By Jacob Henry – New York Jewish Week
In the ever-expanding market for products tailored to the observant Jewish consumer, Kosher Dekal thought it had a winner.
The New Jersey-based company advertised its Passover counter linings as “a smooth and attractive” product that was “easy on” and “easy off.” Similar to peel-and-stick removable wallpaper, it was designed to temporarily cover kitchen countertops that had been scrubbed clean of leavened foods, which are forbidden during the holiday.
When Passover ended on Saturday night, however, customers found that while the linings may have been easy on, they were hardly easy off.
“After Pesach ended, the nightmare began,” said Shaun Couzens, a New York-based customer who used the linings for Passover. “I still have some stuff on my countertops.”
In the days after Passover, dozens of people left comments on Kosher Dekal’s Instagram page complaining about the residue left by the product, which Couzens compared to the rubbery residue left after one peels a label off a jar. Criticism of the company leapt to other social media sites, including Twitter and Instagram.
Many comments were deleted by the company, which later apologized to customers through a separate post.
“We are deeply sorry,” Kosher Dekal posted on an Instagram story. “We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.”
A source affiliated with Kosher Dekal said the company provided over $100,000 in refunds to customers in the first few days after the complaints.
“EASY AND ELEGANT”
The product and the complaints are a window into the kosher marketplace, where even highly specialized items can find a profitable niche among motivated religious customers.
In observant homes, Passover often demands a frenzy of house cleaning, in which floors, surfaces and cupboards are scrubbed of any residue from bread or other leavened products. Some types of surfaces are porous and cannot be properly “kashered,” or made kosher for Passover. There are varying opinions about which types of countertops can be kashered; generally, solid stone can be kashered, while synthetic, composite or scratched surfaces cannot. Typically, Jews with these types of counters make do by covering them with plastic, cardboard or aluminum foil.
Kosher Dekal, however, positioned itself as “an elegant and easy solution.” It advertised its wares on sites run by prominent Orthodox Instagram influencers, including BusyInBrooklyn, an account with over 90,000 followers, and @the_comic_cook, an account with more than 30,000 followers. Such accounts have become an important marketplace for reaching the kosher consumer — as well as forums for advice and gripes.
The source affiliated with Kosher Dekal said that the company invested $150,000 in advertising for the product.
Couzens said that he learned about the product through Fleishigs, a prominent Orthodox food magazine with over 30,000 followers on Instagram. He said the Kosher Dekal ads caught his attention because they were more “elevated” than the “boring” advertising of other kosher products.
“Their ads were a breath of fresh air,” Couzens said. “I guess this subconsciously influences people. It seemed like a product that might make things a little easier in the kitchen, so we tried it.”
Fleishigs Magazine and the Instagram influencers did not respond to requests for comment, but Malkie Knopfler, who runs the_comic_cook, posted about the product on her Instagram page.
“Like many of you, I bought a counter cover that turned out to be a disappointment,” the post said. “Would I buy the product again? Likely not. But do they [Kosher Dekal] deserve to be lynched verbally and financially?”
PRODUCTION MISTAKE
Screenshots of WhatsApp messages obtained by the New York Jewish Week showed that Kosher Dekal used a factory in China that admitted to “a mistake from a production line worker.”
The source affiliated with Kosher Dekal would not reveal the name of the Chinese factory.
“We are so sorry about the trouble we brought you,” the message from the Chinese factory said. “The quality assurance didn’t control it well.”
In another message, the factory in China said that it can only compensate Kosher Dekal with $10,000.
“We truly hope it is helpful for you,” the message said. “I know you met a great loss and a big problem on your brand indeed.”
Kosher Dekal also shared via Instagram stories messages the company received from customers who said they were satisfied with the product. One message called the countertop covers “a gamechanger” that “made the kitchen look normal, clean and neat.”
“We did have an issue with the residue, but that is a minor point,” the message said. “I wanted to reach out and thank you for the product and the hard work you put into it.”
The source affiliated with Kosher Dekal told the New York Jewish Week that “the majority of people enjoyed” their product and “it worked perfectly for them.”
Couzens said that he was given a refund and believes the people who made the product want to “make it right for next year.”
“It’s clear to me that these people really wanted to make a product that would help the community,” Couzens said. “I feel a little bad for them actually.”
He added that the company deserves another chance “even though people were upset with how it worked.”
“This is the real story,” the company source said. “A proud Jewish company lost everything, not their fault, and responded in the most honorable and dignified way. And yes, some people on social media took it for a ride.”
I used it… And looked very nice.
Was a bit stronger tact than expected and when I took it off there was residue.
But I followed instructions and sprayed easy off and sponge and washed it down and was just fine…
My main issue was price and could have been a bit larger to fit backboard..
I suggest they make it larger, less sticky and cheaper…
Worked perfectly for me. I was even considering buying more this year ahead of time for next year. Really loved how it went on, and off. No residue.
Also, a video showing how to use Dekel mentioned there may be residue when taking it off, and a tool could be used to get that residue off.
I’ve heard that the white marble color was harder to take off. You are lucky you didn’t have much of a problem because mine was on so tightly that I needed my husband to pull it off!! It literally required serious strength and then we needed to scrub for hours!!
I found something similar on amzon cheaper & easy to Peel off no sticky afterward
worked like magic!
Besides taking it off…
@muliaerophoto
Very pleased
White came off cleaner than the black
There must be laws that govern selling a product under false pretense. If not, then we can all sell whatever we want, and claim whatever we want! And if the claims aren’t accurate, we can just blame our manufacturer!
Who determines easy on/ easy off? Was it tested?
Also, is a company responsible for their manufacturing or can they blame their manufacturer? In other words, was did Dekal produce this product (thus can’t shift blame) or did Dekal resell a separate product that was produced and now is blaming the producer?
(Not 100% sure but I think) their samples all worked fine, they tested them, but once they did a full run the company made a mess up. Even changing a source of one item, not the item itself, can easily mess up a product.
In manufacturing each batch needs to be tested. Imagine a company says, oh we tested our pacifier samples and they were safe! but manufacturing messed up one batch and that’s the cause of infants choking on the pacifiers! Not gonna fly. Bh, nobody was harmed here, I just brought this example to show that when selling a product each batch has to be tested, and if there’s an error the company issues a recall. Again, bh, no harm to humans done, just some good lessons learned 🙂 hatzlacha to all of you in manufacturing and product development. A tough job… Read more »
Did they test them for a full week?
There is, it’s called false advertising.
Same thing but 1/5th of the price
Yes it’s called contact paper
Terrible product. The work to remove this glue was unreal. Even if it was a decent product still overpriced by 500% compared to similar products on amazon. Just saying.
These are halachically useless as a counter cover. No different than the Din of 2 Keilim etc.
if you kosher your counter, you dont really need anything
The saddest part of this debacle is that there is no recourse when it comes to the Frum world.
There are no reviews, you can’t sue because they’re Frum and once again, people have been scammed.
But who cares? As long as the marketing was good. The Insta influencers lying about anything to make a few dollars, is simply grotesque.
i doubt they tried to scam people. i don’t think they wanted to ruin their name.
they tried their product, but i guess like someone wrote in one of the reviews, that the first run they used was fine, but the mass production one was not.
How was the dealer supposed to know that?
it it unfair to bash them like that.
people asked for a refund and they got it. they are not here to scam you.