Pesach Price Gouging
You'd think that with my new life I'd hardly be aware of the upcoming holiday. But since capitalism is still hanging on by a thread, local grocery stores are tripping over themselves to provide stacks upon stacks of the Pesach goods that are already being bought by the cartload. And I'm not just talking about the local heimishe stores. My local Pathmark starts reorganizing their aisles for Pesach at least three months before anyone has picked up their first broom.
They don't do it because they have such abundant love for frum Jews, oh no. They cater to the frum community because they are willing to pay any price for Pesach goods. Really. My favorite half sour pickles just happen to be OUP all year 'round, and they suddenly jumped in price from $3 to $6 in the space of a week. It's a real hassle for me because the non heimeshe brands really don't cut it for half sour pickles. Luckily for me, pickles are the only food I will have to go without for the next few weeks.
If you are unfortunate enough to only use heimishe brands during Pesach, you have my sympathies. In the event that you managed to salvage any retirement funds at all after the stock market crash, they will be eaten up (literally) by your Pesach shopping. Everthing from sugar to grapejuice to gefilte fish will magically have astronomical price tags on them in honor of Pesach. Because it's a monopoly and they know you have to pay it. I'm curious to know how much the "superfrum" matzas are going to be per pound this year.
Although Jewish holidays were not the reason I stopped being frum, I have to say that every time one comes around I smile and feel truly glad that I don't have to put up with this nonsense. No obssessive cleaning. No wierd diet restrictions. I mean let's face it: They don't explain (and I mean really explain) the wonders of Pesach to prospective Baalei Teshuva at Aish [Brainwashing] Seminars for a good reason. Because this is one of many aspects of Judaism that makes you more likely to go insane - and broke - than be enriched.
Oh so back to the price gouging. Apparently the Rabbis did what they do best (and characteristically decades too late) - they banned price gouging of Pesach food. As if that's going to do any good. Exactly how are they going to determine what the fair going rate of a product is? Some pesach food is very difficult to manufacture at the standards people demand, and if the company can't fetch enough money for the product they will stop producing it. And even if they did find a way to determine where the price gouging was taking place, what exactly do they plan to do about it? The whole thing is such a joke.
posted by brianna @ 8:48 PM
3 Comments:
depends what kind of pasach you keep. if you don't assur gebrochts (eating which is halachicaly the ikkar opinion) then you really have to problems. . .
actualy pasach is a nice time at that point.
and honestly people usualy drive themselves more crazy with cleaning than they needed to.
See "Relief in Sight for Pesach Consumers" (Mishpacha, Issue 252, 25-MAR-2009). "To help consumers 'make it through' the holiday, Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) has appealed to kosher manufacturers, distributors, and retailors to maintain their regular prices as Pesach approaches...So far, initial reaction to the plan has been favorable. Several leading kosher food and dairy manufacturers have signed on, and each day the Assemblyman's office receives acceptance letters from new companies. The second step in the plan calls for the savings to be passed on [to] the stores, who will then sell these Pesach products at their regular, year-round prices, or as close to that as possible. The last step will see a list printed up by Mr. Hikind's office that will specify the names and addresses of those stores whose prices reflect the change, encouraging constituents to shop there for Pesach."
it's interesting that you should post about the "insane" prices of keeping the holidays just one post after you write about buying a 345$ watch.
as a (long time) bt, let me throw in my two cents. there is no way that in i would ever spend 345 on a watch not in this life and not in my past one. on the other hand, giving maaser, buying extra nice holiday stuff, cooking/baking/cleaning up for shabbos and holidays is money/time i love spending...
i'm not judging how you spend your money, but can it be that perhaps different people just have different priorities/preferences on how to spend their cash?
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