This article appeared in the Dec. 7, 2012 Jewish Advocate.

Star, Shaw’s gets into Chanukah spirit

Stores mix Jewish music with other selections

By Susie Davidson
Special to the Advocate

While passing the Shaw's supermarket in the Brighton Mills complex one day last week, an Advocate reporter had a hankering for some yogurt, dark chocolate, maybe some pistachios, and a case of Poland Springs. The Salvation Army man was outside ringing his bell and shaking his kettle. The lobby and front entryway were filled with all manner of shining silver, green, and red decor. Displays of fruitcake, iced gingerbread, and fruit and nut trays beckoned in front of the registers. And this was all to be expected on a chilly morning in late November.

But then, over the PA, strangely familiar verses could be heard: "Come light the Menorah, Let's have a party, We'll all dance the Hora...." Could it be? Yes indeed, it was "Oh Chanukah, Oh Chanukah." Now this was not to be expected!

The music returned to a more predictable selection by Duran Duran (Advocate reporter dates herself). But then, the sounds of a weeping clarinet filled the water and soda aisle. Klezmer? Indeed it was, followed by "Dreydl, Dreydl, Dreydl." And, if all that wasn't amazing enough, the next selection was even more stunning. Would you believe, right there amid the pomegranate flavored seltzer, a rousing rendition of "Heyveinu Shalom Aleichem???" At this point, a hora was very nearly in order (fortunately for other shoppers, it was a bit too early in the morning for that).

A passing Shaw's worker did not know who chose the music for the PA. so the next step was to whip out the smartphone and alert the Jewish-Boston Gmail group. Sure enough, responses came in of similar sightings (or hearings). "Same thing at the Shaw's on Route 9," reported "Tamar," who said that she heard Klezmer while shopping there. "It seems to be a new policy, to counterbalance Xmas madness." Maybe not so new? "Last year, they did this in the Star Market on Comm. Ave near BU," wrote Jonathan Traum. "Only in America," then quipped Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby, who added, "Better not tell the ACLU!" The requisite anti-Semitic griping was to be found as well, in an online tweet by @urbano493, who fumed, "They're playing Jewish music in Shaw's...typical Sharon" (a return tweet asking if this was a complaint went unanswered).

But anyway, as the Hebraic sounds continued, with nary a "Jingle Bell Rock" to be heard, it seemed that Shaw's ought to be commended for this nice gesture for the community.

"We do have 25 stores that have Jewish music during this time of year," wrote Steve Sylven, a spokesperson for Supervalu, the parent company of Shaw's, in response to a query left with corporate headquarters. "We include it because we place an importance on having our stores be relevant in the communities we operate," he said.

Sylven said that the stores work with a third-party company called PlayNetwork on the playlists for the stores, which are broadcast via satellite. Mark Harrington, a Customer Service Rep. at the Seattle-based company, after consulting with Kelly Clark, who is the Client Manager for Shaw's, said that a Shaw's rep chooses the musical selection for their stores from their general offerings. So they offer Jewish music in their overall mix? "Oh yes, definitely," Harrington said.

"We asked them to provide us with two playlists we use in stores," said Sylven. "One with the traditional Christmas music, and one that has the Jewish songs for those selected stores."

Choosing the songs for that mix is Yakov M. Yarmove, Corporate Business Manager of Ethnic Marketing and Specialty Foods at the Supervalu Jewel-Osco Corporate office in Itasca, Ill. "I corporately manage all Kosher buying and store selection, and the Jewish Holiday displays and variety for all SuperValu-owned stores nationwide," he told the Advocate. "This includes the Shaws/Star Market chain." Yarmove, a native of Cincinnati who lives in Chicago, said he also oversees the 10 Kosher stores-within-a-store that are located inside regular stores as well (none are in New England at this time).

Why did Shaw's decide to include Jewish and Chanukah music, as opposed to going with the usual "100 percent Christmas music, all the time" format? "At Shaw’s," Sylven explained, "we place high importance on our stores being locally relevant to the communities they operate in." It is a comprehensive approach. "This includes everything from having the products available to meet the needs of our local customers, to, in this case, the in-store music," he said.

"About five years ago, while I was touring our Kosher sections around the country before the Chanukah holiday," Yarmove recalled, "I was thinking, 'Wouldn’t it be nice to have some Chanukah music playing in our higher-indexing Kosher stores during the season as well? Wouldn’t this make our Jewish customers feel more at home while shopping in our stores for the holidays?'” Working with PlayNetwork, he made that happen. "We began doing this the following holiday season, and the customer response was fantastic."

In fact, at least one customer did actually break out some moves. "I remember walking in one of our Shaw's stores right before Chanukah and watching a customer holding her baby, literally doing a little dance with her child right in front of the Kosher dairy case as the music was playing," he said. "This really made me feel great to know that we have that feel in our stores during the holiday, and that our customers were clearly appreciating it as well."

Yarmove said that Supervalu tried playing Jewish music around Rosh Hashanah and Pesach. "But we recently pulled back on broadcasting music for those two holidays, as it was extremely hard to find retail-appropriate tunes for these holiday genres," he said.

"Shaw’s is committed to providing a great shopping experience for customers by focusing our efforts on being relevant to the communities we help serve,"　reiterated　Sylven. "The addition of the traditional Jewish music is just one of the ways we hope we are enhancing the in-store experience for our customers."