Okay, here’s my question for you today.
1. Have you been to the kosher room at Heinen’s on Green Road?
2. Do you keep exclusively kosher?
3. Do you like The Room?
4. Elaborate.
If you don’t live in Cleveland, this is a separate “Kosher room” at our local grocery store. How would you like that?
And at the end, I’ll weigh in 🙂
Have fun! Good Shabbos/Shabbat Shalom!
1. Have you been to the kosher room at Heinen’s on Green Road?
2. Do you keep exclusively kosher?
3. Do you like The Room?
4. Elaborate.
If you don’t live in Cleveland, this is a separate “Kosher room” at our local grocery store. How would you like that?
And at the end, I’ll weigh in 🙂
Have fun! Good Shabbos/Shabbat Shalom!
I've never seen a kosher room, just kosher aisles. The concept doesn't totally make sense to me because there's so much kosher food in the rest of the store. Plus, in the mainstream stores I'm familiar with there's no guarantee that the food in the kosher aisle is actually kosher. It could just be kosher-style. But if a store brings in so much extra kosher food that they can fill a whole room with it, that sounds like a good thing!
I have a mixed response. I think it is commendable that Heinens committed precious resources to catering to its kosher clientele. When I first heard of the concept, I was excited to check it out. After a fair amount of time spent in "the room," I have two issues. One, I don't "look the part" so I feel self-conscious wheeling my cart in there. I know this is my own issue, but I feel like people are looking at me like "honey, are you lost? Do you even know what you're shopping for in here?" Two, it's not like actually shopping in a full-service market. The products in there are mostly processed and there are no common items that just happen to be kosher. I don't keep kosher, but I do shop "kosher-style" and pay attention to ingredients, and there's not a lot that's inspiring in there. In short, I think it's a great, well-meaning concepts that, in reality, doesn't help much.
Another question (originally posted on Facebook)– what is your opinion of the kosher cheese options available on the market. If someone put the effort into making better quality artisanal (meaning not factory-made, but rather made by smaller cheesemakers, often by hand and with high quality milk) cheese available, do you think people would be willing to pay for it?
Wow, they actually did it. That's pretty neat. I would be curious if it was like the kosher aisle, only in a room. If it only has the heimishe Jewish brands and not the national brands, or the health food brands, then I would be far less likely to shop in the room.
Bohemiandoc, I'm trying to eat less cheese in my life, so I would be a poor consumer of cheese. I'm also not a foodie and am generally not willing to spend more money on specialty foods so I, for one, am a no. Would be curious if there is general interest; I'm not necessarily representational. I do know that many kosher consumer also have large families (yes, I'm generalizing) and therefore I find that overall cost-consciousness is paramount.
Rivki: it does have the heimish [Jewish/Israeli] brands only.
Me personally, I'm not a fan. I feel that it ghetto-izes my food and makes it seem more like you need a passport to buy it. But really most of the food I like to buy is not in the room. As Robin said, it's mostly processed overly stereotypically Jewish food like onion soup mix and borscht (seriously).
Hey, the whole produce section is kosher.
I live near Philadelphia. In the Northeast, the Shop Rite has a kosher section called "Kosher on the Boulevard". It's really a store within a store, with a meat/fish counter, store made salads, etc. It has a freezer section, a dairy section, fresh (?) meats and 4-5 aisles. I go there a few times a year to stock up on things that I can't find elsewhere. I think they have a nice blend of heimish and national brands. For instance, they have Wacky Mac, Lipton dry soup mixes, and loads of Shop Rite's own kosher line. Most of my shopping is done in the regular grocery aisles, though. One doesn't need a kosher grocery to buy apples and Cheerios 🙂
I would LOVE if our store had a kosher bakery/deli/salads. I think they only do this in smaller kosher communities that can't support a whole store.