The news is reporting that Minister of Finance Betzalel Smotritch has annoucned his plans to sign an order in the coming days that would raise the personal import exemption from VAT to $150 form the current $75.

In light of the decision by Supersol to shut down its online mehadrin supermarket geared towards the Haredi market, there is now a trend starting of Haredim saying - bye Supersol, ie. they are no longer going to buy in Supersol because of Supersol's decision.

this is insane. As mentioned, there has been a lot of chatter about the expose showing that Supersol is running two online supermarkets, with one geared for the Haredi market selling items, often the exact same item, at much cheaper pricing. A lot of the online chatter was anger and criticism of Supersol. People are angry that Supersol has been charging them so much, yet clearly they can sell for cheaper as they do to the Haredi market.

פרסום ראשון:
בעקבות התחקיר של תוכנית חיסכון: שופרסל תפסיק את פעילות האתר למהדרין מה15 בנובמבר@N12News

— מעיין פרתי Maayan Parti (@maayanparti) November 4, 2021

It looks like yesterday's announcement of Walmart planning to open a store in Jerusalem was premature.

The news media that first reported it, it seems, took it from a misunderstanding somebody had after seeing a posting by Walmart of a list of jobs for a new location in Salem, Illinois, and mistook that for Jerusalem Israel. Adding that to a recent visit by the CEO of Walmart to Israel, and the reporter jumped the gun and figured that a Walmart store is secretly in the works.
source: Jpost

Oh well. It could have been fun to see the Israeli version of "People of Walmart" develop. Maybe at some point in the future this could still happen...

Amazon has basically come to Israel already. They are working with local sellers for distribution of local products through the Amazon site and have now also been running the free shipping promo from the USA to Israel on many items.

For the free shipping, you have to be buying qualifying items (many items qualify), purchase price over $49, and you will get the shipment to Israel free. It is advised to break up orders into multiple orders and keep your them under $75 each so as to avoid VAT charges  and import fees, but for some items you might find it worth paying the VAT but getting free shipping, such as on items you cannot find here, otherwise it is best to keep them generally under $75.

So, you can easily and cheaply buy now in Israel from Amazon.com.


And now Walmart is reportedly in the process of opening its first shop in Israel!

According to Calcalist, they have been working hard to get everything ready and are now at the stage of looking to hire cashiers in Jerusalem. Presumably, if it goes well, they would likely open shops elsewhere around Israel.

There soon wont be any need to look for someone traveling who can bring you something from the States. That is, except for Romanian salamis. But maybe we can get that sold here as well, somehow...

Heads up everybody.... Amazon is now offering free shipping to Israel!!!

Amazon is now offering free shipping to Israel on many qualifying items, not everything, on orders above $49.

that means you can qualify for the free shipping an still keep your order under the $75 limit for no import tax or VAT. Just note that if you go crazy and order a ton of stuff to take advantage and surpass the $75 mark, you will still have to pay the VAT and any relevant import taxes.

Qualifying items will have a note in the description that it qualifies for free shipping to Israel, and when you checkout and pay you will have to select the free shipping option.

I do not know, and have not seen it mentioned anywhere, if this is just a temporary promotion for a few days or weeks, or if it is a "permanent" arrangement... Hopefully they will find it worthwhile enough to continue long-term.

The purpose of this promotion seems to be to compete with the big annual 11.11 promotion by Ali Express, and then also with the upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. It is entirely possible that after this shopping season passes, the Amazon promotion might also go away, but nothing official has been announced.

The Minister of Economy and Industry, Eli Cohen, has signed an order that will require the major supermarket chains to post signs on certain products informing customers of the price along with the price for the same item overseas. This will, for now, apply to 7 specific toiletry products imported by the 3 large importers - Unilever, Schestowitz and Diplomat.

The initial list of 7 products was decided upon by them being found as the products with the greatest discrepancy in price. Eventually this will be expanded to include more products. The initial seven include three different Colgate toothpastes and some deodorant products.

For more details, see the Globes article.

This seems pointless, and even silly. There are so many other places these products are sold - how many locations and prices will they have to list? Also, often the products sold here are often not exactly the same, and apples should not be compared to oranges - package sizes are different along with specific model lines. There are also import fees, shipping, taxes, and whatnot that need to be built into the cost.

Hopefully it will bring prices down, but I don't see how. If I now know that the tube of toothpaste is cheaper in Germany or New York, will I not buy my toothpaste in Israel? Anyways, if I wanted to live frustrated I could always just look up the price online myself at Amazon or Target.

The recent big Target sale to Israel, in which they provided a coupon code for free shipping to Israel, turned out to be a major fiasco. Target says they ended up with about 20,000 orders from Israeli consumers, yet they are only able to fulfill a minority of them - estimated at about 6000 orders. Many people have been receiving notices that their orders had to be cancelled, with no explanation.

Rumors spread about the reasons for the cancellations, including Target simply crashing on the volume, problems with the Israeli taxes and bureaucracy, unexpected international shipping charges, and maybe other reasons.

Target is now apologizing for the fiasco. According to TOI, the problem was with the shipping company Borderfree Free Shipping which was unable to handle the volume.

It is amazing that so many people would place so many orders in such a small time frame. Considering the volume they were unprepared for, they would do well to expand the promotion and run it regularly - and they should be prepared for the volume next time. Maybe they should even consider opening a store here in Israel, though then they would probably be charging prices more similar to what we are used to here and it would not be something to run for...

This looks like an awesome sale price! So much savings to the consumer!



you only have 10 days to take advantage of this amazing sale price, and then it jumps back up to the original.

Hard to believe this actually works...

When you go into most hospitals now, in Israel, you'll see that they pretty much all have shopping malls in the complex,. Usually you are made to go through the mall on your way in and out of the hospital. Kind of like the gift shop at the end of the museum tour - to leave you have to walk through the gift shop.

Often the prices in these malls are inflated. They also benefit from having a captive audience; The patients who might be able to walk around but cannot leave, along with the bored visitors who might be walking around while they spend too much time visiting their sick loved ones.

The news reported yesterday that Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman is working to get the Coffix chain of low-priced coffee shops to open their shops in hospital malls.

I am not sure why this needs the intervention of the Minister of Health, rather than simply being a business decision (of Coffix weighing the potential volume of business versus the high rental and other overhead expenses, but if he can get them into the hospital malls it will offer big savings to the people wandering the halls of the hospitals all day long...

According to Walla News, construction plans for a new shopping mall, dubbed "the Haredi Mamilla",  have been approved for the southern area of Bet Shemesh - to be built in the valley between the neighborhoods of RBS A and RBS C. The prep work (roads and stuff) has been underway for a while, and from what I understand has recently been completed.

According to the report, the new mall will be spread out over 20,000 square meters, that's the same size as the Ramat Aviv Mall, and will be an outdoor strip mall of brand name stores, similar to the style of the Mamilla Mall in Jerusalem. In addition there will be another 20,000 square meters designated for parking.  Construction is expected to start in the coming weeks.

According to the developer, the mall has been designed to meet the needs and lifestyle of the Haredi community, but it will also be welcoming to the secular residents of the city.

To that end, I am told by someone involved in the project that there is a clause in the contract that says the buyer [of a store property] declares that he knows and agrees that the project will have a religious style and he commits to using his unit in a way that fits that style, with everything implied.

Seems like a vague enough clause, and I do not know who is the arbiter of deciding if something questionable fits the atmosphere or not.

I do wish them much luck and the entire city a great shopping experience. Hopefully people will continue to have enough money to support another mall, especially one of this size.

Bet Shemesh has hit the news again. This time for what might be described as a cross-border incident.

Until now the various incidents of conflicts and strife have occurred in areas where the haredim live - either in their neighborhoods or right next to. When they make demands, one could say, even if one were to disagree, that they have a certain right to expect people from the outside entering their areas for shopping or whatever to respect the local sensitivities and be asked to dress appropriately. Even with disagreeing with the idea, there is at least a certain logic behind it.

However, when a supermarket opens up in a non-religious neighborhood, there is no logic in demanding that immodestly clad women must be completely covered up in order to enter.

Osher Ad, a supermarket known for their super-sized stores with cheap prices, just opened in Bet Shemesh in the neighborhood of Migdal HaMayim. Shoppers were shocked to see at the entrance a sign demanding they cover up before entering, along with a box of shawls or pieces of cloth with which to cover exposed shoulders or to drape around pants.

Rightfully so, they questioned why they must be told to dress up to go shopping in their own non-religious neighborhood. If their style of dress bothers anybody, those people should not be entering a non-religious neighborhood anyway. If I don't want to see women in bikinis I won't go to the beach. if I dont want to see women with exposed shoulders and slacks I won't go to do my shopping in a secular neighborhood. I don't have the right to go to the beach and demand that all the suntanners cover up so I can enjoy the beach as well.

After some complaining to the manager, and some articles in Ynet, GLZ, Dossim and Haaretz, the sign has already been removed.

We need to avoid these fights to start with. There is no reason these issues should come up and require a reaction.

A supermarket is not a shul. While women and men should be dressing modestly at all times, that is each persons own business, and those who don't don't and there is nothing I can do about it. A supermarket is not a shul. If another shopper's mode of dress bothers me so much, I should know not to go there. Those who want to take advantage of the cheaper prices will go shopping there regardless of who else is shopping there.

On the one hand the supermarket is not a shul, but on the other hand it is also not a beach - people are not walking around picking their tomatoes and cucumbers dressed in bikinis. people are dressed, usually fairly decently, just not adhering to what religious people consider the rules of tzniyus. Most people, especially when going into a secular neighborhood, will not be seriously bothered by how others are dressed. People who are will not go there to shop anyway.

The store's attempt to placate everybody, even without knowing about a specific problem, is insulting. The store's initial response was to say that they serve everybody equally, and the chain respects its customers and requests to prevent harming the sensitivities of this or that community..

That is a very nice sentiment, but when they are then asking that one group change their style of dress in order to respect the other group, they are harming the sensitivities of one over the other.

At the end of the day, I am not aware of any indication that this sign was demanded by the haredi community. As far as I can tell, the store is at fault for this snafu, making an assumption about what would be demanded of them, and it was not the haredi askanim actually demanding it. I would give them credit for not being involved in this issue. the situation has been so volatile that such an innocuous sign becomes a major issue.



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Let the buyer beware!

This is in no way uncommon - we tend to expect buying in bulk to be cheaper tha buying individual packages of items. For example, one box of tissues would cost 3.5NIS, for example, and they would sell 3 for 9 NIS.

Yet that is not the case. One could meander into a supermarket and look at the bulk deals. More often than not, one will pay more for the bulk items than for individual items.

As a matter of fact, I recently read in a newspaper that a study was conducted by some organization to analyze whether it was cheaper to buy in bulk, including 2 for xx or 3 for xx and including buying larger size packages, or not. The overall conclusion of the study was that in general it is cheaper to not buy in bulk (in Israel), both because of the price and because of the waste (people who buy bigger packages because it comes out cheaper per gram to tend to throw out more, as they do not use up the whole package of food).

One example of how if one does not pay attention, he will get enticed to buy "in bulk" when he really is not saving any money, and even paying more, can be seen in the following picture I took when I was in the supermarket the other day. This case is not extreme, I have seen much worse. I just happened to have my camera with me at the time and noticed it.
As you can see, to buy one package of frozen burekas would cost you 8.99, but for the all low price of 18 you can get 2 packages!

We spent this morning in the shopping area having a bagel breakfast, along with running some errands. It was a pretty busy Friday morning, as usual, and I was standing outside a store (I was shopping with my wife - she was inside shopping and I was outside waiting for her to finish) enjoying the beautiful weather with the baby.

I saw an old friend from yeshiva who is in town for a relatives wedding. I saw some other people I know. Basically just enjoying a pleasant shopping trip outside the store watching the people go by. Suddenly I see a police car stopping by a double-parked car.

This car was double-parked in a way that was blocking two parking spots. The 2 spots were empty, so I am not sure why the lady driving the car did not pull into the spots, and if they were full when she double-parked how they got out of the spots.

The police car stopped behind the car and on the loudspeaker called out, "The driver of the Suzuki license plate #123456789 come to your car." Nobody came and he called this out a few times. Eventually a woman shows up and was oblivious to what was going on. As she is getting opening her car door to put her bags in, the policeman calls her over.

First he tells her to pull the car into a spot, which she does. He then calls her over again and they argue a bit. I do not know what was said, they were out of ear-shot from where I was standing. I did not see him give her a ticket, though. They finished the conversation and she moved on to check her car and then went on to continue shopping.

I went a bit closer to see what was going on by her car and I see that someone, probably the owner of one of the cars that had been blocked in, had smeared plastalina, playdough, all over the drivers side of her windshield. She was pretty frustrated as she tried quickly to wipe it off, with no success. It basically just smeared some more. She went off in a huff to continue shopping.

This incident took place outside of a toy store. The driver blocked in probably went in to the toy store, bout a package of playdough and smeared it all over her windshield.

She deserved it. I hate it when people double-park. I hope she learned her lesson.