Boro Park Proprietors Respond to Container Complaints

by YS Gold 

The Pesach shopping season has been in full swing for a while, and Boro Park residents are accustomed to the traffic jams around town that seems to last from pre-Purim to post-Pesach. Adding the stress of traffic and an already-existing dearth of parking spots is the proliferation of enormous storage containers that seem to be parked outside countless stores for about a month during the busiest time of the year. 

BoroPark24’s Heshy Rubenstein went out into the streets of Boro Park to speak with store owners and hear their side of storage story.

“When you think about it,” said one grocery owner, “this is a community service just like any other. Whom are we bringing these containers for—if not to ease the shopping experience for the customers of the area.” 

Another owner communicated the headache and the cost that getting these containers entails. “This is a process that begins in the beginning of the winter. The parking permit alone costs $1000. The price of the storage container rental seems to go up every year…. We would not do this if it was not an absolute necessity,” he said. 

The owners all point out that this is a dilemma that is unique to Boro Park grocery stores which simply do not have another inch to stock the additional Pesach merchandise—especially given the fact that customers expect that the stores will turn over to chometz sales immediately after Yom Tov, which falls Thursday night this year. "It is a bit unfair to be targeting grocery owners who place these containers here just for the consumers’ convenience.”