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Forum -> Yom Tov / Holidays -> Pesach
Why does Shmurah Matzah cost so much?
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blueberries




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Mar 02 2015, 1:28 pm
I know we are in Purim mode but I was just wondering why does Shmurah Matzah cost so much? $20 per lb is very expensive.
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greenfire




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Mar 02 2015, 1:37 pm
you have watching the wheat
cleaning everything every 18 minutes
made by hand
jewish inflation
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blueberries




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Mar 02 2015, 1:38 pm
greenfire wrote:
jewish inflation


I like that Very Happy
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shoshanim999




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Mar 02 2015, 1:38 pm
First of all, where can I get for $20 a box? My neighborhood is closer to $25. Unfortunately I think the answer to ur question is that the frum community is held hostage every pesach and gets robbed. If someone can justify how the cost per box remotely approaches $15, I'd be shocked.
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Miri7




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Mar 02 2015, 4:25 pm
Isn't all kosher for pesach matza shmura matza? Meaning that it's been watched since reaping?

It bugs me that hand-made matza is known as "shmura" when it really should just be called "handmade". I buy it just for Seder and get Yehuda for the rest of pesach.

Correct me if I'm wrong in my understanding!!
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Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Mar 02 2015, 4:59 pm
No. There is machine made shmura. It is the mot mehudar option for yekke. My husband makes sure to get it for the sedarim.
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good times




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Mar 02 2015, 5:18 pm
Cosco in the midwest is selling it for $14.89/lb. perhaps check locally if its available to you at that price. It might be worth it to join. I still saved money even with after joining.
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greenfire




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Mar 02 2015, 5:31 pm
hand made shmurah is watched from harvest & made by hand with washing everything down between each 18 minutes

machine made shumrah is watched from harvest & made by machine with washing in between each 18 minutes

18 minute machine matzah is watched from the time it's milled rather than harvest with a production stop to clean up at 18 minutes

regular machine matzah is presumed to go through the machines fast enough to process well before 18 minutes are up and production never stopping therefore there is no wet dough lasting longer than 18 minutes ever
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salt




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Mar 03 2015, 4:39 am
So much for "lechem oni" eh? Confused
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the world's best mom




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Mar 03 2015, 6:55 am
Have you ever been to a Matzah bakery?

In order to produce enough Matzos, they need to have a lot of workers helping to roll the dough, poke the holes and get it into the oven. One man's job is to mix the flour and water very quickly. Then every 18 minutes, all the workers stop and hang around while everything gets scrubbed- the tables, rolling pins, everything that may come into contact with the dough. I'm guessing they have a cleaning crew at all times to do that part of the job. Therefore, they are paying tons of workers to bake and to clean, but are limited in how fast they can produce.
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Woman of Valor




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Mar 13 2018, 9:42 pm
Would you be willing to watch stalks of wheat for months and not get paid for it???
Wink
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FranticFrummie




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Mar 13 2018, 10:04 pm
the world's best mom wrote:
Have you ever been to a Matzah bakery?

In order to produce enough Matzos, they need to have a lot of workers helping to roll the dough, poke the holes and get it into the oven. One man's job is to mix the flour and water very quickly. Then every 18 minutes, all the workers stop and hang around while everything gets scrubbed- the tables, rolling pins, everything that may come into contact with the dough. I'm guessing they have a cleaning crew at all times to do that part of the job. Therefore, they are paying tons of workers to bake and to clean, but are limited in how fast they can produce.


THIS. Also, a lot of matzot get broken in the baking process. The ones that come out whole or only slightly cracked get immediately packed in boxes, and the broken or badly cracked ones get put in a huge bin. The ratio of whole to broken is something like 1 out of every 25 or so, and that's with a really expert baker.

I assume the broken ones get sold to places that make shmura farfel and matzo meal.
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amother
Sienna


 

Post Tue, Mar 13 2018, 10:12 pm
My husband worked in matza bakery in Brooklyn for 10 years each season and he told me it’s big rip off how much they charge for their matzo. Because workers got very little salary but yet they charge too much for selling it.
I personally think all store owners taking big advantage of our community and overcharging everything during holidays.
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creditcards




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Mar 13 2018, 10:17 pm
I never understood it until my husband started working in a matzo bakery. The labor is crazy hard. They work for many hours in a row. My husband's hand is raw from washing every 18 minutes. There is a huge staff tons of jobs. Hard to find staff because it's a half year job and what are these people supposed to do the other half. So workers will only work if it pays for them. If any Matzah stands too long it gets thrown away. Lots of Matzah get thrown away if it touches something by mistake. They have tons of chumras they are careful with. They have to make sure it didn't rain on the wheat and....more things. They have to sell everything they produce otherwise they lose money, that's how expensive the staff is. If there is one day extra work that doesn't get sold they can lose their profit for the whole season so needs to be very well calculated....

Last edited by creditcards on Tue, Mar 13 2018, 10:20 pm; edited 1 time in total
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amother
Ruby


 

Post Tue, Mar 13 2018, 10:19 pm
amother wrote:
My husband worked in matza bakery on cortelyou road in Brooklyn for 10 years each season and he told me it’s big rip off how much they charge for their matzo. Because workers got very little salary but yet they charge too much for selling it.
I personally think all store owners taking big advantage of our community and overcharging everything during holidays.


whats a reasonable profit margin do you think?
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amother
Teal


 

Post Tue, Mar 13 2018, 10:22 pm
Excuse me did you say shmura? If you want mehudar shmura like in satmar for example all the workers are shomer shabbos? Do you want to pay $8/hr for an Israeli boy who is standing by the boiling oven with mesiras nefesh (risking his life) so you can have kosher matzos?
I personally know some of them and they don't even go home for pesach because they work erev pesach. Don't forget Israelis are very family minded as well.

A former israeli
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studying_torah




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Mar 13 2018, 11:41 pm
Bought by Costco the last few years, under $15 a box for the matzah.
If you use machine matzah for chol hamoed, or for children, they are very well priced too.
Slightly OT, Costco has grape juice and sometimes pessach cakes at very low cost.
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flowerpower




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Mar 13 2018, 11:47 pm
FranticFrummie wrote:
THIS. Also, a lot of matzot get broken in the baking process. The ones that come out whole or only slightly cracked get immediately packed in boxes, and the broken or badly cracked ones get put in a huge bin. The ratio of whole to broken is something like 1 out of every 25 or so, and that's with a really expert baker.

I assume the broken ones get sold to places that make shmura farfel and matzo meal.


We buy some boxes of broken matzos. They're thinner and cheaper.
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Iymnok




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 14 2018, 3:52 am
The broken ones become samurai matza meal.
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leah233




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 14 2018, 7:44 am
The main costs of the matzos are the enormous amount of labor that go into them.

A relative of mine owns a matzo bakery. He may be well off but he certainly isn't very rich from it. He lives the same life style he did he when he was in kollel. He claims that he pays the guy who puts the matzo in and out of the oven (a super hard job) almost as much as he makes.

Also to own and run a matzo bakery you have to be a very capable person. There is no question to me that he could have made a lot more money had he bought real estate or a nursing home instead of a matzo bakery when he first went into business.
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