ColumbusDispatch, OH
05-18-07
Keeping it kosher
Owner of Bexley market seeks buyer who will maintain dietary tradition
BY TRACY TURNER
Central Ohio's only completely kosher food market and deli is for sale, and its
owner promises that whoever buys it will keep it that way.
That's most important to many customers of the Bexley Kosher Market, who
prefer to shop where they know that all the food is kosher.
Stuart Pollack of New Albany drives more than 15 miles to patronize the store.
His family began keeping strictly kosher last year. He said he worries that if the
market is lost, it will reduce the variety of foods available to his family.
"Sure, other stores offer a limited kosher section, but they don't have the
selection this market has," he said. "And they don't offer a kosher deli or the
amount of the fresh kosher meats this market does.
"There's a lot of people that use this market that would miss it if it's gone."
Irv Szames, who owns the market on E. Broad Street, said health problems
caused by a stroke in 2005 won't allow him to continue to run the store he's
owned for more than 20 years.
Szames, 72, who uses a cane and a wheelchair to get around, said he hasn't
signed a deal to sell the market, but understands the community's need to
maintain a kosher market.
Kosher refers to items prepared in accordance with Jewish dietary laws under
the guidance of a rabbi.
"In order to maintain a vibrant Jewish community, you've got to have schools, a
place to worship and a store that sells the foods needed to maintain a kosher
household," he said. "Everything we sell is kosher and has been approved."
The market sells a variety of kosher brand names including Manischewitz,
Haddar and Rokeach. It offers items such as borscht, in numerous varieties. The
goal, Szames said, is to provide the same selection and varieties of foods that
any other grocer sells, only kosher.
That's significant, considering the growing demand for ethnic foods.
The $9 billion kosher-food industry is growing at a rate of 15 percent a year,
according to the Food Marketing Institute.
Nearly $1 of every $7 spent on groceries in the U.S. is spent on ethnic foods,
according to the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center. The research center
at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, said the ethnic-foods market has
grown to an estimated $75 billion in annual sales.
Yet Columbus has only a few retailers that offer a full range of kosher foods.
"Stores in areas with larger Jewish populations would tend to have a larger
selection of kosher products," said Tom Jackson, president of the Ohio Grocers
Association.
Kroger offers a kosher section in many stores, depending on the store's size and
location, spokesman Dale Hollandsworth said.
For example, the stores on E. Broad Street and Hamilton Road carry a
"significantly larger number of kosher products than other Kroger stores,"
Hollandsworth said.
But the stores "don't have much call for kosher meats, so it's something we don't
carry," he said.
Giant Eagle, which sells kosher products in all its central Ohio stores, has
prepacked kosher meats in its Gahanna and Blacklick stores under the Aaron's
Best brand, but doesn't have a kosher butcher at any of its Columbus locations,
spokesman Dan Donovan said.
For families that keep kosher, "having access to a large-scale kosher market is a
must," Halle Schwartz said.
The Bexley resident said she's shopped at the Bexley Kosher Market since she
first went there with her mother 20 years ago.
"You can't get half the kosher products at others stores that you can get here,"
Schwartz said during a recent shopping trip. "I shop here because I only keep a
kosher home and I believe we must support our community's businesses."
"There's a lot of people ... that would miss it if it's gone."
Stuart Pollack
Bexley Kosher Market customer