Trader Joe's Organic Grape Juice--Is it Really Kosher?

A dear reader complains that 64oz of "Royal Purple" Kedem Grape routinely tops $8!! Another informs me that $10 is not uncommon in his small town. Is there an alternative for Jews in the far-less trodden, but no less loved, corners of our beloved country?

Well, leave it to R. Yitzchak Abadi to be two steps ahead of the game. According to his 2011 Pesach list, Trader Joe's Grape Juice is not only Kosher for Sephardim on Pesach, but get this, it's kosher for Ashkenazim too...year-round. (That last part was sarcasm, in case you didn't catch it.) I have pasted part of his list below: ('P' means 'Parve'; 'A' means 'Kosher for All')

Drinks	Trader Joe's	Water	Fruit Water (Watermelon, Raspberry Lime)		P	A
Drinks	Trader Joe's	Juices	Grape Juice		P	A
Drinks	Trader Joe's	Juices	Grapefruit Groove		P	A

To be absolutely certain I am not hallucinating, I double-check Trader Joe's online list of Kosher Products. Sure enough, Organic Concord Grape Juice is there...on the list!!!

I am too nervous words.... Tripping out of the house, I forget my reusable shopping bags. Thankfully, I am wearing a hat so as to avoid any potential Chillul Hashem at the check-out counter when I have to ask for paper bags. (This is a West L.A. Trader Joe's, mind you.) But I remind myself that I am a rabbi (and I should not be fiddling with legal loopholes), so I turn around and snatch our collection of bags made from an assortment of fascinating materials, such as recycled newspaper, soda bottles, hemp, and (don't tell anyone) cotton.

The Search begins well. I snap a photo of an OU on Joe's Kids White Grape Juice:

(And is that a cameo of Starbuck's Queen Esther???)

Continuing on, I find Joe's Kids Apple-Grape Juice, also with an OU!:

(Boy, am I having a Sunny Day!!!)

And then I spot it! The holy grape of my crusade...that small purple sunset, a 32oz bottle of Organic Trader Joe's Concord Grape Juice for the very reasonable price of $2.99:  

(Isn't she beautiful?)

But then I look again: 

(There is something missing)

I start to panic:

And then I really start to panic:

There is no OU, or CRC, or Half Moon K or Half K Moon... I have the helpful traders of Trader Joe's search the boxes in the back...maybe there is some 'Occipital K' that nobody has ever heard of somewhere on the box, but there isn't. We take turns staring at the bottle again and then at the list...  

And then I slowly put the Organic Concord Grape Juice back on the shelf, and fill my recycled shopping bags with other organic and non-organic things and return home--in the chilly night...the air still and quiet with subdued contemplation. 

The Cost of Kosher: Rabbi Hausman becomes a Reporter…

(Legal Disclaimer: “The following blog contains conversations that have been highly dramatized due in large measure to the author’s handwriting being illegible and that no one is paying said author to be objective or to check facts.”)

In my ongoing quest for cut-rate Kosher Kedem, I decided to do something that arouses about as much anxiety as parking enforcement in NYC. But there are necessary evils in life—such as alarm clocks and living adjacent elevated trains—that must be endured so that one doesn't go through life sleeping.

So for you dear reader, and for Kashrut consumerism, and for the Jewish people, and for God, and for my wife (note the order), I overcame my inhibitions and decided to pick up the phone and talk to a stranger … which lead to my having to speak with another stranger…and then one more after that…till she hung up the phone, but not before I got what I wanted:

Wholesale prices.

The day began with a call to Kedem Headquarters :

“Good morning, Um, can you tell me something about wholesale sales to individuals?”

Jewish Receptionist: “You’re from Los Angeles right?”  (Note: Only a Jewish receptionist would answer a question with a question.)

Me:  “Um, Yes. Where are you?”

Receptionist: “New Jersey.”

Me: “I’m sorry.”

Receptionist: laughter... “Well, I am from LA originally.”

Me: “Is  that so?”

The next five minutes can be summarized as follows:  Jewish geography.  

Eventually, I got the numbers for Kedem’s LA distributor (Shalom and Sons) and a Kedem Sales Manager in the Valley. Apparently, all the kosher shops in LA get their Kedem products from the same distributor. I tried the Sales Manager first, an amiable chap. “…Well, Ralph’s basically gives the grape juice away around Pesach. Same with matzah. They order from a big distributor: D.P.I. I bought a case of matzah for $2.99, the real cost is over five dollars! It’s how they get you to come in. They give away Champagne at Christmas and New Year’s…’

The receptionist at Shalom and Sons was far less friendly.

“No, we don’t sell to individuals.”

“ What about synagogues?”

“Synagogues yes—and anyone with a resale license.”

"Can you tell me the price for a box of Kedem grape Juice? 64oz?"

“$39”

“How many in a box?”

“8.”

“Well, thank you so—“  Click.

The way the math works, a single 64oz bottle of Kedem grape juice is $4.87, which means that kosher shops have 25-30 percent mark-up. 

In summary, stores like Ralph's and Stop & Shop who sell Kedem for $2.99, are doing so below cost. In contrast, Kosher shops, who purchase Kedem from a single distributor and sell Kedem for profit, must price their grape juice around $5.99 to make a reasonable profit.