not behind the ban and it is one of the competitors. The suspicion is that its main competitor, Saniv, is behind the signs calling for the boycott. Saniv says that they have been marketing their Sabbath observance but denies involvement in the boycott.

I find it interesting that boycotts and cherems and bans have become so pervasive and such a part of the haredi culture nowadays that companies play on it and call bans as part of their marketing campaigns.....