MORE RUMINATIONS

  Category: General Topics

Why do kosher bakeries charge such high prices? It can’t be the cost of hashgacha. Here in Queens, hashgacha is less than ten dollars a week, so it can’t be that.

Could it be the cost of the raw materials? Nope! The truth is that the majority of bakery products sold in the NYC area are certified kosher. That is to say, the non kosher bakery uses the same oven proof strawberry jam as the kosher baker, for example.

Our point is that the cost for raw materials in the non kosher bakery is essentially the same as the cost of those same materials for the kosher bakery.

Is it the cost of the labor? Is there a secret contract that says workers in kosher bakeries have to be paid more than those in non kosher bakeries? Nope, no way. In fact, the same undocumented workers appear in both places.

Kosher bakeries owned by Jews are closed on Shabbat and Yom Tov. Well, that would make a very big difference. But it can’t account for it all.

We prefer to shop in a kosher bakery owned by Gentiles. The challah they make (granted it is pas palter- not Jewish baked bread) is delicious and half the price of the challah sold by the Jewish owned bakery a few blocks away. We believe in supporting Jewish owned businesses, but, frankly, the economics have become a telling factor.

So, we repeat: why do kosher bakeries charge so much more for the same thing?