_
Rehovot's Bargain Basements Beat US prices
by Erin Israel
Rehovot has nothing on Filene's: the bargain basement exists here in hidden, delightfully-tacky splendor. And it's all 20% off!
I don't know how, but friends who have been here for only a few weeks discovered not one, but two underground stores with wall-to-wall home accoutrements ranging from potholders to stacking capuccino mugs. One store has an entire section devoted to Tupperware knockoffs; the other, a wall of the world's most garish coaster sets.
Combined, these two places form Rehovot's "Mita, Ambat, ve Hala'a" -- Bed, Bath, and Beyond.
Or, as I like to think of it, WAY Beyond. No Bed, Bath, and Beyond I can think of has four different kinds of falafel-cutters.
I was shocked. How did I miss these places? Was I really that unobservant? Why didn't I pay more attention to what people were carting out of the shops near the sherut-departure stand? Alas, the only time I went into the homage-to- reinforced-concrete indoor mall where one store is located, I headed the wrong way: upstairs, where a mostly-abandoned shoe store and its unhappy salespeople tried to sell me sandals that would have been only fashionable in, and practical for, the era known as B.C.
Our first foray into Bargain Martef (aka basement) #1, located in the concrete behemoth on Herzl, produced a seven-shekel glass teapot and a seven-minute reverie in the coffee-mug aisle.
This is virtually the only place in the country, as far as I can tell, where things are cheaper here than in the U.S.
Today's find, Bargain Martef #2, next door to the great deli on south Ya'acov Street, revealed cheap pillows, glasses, more falafel cutters, and pasta makers.
When you walk in through the narrow glass doors--with hours posted in Hebrew and Russian--an old man whisks away any shopping bags and stashes them in tiny lockers. Then he waves you down a one-person-wide hallway lined with cheap paper goods, toward the staircase leading to the basement. The vista from the top of the stairs is of the Grand Canyon of Stuff, aisles and aisles of it.
My friend headed for the sofa pillows section, while I headed for the stacking capuccino mugs.
For a socialist country, they do the capitalist thing quite well.
Source: Erin Israel. "Maf-TAY-akh ha-pa-khee-YOT." "The can opener." rehovot.blogspot.com (25 Janury 2005) [FullText]
Rehovot has nothing on Filene's: the bargain basement exists here in hidden, delightfully-tacky splendor. And it's all 20% off!
I don't know how, but friends who have been here for only a few weeks discovered not one, but two underground stores with wall-to-wall home accoutrements ranging from potholders to stacking capuccino mugs. One store has an entire section devoted to Tupperware knockoffs; the other, a wall of the world's most garish coaster sets.
Combined, these two places form Rehovot's "Mita, Ambat, ve Hala'a" -- Bed, Bath, and Beyond.
Or, as I like to think of it, WAY Beyond. No Bed, Bath, and Beyond I can think of has four different kinds of falafel-cutters.
I was shocked. How did I miss these places? Was I really that unobservant? Why didn't I pay more attention to what people were carting out of the shops near the sherut-departure stand? Alas, the only time I went into the homage-to- reinforced-concrete indoor mall where one store is located, I headed the wrong way: upstairs, where a mostly-abandoned shoe store and its unhappy salespeople tried to sell me sandals that would have been only fashionable in, and practical for, the era known as B.C.
Our first foray into Bargain Martef (aka basement) #1, located in the concrete behemoth on Herzl, produced a seven-shekel glass teapot and a seven-minute reverie in the coffee-mug aisle.
This is virtually the only place in the country, as far as I can tell, where things are cheaper here than in the U.S.
Today's find, Bargain Martef #2, next door to the great deli on south Ya'acov Street, revealed cheap pillows, glasses, more falafel cutters, and pasta makers.
When you walk in through the narrow glass doors--with hours posted in Hebrew and Russian--an old man whisks away any shopping bags and stashes them in tiny lockers. Then he waves you down a one-person-wide hallway lined with cheap paper goods, toward the staircase leading to the basement. The vista from the top of the stairs is of the Grand Canyon of Stuff, aisles and aisles of it.
My friend headed for the sofa pillows section, while I headed for the stacking capuccino mugs.
For a socialist country, they do the capitalist thing quite well.
Source: Erin Israel. "Maf-TAY-akh ha-pa-khee-YOT." "The can opener." rehovot.blogspot.com (25 Janury 2005) [FullText]
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home