do you trust your local kosher grocery?

OOTBubby

Thu, Jan 08 2009, 12:46 pm

Unless the whole store is under hashgocha, I don't think it is significantly different different than shopping in a non-kosher store.

Even if a store is under hashgocha, it is always a good idea to double check and mistakes can still happen (items get on to the shelf between visits of the mashgiach, etc.). Also sometimes the hashgocha of a particular item can change and what may have been acceptable to you previously may no longer be acceptable.

nicole81

Fri, Jan 09 2009, 1:35 am

bubby wrote:

Nicole, how do you know (for a fact) that Kosher supermarkets "love to hire Mexican illegals"? Did you check their papers?

Just thought I'd ask. Rather an inflammatory judgment, don't you think?

Not really. I know for a fact that the mexican workers in my sister's supermarket were all illegal. one had a greencard, and the other 8 were not even close. At another store in flatbush, my husband had a problem with a worker harassing him week after week. My husband complained to the manager who told him in the course of the conversation that he was an illegal immigrant. And a close friend is the manager of a large supermarket in boro park. he told me it's the same at his place.

for the rest of the supermarkets, just use your eyes. of course I don't check their papers; what a ridiculous question. but I'm not giving anyone the benefit of the doubt either, not after what I already know. sorry!

Blair

Fri, Jan 09 2009, 1:56 am

It's really important to check the hechsher where I live one would think that all the products in our makolet would have a proper hechsher. One day I found a product without a hechsher at all and it was a package of Chinese nut mixture. I brought it to the manager of the makolet and he told me that people from the other neighborhood shop by him as well and they may not care about hechsherim or even feel it needs one here in Israel. My advice check before buying.

Isramom8

Fri, Jan 09 2009, 2:02 am

We live in a non-Chareidi city, and we always check. Our kids know to check everything, and to ask "is this our hechsher" in case of doubt.

If I'm buying, say, cans of corn, I check each can, because often there are those without our hechsher on the same shelf as those with. Another example is bottled water - the same brand can have or not have a good hechsher, and yes, bottled water can be a problem, if it's flavored, or on Pesach if it has been processed without Pesach supervision, etc.

Even so, I've made mistakes. Sometimes someone at home realized a product wasn't our hechsher before we ate it, sometimes only afterwards.

For Pesach foods my kids know how careful you have to be. A product can have a good hechsher, but it isn't a Pesach hechsher - the same product can say kosher l'Pesach under a different hechsher. People should be aware of this.

Last Peasch there was only one brand of ices we let our kids eat, and on a trip, my elderly father walked and walked all over that city in order to locate lemon ices for them, even though we told him to forget it. That's mesirus nefesh!

One of our kids went through an experimental stage where s/he joked about eating out with friends at a fast food place with minimal kashrus standards. Then s/he claimed to be joking, and was annoyed at our lack of appreciation of this humor. We explained that kashrus isn't a joke. This was after the Monsey scandal - I hope we have become more sensitive to guarding this mitzva - not in a neurotic way, but as people who attempt to do retzon Hashem.

Blair

Fri, Jan 09 2009, 2:11 am

Can somebody explain to me why you need a hecsher on the ballonim for soda club. It has a badetz on it. I think that this goes a bit to far for just air. Why does during the year toilet tissue for shabbos need a hecsher as well. Just make sure when you buy packages of tissues meant for shabbos that they are really cut. Kleenex brand is not. I can understand for Peasach about tissues.