FOCUS ON ISSUES Jerusalem mall threatens to lure vendors from famed open-air market

JERUSALEM, Sept. 17 (JTA ) – In front of Haim Ohana’s fish stand in the Mahane Yehuda open-air market here, a pre-Rosh Hashanah crowd of shoppers gathers as usual – even though a spanking new indoor mall has just opened down the block. Ohana, 40, whose stand has been in Mahane Yehuda for 25 years, is not bothered by the new competition. “We aren’t threatened by it at all,” he says, wearing a yellow shirt and fish-stained plastic apron as he fills another bag with some holiday carp. “That’s not Mahane Yehuda. Mahane Yehuda is natural, it comes from the soul. Can you believe they put fans in that place!” The new $40 million indoor mall already has 74 shops and can hold another 180 on its upper levels. It offers the convenience of shopping carts and parking, both of which are lacking in the outdoor market. It also boasts tight security – an important asset considering that Mahane Yehuda has been a target for Palestinian terrorists. The attempt to merge a traditional outdoor market with a contemporary indoor mall is the latest sign of a transformation of shopping habits as Israel evolves from an emerging to a developed economy. During the past decade, supermarkets have popped up in Israeli neighborhoods, while makolot, or small corner stores, are quickly becoming extinct. And this can be expected to continue, with supermarket chains mulling the launch of massive expansion plans, which include the opening of special supermarkets targeting the fervently Orthodox and Arab populations. So far, there is only a sparse flow of shoppers in the new mall, and vendors admit it could take several months before they find out whether the idea has commercial potential. Managers of the new mall insist that they do not intend to replace Mahane Yehuda’s shuk, or market. “We are not against the shuk,” says Omer Karchi, administrative director of the mall. “We just want to attract more shoppers to the area.” But some stall owners in the new complex see a battle developing between the outdoor and indoor markets, and they think that the mall will eventually win. “In time, people will move over to us,” says Moshe Tsur, 58, who shut down his Mahane Yehuda stall to sell grapes, pineapples and mangos in the new center. Tsur points to shoppers pushing their carts. “How much longer can people schlep heavy bags in their hands?” he asks. Tsur promises that the new indoor market will preserve the atmosphere of the outdoor shuk – complete with vendors shouting each other down in public pricing duels, the free-market trademark of Mahane Yehuda. But a glance around the indoor market reveals some differences that Mahane Yehuda fans are likely to lament if mall culture eventually renders market culture extinct. All of the 74 shops on the ground floor are framed with the same standard blue trim paint, compared to the Mahane Yehuda stalls of different shapes, colors and character. Aisles in the mall are perfectly straight, while Mahane Yehuda’s alleys twist and turn in every direction. Some indoor shops are clearly more upscale than what is to be found at the outdoor market, which caters to low-income shoppers. But much of the simplicity that characterizes Mahane Yehuda is nowhere to be found in the mall. Ilan Siman-Tov, whose longtime family butcher shop from Mahane Yehuda has opened a second branch in the mall, is not trying to attract the same clientele indoors. “Mahane Yehuda shoppers aren’t going to come here,” he says, his new shop sparkling and displaying shiny shelves of fine wines that would be difficult to find in Mahane Yehuda. “They like the noise, the dirt and the balagan,” or confusion, he adds. “Here the people are much more refined.” So far, confident Mahane Yehuda stall owners are actually welcoming the mall – – which has provided desperately needed parking to the area. “It’s a great thing for us,” says Yehuda Ezra, 52. “People are parking down there and walking up here to shop.” Ezra’s family-run Adin Coffee stall has been open at Mahane Yehuda for 40 years. He invites shoppers to sniff and smell the rich odor of an array of coffees and oriental spices that permeates the air. “Can you get that inside?” he asks proudly. And not only does the new mall not offer the smells and tastes of Mahane Yehuda, says Ezra, but it cannot compete with the prices, since storeowners in the mall have higher overhead to pay for space and security. He is convinced that the character of Mahane Yehuda will win out where the small corner stores did not. Even though Ezra knows more and more Israelis are buying in supermarkets, his prognosis for the new mall is grim. “In two or three years, that mall is going to become one big wedding hall.”