PESACH PRICES GO SKY HIGH

We continue to hear complaints about the absurdly high prices some places are charging for Pesach foods.

We bought KP Coke and Diet Caffeine Free Coke in two liter bottles for $1.50 per bottle. Two days later in Teaneck, NJ, we were in a store where the price was $2.59 PER BOTTLE! While it is true that no one forces anyone to buy there, it is also true that people will opt for convenience every time. Apparently the store owner knows that and knows that he can get away with charging that price, so he does it. What does that say about us as consumers? Why aren’t we all raising a hue and a cry?

There are products that are KP all year long (kosher cheeses come to mind). Why, then, do they double in cost for Pesach? And why aren’t we all raising a hue and a cry about it?

Pesach cakes- the pre baked kind available in the supermarket- (you know the ones that look real good and taste really bad) average out at $12 to $17 dollars for a cake that is non gebrokts no less. When did potato starch become so expensive? Oh, maybe it is all the cottonseed oil they use in it? After all, cotton seed oil is such an expensive commodity- NOT!

Go to your local kosher take out store and order, for example, cucumber salad. Let’s look at this carefully: sugar, cukes, onions and vinegar. Oh, yeah, no wonder the price is double during Pesach.

We remember one year when Empire raised chicken prices six times between Purim and Pesach. Granted, in those days Empire was under different ownership, but even so, six times? The prices this year are not much better- you still need to take out a second mortgage to shop for this holiday.

We resent that. We resent that businesses make it impossible for people of less than average means to really eat well on this, of all, yamim tovim. Hey, you know what- it ain’t so easy for the rest of us either! Nu? Maybe it is time for us all to complain and make our voices heard.