Missing Out On The Jewish Consumer This Hanukkah Season....

Unlike my buddy who avoided Black Friday altogether, I braved my way to Santana Row with my cousin and another close friend.  We are all Jewish and hoped to find those perfect gifts for our friends and family.  (Did you know that Hanukkah begins in just a few days?)

So we fought the traffic and miraculously found a parking spot right away.  (The Parking Gods were looking down upon us!).  And then we headed straight to The Container Store.  This was our first destination to find gadgets, wrapping paper, and cool containers for our Hanukkah festivities.  We began on the bottom floor and looked through all the Christmas wrapping paper, holiday decorations, Christmas toys and tins.  The selection for Christmas was outrageous enormous. If I was betty-homemaker or Martha-Stuart-Like, I would have been in heaven.  All those cookies I could bake from scratch and then place them in a holiday tin.  My friends would be impressed that I slaved away baking (did I mention that I am a horrible baker???) and then secured them in a lovely Hanukkah tin (with a Happy Hanukkah greeting on the top)....Or maybe I could make potato latkes and then wrap them in a tin which would keep them warm....I would them open them up at our Hanukkah Dinner and have everyone say "ooh" and "ahhh"..... but sadly, there was no tin for my Hanukkah cookies, latkes or gelt.

I even began moving around the tins just to see if just "maybe", there was a Hannukah tin for a present.  I became hopeful when I saw a blue and white tin.  Ah, but my excitement lasted for just a second.  It said "Happy Holidays".

I then looked through the massive selection of wrapping paper.  There MUST be Hanukkah paper for our presents.  There were hundreds of different rolls gorgeously displayed throughout the store for all the holiday shoppers.  Gosh, there must be something for us.  Nope.  Nadda.  Nothing.  There was a ton of paper for the Christmas shoppers, but the Jewish folks were left out! 

The second floor.  The Hanukkah section MUST be on the second floor. Anything white and blue for little old me???  I know you must be here... I just need to find you!  Finally, I asked a sales clerk if there was anything for Hanukkah.  She smiled and told me that I must have missed it.  "Yes, there is a very large section at the front of the store.  Right when you walk in.  We tried to group the Hanukkah section together".  Ah, happiness at last!  My holiday was not forgotten.

You know how she said "that really large Hanukkah section?"  Here is what she meant.  One, small display.  Very small.  The three of us looked at each other and sighed.  This was it?

So, I am here to make a plea to The Container Store, as well as the other retailers out there wanting our business.  There are so many of us who have a really hard time finding Hanukkah gifts.  Believe me, if you create a Hanukkah section, we will be there!  (If you build it, we will come!) And not just a crappy display with a few items, when you have thousands of square feet of retail space! We feel terribly neglected over the holiday season.  No, we do NOT want "Happy Holiday" tins that are decorated in blue.  We do not want holiday, snowflake wrapping paper.  We certainly do not Christmas trees, Rudolph and Santa Claus.  We want HAPPY HANUKKAH tins, and wrapping paper, and dreidels, and gelt!  We want menorahs, and a Star of David, and Hanukkah books. We want to feel the holiday love. my friends!  Marketers and retailers, remember us!  We are here and we can't easily find presents! Oh, and one more thing:  We don't care if you spell it Hanukkah, Chanukkah or Hanukah... we will purchase the gifts, written any ol' way! (So how do you spell it, anyway?)

And do you think you can throw in some Hanukkah music while we are shopping?  I understand that you want to play the same Christmas songs over and over (at nauseum)... And over, again.  But would it kill you to maybe throw in "I Had A Little Dreidel" in your repertoire?

Ah... but you did not think I would end here, did you?  I was hoping to give a little shout out and praise to the folks who are paying attention to us this holiday season. 

• I am still bitter that Bob and Bob moved its retail store from Palo Alto to Los Altos.  But if you are local, this is by far the best store to purchase Jewish gifts.  The menorah's here are absolutely exquisite.  I also love finding holiday books, candles and gelt for the kids.
• Zion Judaica has a great selection of Hunukkah gifts, especially for the little ones.  I especially like this dreidel game for my kids.  I think I better order it today!!!! (And the price points seem to be extremely reasonable!)
• I was really pleased to see that Crate and Barrel has a selection of Hunukkah gifts, though I am sure this is a MUCH SMALLER selection, than their "holiday" and "Christmas" gifts.
• On Shopping.com, I like the way that they aggregate Hanukkah gifts and crafts from different sites, including Amazon, Oriental Trading Company and even The Home Depot.  (But then again, I certainly wish these stores had a large selection of their own Hanukkah products).

So these were just a few of the stores that I found.  How about you?  Do you feel that "we" are neglected during the holiday shopping season?  Would you seek out and shop at the stores that carried Hanukkah products?  Do you have any sites or stores that you could recommend for those of us that need to do our "last minute" Hanukkah shopping?  Hey we only have a few more days left... Hankkah starts on December 4th this year!

Happy Hunukkah!