As I drank my $6.99 Diet Coke at the ball game the other night, I had somewhat of a revelation. Earlier that day, I had gone out for lunch and spent $2.50 for the same Diet Coke. A few days prior, I had spent $20 to buy 48 cans of Diet Coke at the grocery store.
Why is there so much fluctuation in the price of Diet Coke?
No doubt, the cost for the Coca-Cola company to produce its product is pretty much the same (I suspect pennies on the dollar). However, how much we as consumers pay for a Diet Coke depends on time, context, and the goal of the person selling it. Supermarkets lower the cost of soda and run sales around the holiday season because they view it as an opportunity to get you through the doors to buy more expensive items. Restaurants charge more for fountain soda because margins are typically slim, and this is an easy way for them to increase profit. Baseball parks like Truist, on the other hand, know that you have no other option: so, they gouge you through the nose.
One of the great problems I have observed about Jewish institutional life is that many Jews see all Judaism as being “pretty much the same,” save for the time, context, and the goal of the person selling it. They feel like they’ve cracked the code.
The problem is that this is a false comparison.
It is true that different synagogues, Jewish community institutions, and the like, all sell soda. Our basic underpinnings are the same. We share key prayers and encourage the observance of the same religious holidays.
However, there is also no question, we are not all selling Diet Coke.
The reason denominations exist is for the simple reason our tastes are undoubtedly different. Some Jews enjoy Cherry Coke. Others prefer Coca-Cola. To me as a consumer, this makes perfect sense. I keep hearing about how Judaism is entering a “post-denominational phase,” much like American Christianity has over the past decade. I will certainly concede that things may not be the same in thirty years. But I doubt American Jews will lose their flavor for variety.
The challenge for me is when in the religious marketplace, some choose to sell less-expensive store brands and pose them as a Coke product. It is without question a symptom of the times in which we live. The website Temu will see a quality, new product, and attempt to knock it off within weeks. It will cost way less. We order it. But when it arrives, what we discover is that it doesn’t do nearly as well as the actual product.
That’s fine and well when we are talking about soda. But what about receiving a quality Jewish education? Or a meaningful Jewish experience? Or a religious philosophy that will help you to navigate the challenges of the world in a healthy way?
Thank God, I don’t think our shul sells our Diet Coke at Stadium level prices. We want this to be a place for everyone who wants to be here. However, there is also little question that to maintain our quality program requires us to be somewhere in between a Supermarket and a restaurant.
There will always be people who order from Temu. That is the way of the world. But to them I say, caveat emptor: buyer, beware.
