At the death of a kosher store

Situated in the Western side of Berlin, Schalom used to be one of the oldest kosher store in the city, created after the war as a family business. I discovered it on Sybelstrasse, close to Adenauerstrasse metro station, shortly after moving in the city, and for a long time it was my only source of kosher food. There were not too many at the time, with another one, bigger, but much expensier, close to the KaDeWe, closed one year ago because of the debts accumulated. 

Schalom was small, with very few products, but it had meat, which was a high commodity at the time. For Pesach, they used to have some gorgeous crunchy French matza that made me come back year after year, although I was already won over by other kosher options. It also used to be a source of information for various Jewish things going on in the city. I omitted to mention 'reliable' on purpose, because as the financial situation of the store was getting a bit worse, the information offered generously to the visitor was sometimes too much and not always friendly.

The other kosher options created, especially in the close neighbourhood, were killing the store. Bigger variety, better prices, neutral service, more space...The customers were more or less the same everywhere, but they were becoming people more interested in having at least once the week a full kosher meal as they had in Israel or America. When the overall prices of food are so cheap in Berlin, to convince non-religious people to buy kosher and thus, twice the usual price, needs a lot of persuasion. And even the religious families will prefer to save some money buying from a more convenient store, guaranteed that the kosher conditions are meet. Nowadays, you can find meat  with different hechshers accomodating various religious options and although Berlin is far way from the kosher richness of England it is much easier to survive Pesach or to prepare a fine family kosher dinner.

Meanwhile, Schalom store was sold shortly after Pesach, the space being probably used for an art gallery. It is over now, and a chapter is closed. This is the way of things.