Kikar reported, prompted by some tweets by Haredi journalist Haim Goldberg, on a weird situation that happened near the Satmar beis medrash in Jerusalem before Yom Kippur.

There is a well known old question, one of those conundrums of the universe, wondering if 7-11 is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, why do they have locks on their doors?

Selling merchandise on Amazon, Ebay and other similar website portals has become a very popular business over the past decade. Like any other group, a lot of frum businessmen and businesswomen are involved in such online businesses and selling through Amazon.

Now that street shops are officially open, with limitations, I had an idea of how they could be helped in bringing back some business.

Minister of Health Yuli Edelstein this morning said that the rules will not be changed int he coming weeks to allow stores and malls to open.

According to a report in the Jewish Press, the Golan Heights Winery just signed a deal to export its wines to the states of the United Arab Emirates.

the great butter saga of 2019 might finally be coming to an end!

For months there has been a butter shortage in Israel. The widely accepted reason is that because butter is price controlled in Israel, the manufacturers prefer to export the butter to Europe and other places where they can profit more off it rather than sell it locally at a controlled price with less profit. So, little butter has been sold in Israel over the past year. Whenever a supermarket gets a box or two of butters, lucky consumers present at the time snap up as much as possible, leaving the shelf empty almost immediately. Some shops have begun to limit the amount of sticks of butter any one consumer can purchase at a time.

I was actually somewhat surprised to see the frustration and desperation of so many people over the butter situation. We hardly use butter, and I thought butter is considered unhealthy nowadays and is discouraged in general and only used minimally. I was surprised to see so many people desperate for so much butter!

Anyways, the shortage might finally be coming to an end. Minister of Economy and Trade Eli Cohen has given the order to open up the imports market for butter without import taxes. Cohen believes that opening the butter market to competition by canceling the import tax will induce other companies to sell their butter in Israel.
source: Kipa

So soon enough you might see the return of your valuable butter to the stores of Israel.

Wow PepsiCo just announced they are joining the thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, of people around the world who love to buy SodaStream - PepsiCo is buying Israeli company SodaStream for $3.2billion!

Mazel tov!

This Motzei Shabbos we will get the rare "Yaknahaz" - the havdala during kiddush, because Motzei Shabbos is also the holiday of Shvuos. Yaknahaz is an acronym for the order of the kiddush in such situations - wine, kiddush, candle, havdala and shehechiyanu.

This might be an exciting event for some people, due to the rarity of its occurrence.

Last night I saw the following being sold, for 7nis each:




That is a Yaknahaz candle. The sign that was next to it says that some poskim have a problem with the putting of two candles next to each other for havdala, as has been done by many for many years, and then separating them (though it doesnt say what the problem is) so this candle is a solution for havdala of Yaknahaz.

I am not quite sure how to use it. It comes with the foil cup of a tea light. I guess you do the havdala then put the remaining candle in the foil cup and let it burn out. Being that they used a tea light foil holder, the candle is bigger than the holder and it seems kind of dangerous to me - the candle wont fit in well, it might fall out, etc.

This makes slightly more sense and seems more reasonable than the bowls of salt water they sell for Pesach, the package of ten pieces of bread for bedikas chametz, the roasted egg for the seder plate, but not by much.

There were recently rumors about IKEA building its next branch in the region of Bet Shemesh after being frustrated by the bureaucracy when trying to close on a location in Jerusalem.

The rumors had been confirmed at the time, a few months ago, but they still pointed to the fact that IKEA was just looking in the Bet Shemesh area as an alternative and no decision had been made yet.

The search is over and Mynet has announced that IKEA has now finalized the deal and signed a contract to build its next branch in the area of Eshtaol, near Bet Shemesh.

According to RBSN, when the rumors spread back then, City Councilman Shmuel Greenberg saw an opportunity to perhaps bring IKEA to Bet Shemesh, thereby bringing a lot of money and jobs to Bet Shemesh. He made all the efforts hat he could but IKEA decided to sign in Eshtaol, where presumably the land and taxes were cheaper, but still close enough to Bet Shemesh.

No word on how long it will take, but being that this is just the beginning of the process, you can expect to wait a few years for the new branch to be built and ready for business.

The best part of this will surely be the Swedish meatballs now available nearby at a reasonable price.

while nobody is sure if IKEA is really opening a branch in Bet Shemesh or if that was just the beginning of an elaborate Purim joke, it seems Prime Minister Netanyahu is trying to convine Walmart to open in Israel (source: Srugim). Netanyahu told the owners that he will ease regulations in an effort to encourage them to do so.

Now, if Bet Shemesh could get both an IKEA and a Walmart.... wow! and then Target would have to  be next!

is IKEA's next store going to be opening in Bet Shemesh?

Israelis love the IKEA stores.

IKEA was looking into opening a new branch of the store in Jerusalem, but the permits were slow in coming. IKEA officials supposedly got frustrated with the delays and decided to look for alternate locations.

They have supposedly liked what they have seen in Bet Shemesh and have either decided to open in Bet Shemesh (according to YWN), or are seriously considering it (according to Mynet Jerusalem).

If this is real, and if it happens, this will be a big coup for Bet Shemesh.

According to Maariv, business at Cofix has taken a big hit since they raised the price from 5nis per item to 6nis per item. The stores have gone from being busy and full all the time to being nearly empty. Customers rejected the 1 shekel increase in price, though the owner claimed increasing overhead forced him to do so.

Personally, 6nis for a cup of drink (I dont drink coffee so when I went to Cofix it was for other things) or a bowl of cholent or whatever is still very cheap, and I understand that nothing else is staying the same - overhead increases with rent and employment costs and price of their suppliers... but the market in general rejected it. There might have been a psychological issue at play as well, with customers expecting to pay 5, as that what Cofix was famous for, and then really pay 6. As well, you can't just reach into your pocket and pay for your cup of coffee with 1 coin, but have to fish around for at least 2 coins - though I would guess most customers are buying more than 1 item - a coffee and a danish, for example.

Anyways, in an attempt to draw back the base, Cofix is now lowering the price back down to 5. Hopefully the customers will go back and the damage has not already been done.

Shufersal, or Supersol as they are commonly known, has come out with its own line of cola.

What is particularly interesting about it is what is being described as an attempt to compete with Coca Cola. To that end, Shufersal made their new line of drinks to appear very similar to Coca Cola drinks, product placement in the store will be very close to the shelves of Coca Cola, the price is significantly cheaper, and they are bearing a hechsher of Kehillos (a hassidic hechsher).
source: Behadrei

First of all, Coca Cola might not appreciate the attempt and might fight back - not by dropping prices but by lawsuits and pressure. If the packaging and appearance is similar to that of Coca Cola, they might sue for trademark or copyright infringement. If that does not work or they do not, they might pressure Shufersal to move the two drinks away from each other. I am sure Shufersal does not want to lose the Coca Cola account, and that can always be threatened.

Second, many before have tried competing with Coca Cola. Some have done very well for themselves, even if they did not become actual serious competition for Coca Cola. I have a hard time seeing how a supermarket thinks its private line can actually be competition for Coca Cola.

Third, if they think the hechsher Kehillos will give them a boost over Coca Cola's Rav Landau, they really do not get the marketplace. Kehillos is known as a good hechsher, but so is Rav Landau. And if Pepsi's Badatz Eida could not do it to Coca cola, and RCs Rav Rubin hechsher could not do it to Coca Cola, Shufersal's Kehillos does not stand a chance. At most they might do some decent business selling their cola as a low end cheap drink, similar to Crystal and other such cheap drink brands...

About a year ago I posted about some frum women who had founded a company making modest swimwear for women. Frumqinis, as some might call them.

They made major press with interviews in the Wall Street Journal and Fox News and other major media. Some called it a kiddush hashem, and perhaps it was.

Today the media outlets (or at least one) is writing about some frum men who have started a unique swimwear company for women that makes regularly bikinis but more stylish with whimsical fringes in a variety of styles that snap on and off. (link to article is posted here with warning of not-tzanua images in article).

Excerpt:

Barry Glick is not your average bikini designer.
For starters, he has zero experience designing swimwear — or designing any wear for that matter. He’s not particularly involved in fashion either. Oh, he also is a Hasidic Jew living in Brooklyn.
None of this seemed to deter the 30-year-old father of five from starting a bikini company, Beach Gal, a year and a half ago.
"It isn’t a culture shock to me, I see it solely as a business opportunity and as a way to express my creativity," Glick says one recent summer afternoon. We’re sitting in his office in the Hasidic neighborhood of Boro Park. The newly renovated space is inside an inconspicuous concrete building, and is situated across the street from a funeral home wailing eulogies over an outdoor loudspeaker in Yiddish, and down the block from a plethora of kosher grocery stores and bakeries. It also doubles as home to the medical supply business of Saul Samet, Glick’s partner and investor, who is sitting with us as well.
[...]
Glick is tall and thin, and sports all the accoutrements of being Hasidic, with a big black yarmulke, long, curly sidelocks, and a bushy beard. Samet’s look is less obvious; he’s shorter, built, and has a clean, short beard and trimmed sidelocks. The duo hardly seems fit to be in the swimsuit market. But the story of how Glick and Samet are successfully building a swimsuit company from scratch — battling through all the complications of creating a business, only to be hit with more obstacles on the product end, like dealing with fabrics, sourcing, branding, and distributing — is as much about the power of the internet as it is about two Jewish guys from Brooklyn who believe so much in an idea that they’re willing to tiptoe around some of the rules that define their strict, religious lifestyle in order to pursue it.
That idea is a bikini, with a whimsical fringe that snaps on and off. Each Beach Gal bikini comes with an accessory, including bands of seashells, beads, sequins, and ruffles that attach to the top and bottom. The suits come in five colors and sell for $150 on the site (but are half off on Amazon right now, just FYI). They look like the sort of thing that would be trendy in places with a strong beach culture, like in Miami, or pretty much anywhere in the Caribbean.
[...]
"The Hasidic community is very tight-knit, and there’s a lot of business that gets done at synagogue because you meet each other three times a day," Glick explains.
Of course, the business proposals never went over too well: "It was pretty hard in the beginning. I would shop the idea around and say, ‘I wanted to speak to you about a business idea,’ and everyone would say, ‘Okay, what is it?’ and I would say ‘Bikinis!’ and they would go, ‘Huh?!’"
[...]
As with so many situations in life, sometimes it’s not just about what you know as it is about who you know. In a sheer spout of luck, Samet’s brother had a connection to Cyn & Luca, a swimwear brand found in stores like Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s. They were introduced to Cynthia Riccardi, the brand’s designer who’d worked for companies like Adrienne Vittadini and Liz Claiborne. She helped Glick perfect his swimsuit silhouette and interchangeable accessories. After her company was bought out last year, she agreed to share her sources for high quality production in South America.
From there, Beach Gal was officially born. A first batch of merchandise was created, Glick and Samet built a website, and photographers and models were hired out in Miami for a look book. Product was also listed on Amazon and Zulily at a discounted price (roughly 50 percent off). So far, the feedback has been positive, and Beach Gal has sold nearly all of the 2,500 pieces from its first collection.
Of course, being Hasidic and in the swimwear business is difficult. Last year, when the duo attended Miami Swim Week with the Cyn & Luca team, Glick — with his beard and sidelocks — was quite the spectacle. During a photoshoot a few months ago, a makeup artist working with the Beach Gal team took a photo of Glick helping a model with a swimsuit and leaked it to Instagram without fully explaining the scenario, leaving her followers to assume the scenario was scandalous. Overall, Glick and Samet are apprehensive people will get the wrong idea about them — the reason they requested Racked not take any photos of them.
On the other hand, though, why not? From Christian retailers to clothing boasting sadness to questionable tea products, internet shopping is peak eccentric. Today, truly anything is possible when it comes to people starting e-commerce businesses, and so trendy bikinis designed by people who put their fear in a power higher than Anna Wintour can certainly fit right in.
Glick and Samet maintain there is technically nothing wrong with what they are doing. While Hasidic lifestyle ascribes to that of seclusion and modesty — and not working with, or around, scantily clad women — the guys say they treat their jobs with respect, and are careful to not cross any boundaries or break any rules, like touching other women, for example. Is it uncharacteristic of Hasidic men to be designing bikinis and working in swimwear? Sure. Can they carry on with their business without violating Jewish laws? Certainly.
"I don’t look at it as a bad thing. It’s a piece of clothing and just because no one in our community [wears] it doesn’t mean we can’t bring something fun and funky to it," Glick says.

kiddush hashem? chilul hashem? I have no idea. I think these terms get thrown around a bit too loosely. I am not sure this is either. I wish them well and great success, and am happy they have found a way to express their creativity and turn it into a business.

We have seen new parents offering for sale the right to name their baby.

I think this might be a little bit stranger. Kikar is reporting on an advertisement in a newspaper (they don't say which) in which a person says he cannot fast on 17 Tammuz and therefore is looking to buy the right to be sandek at a bris. Being that a sandek would not have to fast, he is willing to pay up to $1000 for this right.



Supposedly they called him and he confirmed it, and added that he will only considering buying the sandek rights from a shabbos-observant family. I don't know what is wrong with being sandek at the bris of the baby of a non-shabbos-observant family, as such a sandek still would not fast and it would be the same "segula" and honor, but that is what he wants.

It is definitely a unique way of getting out of a fast, albeit expensive. He probably also figures it is worth spending a lot of money on as being sandek is  considered a segula for attaining wealth. He probably just figures he'll get his money back sooner or later.

Unless this is a 13 year old child fasting for the first time (or avoiding fasting), I wonder if he has done this before or if he has fasted before. And, what does he plan to do on Tisha B'av and Yom Kippur that are even longer fasts and this solution won't really help.

Shopping Mekomi is reporting that the Ministry of Interior has approved a plan submitted by the Jerusalem District Planning and Construction Board for expansion of the Bet Shemesh [Northern] Industrial Zone, in the area of the train station.

The plan calls for construction of an 8-story office building to be used for business and commerce. The complex will include shops, restaurants, a wedding hall, a theater (really?), coffee shops, auto supply stores, offices, entertainment businesses, and more.

The plan is in line with the policy of expanding business in the area of the train station, as well as recognizing that the industrial zone is in close proximity to residential areas and the zone has adjusted from industrial and manufacturing businesses to commerce and offices.

This is good news. If it is successful and businesses open and do well there, it can be an economic boost to the city. Good job!

After a couple years of Iryat Yerushalayim sponsoring a summer event called Baale-Basta in the shuk of Mahane Yehuda, it looks like the program might now expand.

For the past two years the haredim, both the "regular" haredim represented by the haredi political parties along with the haredim represented by the Eida, have protested, in one way or another, the Baale-Basta events. They were immodest, female singers, caused drunkenness which eventually spilled over into the nearby haredi neighborhoods, and whatever else they could come up with, they now are overjoyed to be getting their own version of the Baale-Basta.

According to this report on Mynet, the Iryah has suggested a program that is being embraced by the community representatives of Geula. The city has been revamping the neighborhood of Geula, and bringing in  a haredi version of the Baale-Basta should bring a big boost to the local businesses. Obviously instead of female performers, all will be male and Haredi (Avraham Fried's name is mentioned, but I doubt all performers will be such major names), and crowds performed to will be segregated.

They might have protested the event until now, but they can't argue with the results. And hopefully they will replicate those results into Geula.

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