Lakewood NJ Master Thread

[mlight]

Any Lakewood restaurants have outdoor seating?

[yuneeq]

Any Lakewood restaurants have outdoor seating?

Caffoteria and Cream

[Sam Finkelstein]

Anyone have the West Gate Shacharis schedule, or at least know when the last minyan is?

[aygart]

Anyone have the West Gate Shacharis schedule, or at least know when the last minyan is?

https://madmimi.com/p/20c6541?pact=65113-168768025-12739013498-51c946015b23c8feafa4b0c2ccb011987269f527

[Sam Finkelstein]

https://madmimi.com/p/20c6541?pact=65113-168768025-12739013498-51c946015b23c8feafa4b0c2ccb011987269f527

Great find! Thanks!

[Euclid]

Any Lakewood restaurants have outdoor seating?

Eatapita in the back
Keepshuto on Clifton

[Realshlomo]

Any Lakewood restaurants have outdoor seating?

Cookie corner

[Luvisrael]

Any recommendations for non jewish barbershop near the 70?

[coffeebean]

Should local stores be called out for charging 50-60% more on certain items than what items are actually worth? I've received GC as a gift so I have to redeem in this specific store, besides for not answering phone and attitude this store has, how about charging 50% more than Amazon for a $400 item.

[WonderingYid]

Should local stores be called out for charging 50-60% more on certain items than what items are actually worth? I've received GC as a gift so I have to redeem in this specific store, besides for not answering phone and attitude this store has, how about charging 50% more than Amazon for a $400 item.

And you can't use the GC for sale items...

[coffeebean]

I've also witness stores selling items from Israel for 100-150% or $2,000 more than worth because people aren't aware that they can call up the manufacturer in Israel and have them ship this item for free.

[coffeebean]

And you can't use the GC for sale items...

Yup, ridiculous. They just got paid cash from person who bought the GC. I can't comprehend.

[Euclid]

Lol yeah pretty much just figuring if I even have another option (spoiler: likely not).
(Going to put more info in the Lakewood thread.)

Continuing the Lakewood specific part here

$500 for younger 2s, 9:30-3. This was after she told us the price would likely be $420-$430, when we initially registered, but can't make a big deal about that because she said she's 100% not sure. Shrinkflation apparently applies to playgroups too.

The Lakewood corporate offices mostly still haven't adjusted the salaries of existing employees for inflation, so expect a lot of employee movement over the next half year.

[yelped]

Continuing the Lakewood specific part here

$500 for younger 2s, 9:30-3. This was after she told us the price would likely be $420-$430, when we initially registered, but can't make a big deal about that because she said she's 100% not sure. Shrinkflation apparently applies to playgroups too.

The Lakewood corporate offices mostly still haven't adjusted the salaries of existing employees for inflation, so expect a lot of employee movement over the next half year.

Trying to figure out why babysitters now take close to $800 a month when playgroup is half the price.

[aygart]

Trying to figure out why babysitters now take close to $800 a month when playgroup is half the price.

With more than double the amount of kids

[Euclid]

With more than double the amount of kids

That's the answer

[Fish Tank]

Continuing the Lakewood specific part here

This should be a thread of its own.

$500 for younger 2s, 9:30-3. This was after she told us the price would likely be $420-$430, when we initially registered, but can't make a big deal about that because she said she's 100% not sure. Shrinkflation apparently applies to playgroups too.

The Lakewood corporate offices mostly still haven't adjusted the salaries of existing employees for inflation, so expect a lot of employee movement over the next half year.

If she didn't change/shorten her hours, it's not shrinkflation. It's raising the price to keep up with inflation.

Playgroups in Lakewood is the trickiest/most insane/ridiculous businesses to run.

The Morah needs to commit her hours, location, and price, a year in advance! This is a very unpractical model for the morah and the registrants since many people move to a different area during the 12 month period between registration and the school year.
Additionally, parents don't know yet whether their kid will need to be kept back to repeat the same age group for another year.
Additionally, it makes no sense for the morah to be busy with registration for the next year, the day she starts teaching the current school year.

On top of that, the morah needs to find an assistant a year in advance!

In which other industry does the service provider commit to something a year in advance for no reason?!!

It makes no sense.

The reason why many morahs changed their price is because their cost went up across the board. Rent, supplies, cost of assistant, cost of substitute, and of course their own expenses, so they gave themselves a raise.

/EndRant
#HusbandOfaMorah

[YitzyS]

This should be a thread of its own.

If she didn't change/shorten her hours, it's not shrinkflation. It's raising the price to keep up with inflation.

Playgroups in Lakewood is the trickiest/most insane/ridiculous businesses to run.

The Morah needs to commit her hours, location, and price, a year in advance! This is a very unpractical model for the morah and the registrants since many people move to a different area during the 12 month period between registration and the school year.
Additionally, parents don't know yet whether their kid will need to be kept back to repeat the same age group for another year.
Additionally, it makes no sense for the morah to be busy with registration for the next year, the day she starts teaching the current school year.

On top of that, the morah needs to find an assistant a year in advance!

In which other industry does the service provider commit to something a year in advance for no reason?!!

It makes no sense.

The reason why many morahs changed their price is because their cost went up across the board. Rent, supplies, cost of assistant, cost of substitute, and of course their own expenses, so they gave themselves a raise.

/EndRant
#HusbandOfaMorah

I'm not at all trying to say that it's not hard being a morah, but the specific point you are harping on is something that many see as the fault of morahs, or at least the fault of SOME morahs. If every morah would say that they are not taking any registration until after Pesach, or another late date, there would be no need for any commitments. But since if you wait until after Sukkos you are in danger of losing your slot, everyone books so far in advance...

[Fish Tank]

I'm not at all trying to say that it's not hard being a morah, but the specific point you are harping on is something that many see as the fault of morahs, or at least the fault of SOME morahs. If every morah would say that they are not taking any registration until after Pesach, or another late date, there would be no need for any commitments. But since if you wait until after Sukkos you are in danger of losing your slot, everyone books so far in advance...

Great point.

So let me give you a history lesson. There was a women by the name of Mrs. Zivah Kriger A'H.
( https://matzav.com/mrs-ziva-kriger-ah/ )

She was very involved in this aspect of playgroups and she set the registration opening date as tu bshvat. No playgroup took registration prior to tu bishvat.

Unfortunately she was nifter at a very young age and no one filled her role in the various aspects of chinuch that she was involved in. The very next year, someone inserted an ANONYMOUS full page advertisement in the BP weekly, and proclaimed "the tu bshvat registration date is no longer in effect. Registration for playroups will now start on isru chag succos"

This is where the mess started.

Now, obviously the morahs can band together and make whatever start date they want. Tu Bshvat, after pesach, shavous, etc. But without leadership it's very difficult to get every morah on board because there will always be some morahs that want to have their registration booked up early (for various reasons).
As long as some morahs are doing, it will be very difficult for others to hold off. One of the reasons is because parents rather register at the playgroup that opens earlier because they are concerned that maybe they won't get a slot in the playgroup that's opening later in the season, and then they will be stuck.

[YitzyS]

Great point.

So let me give you a history lesson. There was a women by the name of Mrs. Zivah Kriger A'H.
( https://matzav.com/mrs-ziva-kriger-ah/ )

She was very involved in this aspect of playgroups and she set the registration opening date as tu bshvat. No playgroup took registration prior to tu bishvat.

Unfortunately she was nifter at a very young age and no one filled her role in the various aspects of chinuch that she was involved in. The very next year, someone inserted an ANONYMOUS full page advertisement in the BP weekly, and proclaimed "the tu bshvat registration date is no longer in effect. Registration for playroups will now start on isru chag succos"

This is where the mess started.

Now, obviously the morahs can band together and make whatever start date they want. Tu Bshvat, after pesach, shavous, etc. But without leadership it's very difficult to get every morah on board because there will always be some morahs that want to have their registration booked up early (for various reasons).
As long as some morahs are doing, it will be very difficult for others to hold off. One of the reasons is because parents rather register at the playgroup that opens earlier because they are concerned that maybe they won't get a slot in the playgroup that's opening later in the season, and then they will be stuck.

Indeed. This is not the fault of any single morah. If one morah decides to hold off, she can be left without any kids. And it's very hard to be a community organizer. Thinking about it, I can't say it's the morah's faults any more than the parents. But in popular perception, many like to take it out on the morahs for this point.

That being the case, my marketing team doesn't think that this should be Exhibit A in a case of defending morah's for price increases, being that it polls very low. Try instead to stress the fact that expenses skyrocketed, and also, if anyone is not convinced that morahs deserve every penny they make, just try staying home with your kids for a few days...