West Hartford, CT – For years, the Waldbaum’s supermarket in West Hartford has supplied the Jewish community with fresh kosher meats, deli products and baked goods.
Now, some community members, particularly Orthodox Jews, worry that Big Y, the Springfield, Mass.-based grocery retailer which purchased Waldbaum’s, will eliminate the store’s kosher departments. The uncertainty has sparked not only concerns about limited choices, but also has resurrected a thornier issue of whether the kosher supermarket across Albany Avenue is kosher enough.
Waldbaum’s, owned by the parent company of A&P, will close at the end of the month and is expected to reopen as a Big Y World Class Market, but the fate of the store’s kosher departments hasn’t been announced.
Big Y only will say that it’s in the “process of evaluating the entire kosher lineup,” said its spokeswoman, Claire D’Amour-Daley.
“Many people are on edge,” said Rabbi Yosef Wolvovsky, who was shopping last Thursday at the Judaica Store in West Hartford.
But Wolvovsky said he and others will take steps to ensure the Jewish community does not go without:
“We’re going to make some kind of accommodations, whether that means setting up a co-op or getting a distributor to bring in food,” said Wolvovsky, executive director of Chabad Jewish Center in Glastonbury.
It would not be a wse business decision for them to get rid of the kosher section. They would lose a lot of customers who only go there because it’s kosher…people come in from other cities in CT and MA to buy things they can’t get at home.
levertov!!!!!
In Houston Texas we also have an H-E-B where we get complimentary kosher food.
H-E-B is a GREAT store, Texas based, and can be found only in Texas.
GO TEXAS
Here in Austin TX we’re fortunate to have a “store-within-a-store” at the local H-E-B supermarket, where Kosher meat, baked goods, and a large line of dry, refrigerated and frozen products are available. Rabbi Levertov of Chabad of Austin supervises. It’s a fantastic resource.
The same question arose when Farmer Jack Supermarket – Michigan’s subsidiary for A & P closed several years ago. The local vaad harabanim spoke with the new owners to impress upon them the need to maintain the status quo. The ownere was convinced the keeping the kosher aisle in place would be cost effective. After four months, it was determined that fresh fish could not be mainained as not enought people frequented the fish department to warrent a mashgiach tamidi. The kosher butcher remains open. Intererstingly – the new owner expanded the packaged kosher section and dairy space and added… Read more »