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Jewish Community News

News: January 2004

500 South Bay Jews lobby Albertsons for kosher facility

By Aliza Aziz

More than 500 people gathered in Sunnyvale in early December to meet executives from the Albertsons supermarket chain in hopes of persuading them to open a full-service kosher facility inside a local Albertsons store.

The Albertsons executives, led by Yakov Yarmove, corporate kosher marketing and operations manager, were impressed with the large turnout and the level of excitement. What was to have been a focus group of 30 to 40 community members for the purpose of gauging interest into the possibility of establishing a more comprehensive kosher facility, blossomed into something much more. The "if" became "what" and "where."

Over the past year, Silicon Valley's limited kosher options have decreased to almost nothing. The kosher butcher that operated in Los Gatos for many years closed his doors last year, and Meek's Dinner Tree, the county's only sit-down kosher restaurant, briefly closed only to reopen without its kosher designation. Observant Jews must search for limited kosher items at local Albertsons stores and Trader Joes.

A "Level 1" kosher Alberstons facility could mean fresh chicken and meat only minutes away.

Albertsons currently has eleven "Level 1" kosher facilities across the country Level 1 facilities include a kosher butcher block with fresh meats, poultry and seafood, a bakery, deli and take-out section, and a large array of frozen foods, dairy products and groceries, as well as holiday items.

Based on the responses from the crowd, Lee Whiting, Northern California's director of sales, Kevin Crain, Northern California's ethnic sales manager, and Hal Levitt, the local district manager, recognized the great void in the South Bay that could be filled by a Level 1 facility.

But they warned that development of such a facility could take up to two years or longer. Market research, based on geography and demographics, will help determine whether to retrofit an existing store or build one from the ground up as either a level 1 or a "level 2" store, which includes some but not all of the services in a level 1 facility.

Members of the Task Force on Jewish Infrastructure for the Peninsula and South Bay Area, which organized the meeting, will provide assistance for Albertsons' study. Dr. Burton Dean, Director of the Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneurship at San Jose State University, generously offered his expertise as well.
"It is possible," says Whiting, "that Albertsons may choose to supplant an existing project with this one, in which case kosher consumers might have one-stop-shopping as early as the end of 2004 or 2005."

Crain and Levitt agreed that it is highly likely a few "Level 3" stores, with expanded grocery and dairy sections, may turn up in the area. This is consistent with the store's new policy of neighborhood marketing, whereby local stores adjust more quickly to the needs of its customers, rather than staying glued to the schematic set up by the national office. The Albertsons in the El Paseo shopping center in Saratoga already carries this designation.

Rabbi Avi Schochet, headmaster of South Peninsula Hebrew Day School, hosted the meeting at his school. Brett Borah, president of the Jewish Federation of Silicon Valley, relocated the Federation's board of directors meeting to SPHDS in recognition of the importance of the evening. Several other organizations' meetings were either cancelled or relocated so their members could participate. An additional 75 people emailed their desire to be counted even though they could not attend.

Kosher consumer must thank Yakov Yarmove, himself an observant Jew, for the growing number of Albertsons store brand products certified as kosher and currently available in every Albertsons store.

The Task Force is collecting suggestions and comments to share with Albertsons. For your comments to be included in Albertsons' demographic study, contact the Task Force's chairpersons: Jacqueline Bocian (jbocian@pacbell.net) or Rena Schochet (rbschochet@yahoo.com), or send a fax to (650) 917-1696.