Ethnic Foods Memo: Matzo Shortage at San Francisco Bay Area Supermarkets For Passover Has Area's Jewish Consumers Fuming and Grocers' Searching

You can see the displeasure in shoppers' eyes and on their faces in the aisles of San Francisco Bay Area supermarkets, store managers and clerks tell us.

Also, the region's online food-oriented message boards and blogs are full of comments and requests on the topic.

And, Bay Area Supermarket managers are being inundated with phone calls from less-than-happy consumers, all in search of what normally is a grocery product in abundance in the region this time of year--but is near-impossible to find this year.

What's causing all this concern and consternation?

It's Passover and to the dismay of observant Bay Area Jews it's impossible to find that essential staple for the holiday observance--matzo.

The Jewish religious holiday of Passover began last Saturday night at sundown and runs until the end of this week.

Matzo, an unleavened bread, is an essential food for Passover. Further, not just any old matzo will do during Passover. The unleavened bread--marketed by kosher food companies such as Manischewitz, Straits and a couple others--eaten during the week-long religious observance of Passover must be certified by the proper rabbinical organization as "Kosher for Passover." Everyday matzo, even though it 's certified "kosher," won't do during Passover, according to Jewish dietary laws.

Enter the matzo shortage in the Bay Area.

On Saturday Night (April 19), the first night of Passover, Jews are required to eat only wheat-based matzo. Then, for the rest of Passover, they are required to eat matzo each day made from only four grains in addition to wheat: barley, oats, rye or spelt. No other grains are permitted.

Wheat tends to be the most popular matzo variety and normally even if a supermarket runs out of that variety for a couple days it still has plenty of the other four types of grain-based matzo.

Not this year though in the Bay Area. The stores are out of all of the grain-based matzo varieties.

Safeway Stores, Inc., the region's number one supermarket chain; Lucky Stores, owned by Save Mart, Inc. and the region's number two chain; Mollie Stone, a popular multi-store independent in the Bay Area which among other things is known for its extensive selection of kosher foods, Andronico's, another multi-store upscale independent; Lunardi's, a family owned regional chain similar to Andronico's and Mollie Stone; and pretty much every other supermarket chain and independent in the Bay Area has shelves which are minus-matzo, and there's still four -to-five days of Passover left to go.

Even Whole Foods Market, which has nearly 25 stores in the Bay Area, as well as the numerous ethnic and specialty stores in the region, including a number that specialize in kosher foods, are out of the unleavened matzo bread.

Compounding the missing-in-action matzo-matter is the fact that Costco Wholesale, which is a popular food and grocery shopping destination in the region, decided not to carry matzo for passover in its numerous Bay Area stores this year.

Additionally, specialty grocer Trader Joe's which is another popular retailer in the area, took the year off nationwide from selling matzo in order to re-evaluate the category in its stores, according to Alison Mochizuki, a corporate spokesperson for the chain. Trader Joe's has 41 stores in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.

None of the region's retailers' say they can put their finger on a single reason their stores are out of matzo, especially only three days into the Passover holiday.

All seem to agree though that demand is up and supply is down. Teena Massingill, a spokesperson for Safeway Stores, Inc., says the retailer ordered more matzo this year than last, but its stores are still out. She suggested because many other supermarkets in the Bay Area had little supply or ran out before Passover even began, Safeway's stores reported a run on the leavened bread beginning around the Friday before the holiday began.

The primary kosher foods distributor to most Bay Area supermarket chains and independents is the specialty and ethnic foods division of grocery wholesaler Certified Grocers, which has an office in the Bay Area city of Livermore and a warehouse and distribution center about 40 miles away in Stockton.

Certified's specialty and ethnic foods' distribution division provides kosher category food and grocery products to Lucky Stores, Andronico's, Mollie Stone, Raley's/Nob Hill and most other supermarket chains and independents in the Bay Area except Safeway, which buys kosher foods direct through its in-house Safeway Specialty Foods division.

Certified is essentially out of matzo, which means the retailers are out. In the U.S. Kosher for Passover grocery products are pre-ordered in advance by the stores from specialty and ethnic foods distributors or direct from the manufacturers. This is a long-standing industry practice.

Since the holiday only has a one week observance, that means grocery products which are strictly "Kosher for Passover" have a short shelf life. Distributors usually start bringing the special "Kosher for Passover" products into the stores about three weeks before the holiday observance begins. Most Jewish consumers know this and start stocking-up on products like Passover matzo as soon as they see it hit the stores' shelves.

When Passover is over, the "Kosher for Passover" products are either essentially sold out in the stores or picked up by the distributor. Although, less and less these days are distributors giving retailers any credits for returned Passover merchandise like used to be the common case.

As a result of the pre-ordering practice and the fact the Passover grocery products are only on the shelves for about four weeks (three weeks or so before the holiday and the week of the holiday), once a store runs out of an item like matzo--that's usually it.

Therefore, combine increased demand--many Jews celebrate Passover even though they aren't all that observant outside of the holiday--with the decreased supply--no matzo sales at Trader Joe's and Costco among other reasons--and you've got some very unhappy Jewish consumers in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Matzo symbolizes what enslaved Jews were allowed to eat. It's even nicknamed "slaves bread." Its unleavened nature refers to a time when Jewish slaves had to flee Egypt in a hurry, and therefore didn't have time to bake the unleavened bread they took with them.

Passover is the single most observed Jewish holiday among the many that exist. It's also the most inclusive in that even those who rarely or even ever attend synagogue are likely to observe Passover. Many younger Jews who aren't regularly observant have increasingly been observing the religious holiday as a way to get more in touch culturally with their Jewish heritage, if not faith. It's estimated about 80% of the six million Jews who live in the U.S. observe Passover.

Food--and especially matzo--is central to the Passover holiday observation. So central in fact that many Bay Area Jews are driving to Southern California--or having relatives and friends there ship them matzo care packages by overnight mail. Many also are ordering matzo online--if they can still get it--asking and paying for next day delivery.

With four -to-five more days until passover ends, Bay Area supermarket retailers are feeling the heat. Many are searching far and wide for more matzo inventory. Safeway for example is trying to obtain some from its East Coast and other division distribution centers.

Meanwhile, online food forums like the one at http://www.craiglist.org/ and Bay Area-based food blogs are full of requests for matzo from consumers, as well as numerous comments and questions as to what has caused the 2008 matzo shortage in the Bay Area.

There will be lessons learned and spreadsheets studied by the region's supermarket buyers once this week is over and Passover ends. You can bet your matzo (if you can find any) on that.

Beverage Industry Memo: Coke For Passover: Beverage Giant Coca Cola Makes 'The Real Thing' For Jewish Holiday

In mid-to-late March -to- April each year in the U.S., Beverage giant Coca Cola goes back to the future so to speak and produces a limited amount of "The Real Thing," which is the company's original Coke soft drink beverage made with pure cane sugar or sucrose (sugar refined from sugar beets) instead of high-fructose corn syrup, which is the sweetener it's used in all of the carbonated sodas it produces and sells in the U.S. and most everywhere else in the world except Latin America (and particularly Mexico) since 1985.

Prior to April, 1985 when Coca Cola announced it would switch to using high-fructose corn syrup in its flagship Coke brand, along with its other brands of soft drinks, the beverage maker used sugar in all of its sodas sold throughout the world. Coke was the first soft drink-maker to switch to using high-fructose corn syrup, primarily because it's cheaper than sugar, and the other U.S.-based soda pop makers followed the leader.

Those real sugar Coke days also were when the beverage giant created its popular "The Real Thing" marketing and advertising campaign. "Coke; it's The Real Thing...Coke is." That very popular tag-line, which became part of the American lexicon, went away once Coke no longer was sweetened with sugar but rather with corn syrup instead.

Many U.S. consumers crave "The Real Thing." So much so in fact, that a huge market exists in the U.S. for Coca Cola produced in Mexico using sugar. The "Real Thing" is then shipped across the border into the U.S. for sale at stores which primarily cater to Hispanic consumers.

But the world's number one carbonated beverage maker and marketer does make an exception to its high-fructose corn syrup-only as the sweetener of choice policy in the U.S. once each year. From mid-to-late March to April each year in the U.S., Coca Cola produces limited runs of its Coke soft drinks using sugar instead of the corn syrup during the three weeks or so leading up to the Jewish Passover holiday. (PepsiCo also produces a limited run of its Pepsi brand carbonated brand soft drink sweetened with sugar for Passover.)

Among the foods Observant Jews aren't allowed to consume during the Passover holiday period include any food or drink made with chamez. High-Fructose corn syrup falls into this category since anything produced from refined corn it chamez as stated in the Torah. Observant Jews must follow all of the proscribed Passover dietary restrictions as laid out in the Torah. The punishment for eating chametz during Passover is karet ("spiritual excision.")

Since Coke doesn't want to lose sales from Observant Jews during Passover, it's been producing the soft drinks made from either sugar cane or sucrose (sugar refined from sugar beets) for years since it stopped using sugar completely in Coke produced in the U.S. and most elsewhere in the world in 1985.

"Real Coke" for Passover is generally only available during the religious holiday in large metropolitan areas with high populations of Jewish consumers such as Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore-Washington D.C., Miami, Atlanta, San Francisco and Houston, Texas. Since Coca-Cola's system is to have local bottlers produce all of its soft drinks, the local bottlers in those regions are responsible for making and selling the Passover sugar-sweetened Coke.

Selling the Passover Coke isn't a problem however. The beverages fly off store shelves as soon as they're stocked--and it's not just Observant Jews who are buying the "Real" Coke to drink during the eight key days of Passover. Indeed, consumers of all stripes and religious backgrounds who prefer the taste of the sugar-sweetened Coke to today's high-fructose corn syrup version, stock up on the limited-run soda pop as soon as they see it in stores.

The Passover Coke is certified by local Rabbinical councils as "Kosher for Passover," which is the designation required in order to satisfy Jewish dietary laws during the religious holiday observance.

The special sugar-sweetened, Coke is usually bottled in 2-liter plastic bottles, which are distinguished by their yellow caps that sport the OU-P (Kosher for Passover) symbol or the words Kosher L' Pesach in Hebrew on the cap. Some Coke bottlers produce Passover Coke in cans as well as the 2-liter plastic bottles, but it's a rarity. [You can read more about the OU certification at their website here.]

We've often wondered why Coca-Cola hasn't introduced (or actually reintroduced) Coke made with pure cane or sugar-beet refined sugar since it's sugar-sweetened Mexico-bottled soft drinks are so popular with consumers of every ethnicity in the U.S.

A little background: In the mid-to-late 1980's, Hispanic foods distributors in the U.S. started exporting the Mexico-made Coke across the border (without Coke's express permission) to sell at Hispanic grocery stores and in Mexican restaurants in parts of the U.S. where there were large Mexican, Central and Latin American immigrant populations. Not only did the Mexican-bottled Coca Cola catch on fast with the immigrants, but non-Hispanic consumers in the U.S. discovered the sugar-sweetened version in the stores and Mexican restaurants and grabbed it up regularly.

Just a few years later, in the early 1990's, conventional supermarket chains with stores in high-population Hispanic communities, along with specialty foods distributors, started getting numerous requests to sell and distribute the Mexican-bottled Coca Cola.

Specialty foods distributors like A-1 International Foods in Los Angeles (now part of Tree of Life), Hagemeyer's Gourmet Specialties in Northern California (now owned by Unified Western Grocers), Gourmet Award Foods in Texas (also owned by Tree of Life) and others started distributing the sugar-sweetened Coke to supermarket chains and independents like Safeway Stores, Inc., Fiesta Mart, Ralph's and numerous others, who put the Mexican-bottled Coke in the Hispanic food and beverage sets in their stores in neighborhoods where there are high Latino shopper demographics.

Sales of the Mexican, sugar-sweetened Coke have soared since then, as more supermarkets, grocery stores and restaurants have stocked the soda pop. Today, it's a good bet that if a shopper of any ethnicity goes into a Hispanic grocery store, supermarket (chain or independent) or authentic Mexican restaurant, you can get a bottle of bottled in Mexico Coca-Cola, made using sugar rather than high-fructose corn syrup.

This gets us back to "wondering" why Coca-Cola hasn't reintroduced a "new" everyday version of the popular vintage (and current Passover and Latin American version) sugar-sweetened Coke in the U.S., which is its largest market globally. We think we know why. Our bet is the giant beverage marketer believes if it did so, the sugar-sweetened version of Coke would be so popular it would seriously hurt sales of corn syrup-sweetened Coke, even though the soda pop would have to retail for more because of the higher price of sugar compared to lower-cost high-fructose corn syrup.

Instead of let what would be a very popular version (sugar) of Coca Cola canabalize sales of its corn syrup-sweetened carbonated beverage by marketing a sugar-sweetened version--in addition to being subject to the price fluctuations of the sugar market--we suggest the beverage marketer prefers to just stay with what it has, despite the strong niche demand for the "Real Thing" among a healthy segment of American consumers.

High fructose corn syrup is generally plentiful--although that's changing a bit since a good portion of the food and sweetener-grade corn crop acreage in the U.S. is being planted for ethanol fuel-grade corn currently--and inexpensive relative to sugar. (If the ethanol trend continues, and corn-based products like sweeteners keep going up in price, maybe sugar will make a comeback as the carbonated beverage sweetener of choice? For example, commodity price of corn is up over 15% in the last year.)

However, when it comes to Passover, which begins on April 20 this year, the giant beverage maker and marketer stills go back to the future and produces a limited amount of its vintage Coke. And, since there aren't any religious tests given at the supermarket checkout stand, any consumer who desires can buy the sugar-sweet stuff.

Further, lets not forget, the Mexican-bottled Coke made with sugar is available in many parts of the U.S. where there are substantial Hispanic consumers. Since Hispanics are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the U.S.--and are a fast-growing population not just on the east and west coasts but in places like Iowa, Idaho, Illinois and elsewhere throughout the country as well--we suspect people in parts of the U.S. where the Mexican Coke isn't currently available will see it in many of their stores soon.

Meanwhile, during the upcoming Passover season, Coke is rolling out its Passover Coke. We suspect it won't stay on store shelves very long if this year is like the last few years in terms of the special yellow-capped carbonated beverage's brisk sales. Hag kasher vesame 'ah (happy and kosher Passover). It's "The Real Thing."