1. Move

2. Yeh it’s not inflation. It’s insanity. Some of the prices in these stores are flat out inexcusable.

3. I’ve been living in Lakewood for 24 years. Since I rent, I have now been pushed out bc the rental prices are no longer affordable. I’m moving in the summer out of town as a result.

   • 24 years and you still rent?!
     Why?
     Please don’t make that mistake in your new location!
     May it be a yishuv tov wherever you go and may you have much Hatzlacha in all your endeavors!

4. Out of towners are laughing at this headline. Lakewood has it easy so stop complaining and trying to live up to how the neighbor lives.

5. Both. And people took advantage of inflation and gouged their prices- and never lowered them.

6. What ever happened to the issur of ono’as mamon!?

7. There has been tremendous inflation, but real estate prices in our town have bubbled out of control and insurance companies charge higher rates for people in our zip codes.

8. Retailers across the spectrum in Lakewood are selling on extremely high markups and all making it big. It almost doesn’t exist a retailer in Lakewood that’s not a millionaire! That’s the bottom line. It’s not inflation. Inflation of course exists but that’s only a small portion of what’s going on. Go fact check this

   • That’s the funniest reply ever!!! I’m a wholesaler and 90% of Lakewood stores can’t pay their bills bec their goods costs and salary workers and shipping costs all sky rocketed!! Millionaire?!? U mean in drowning in debt!

   • Upon what “facts” do you base these very confident statements? Have you spoken to every or even to a majority of store owners and they have told you this about themselves? Or perhaps you have looked at their tax returns or financials? It’s hilarious and backwards to throw out an accusation that your gut tells you, and then put it on everyone else to go “fact check” and prove you right or wrong.

9. Real estate prices are completely out of control and overpriced. Are you serious that a 6 bedroom attached duplex home today in Lakewood with a small backyard and a inch of grass between neighbors is going for 1.2 million dollars? That’s way overpriced and never affordable for a Lakewood family rather it’s a yungerman devoting his life to Torah or even a working father and has a family to support also besides buying a home.

   COMPLETELY INSANE AND OVERPRICED

10. I visited two out-of-town communities this winter, (Atlanta and Phoenix ) and went out to eat in each place at several different restaurants/pizza shops. The prices were a quarter of Lakewood prices!! And they need to truck food from here! The food was just as good for literally a quarter of the price. Granted less variety but quality just the same . No excuse

    • Pizza in Pheonix is $5 a slice. Cholov Yisroel products are much higher than the tri-state area. It is not necessarily much cheaper on a day to day basis when you add in the increase in C”Y and meat prices. In addition, there is less room for tuition discounts since it is a much smaller population funding the schools.

11. Totally overpriced!!! When a RE agent tells young couple the house is listed 575k but will go for 640k. That’s outright disgusting and Assur. Basically price gouging so they could fill their pockets. Why take yiddishe gelt and give it to the goyim???? Where are the rabbanim??? Why is no one taking achrayus for what goes on in this town???

    • I don’t think you quite understand how any of this works.
      Not real estate transactions nor Halacha.

12. We have nobody to blame besides ourselves. If we all stopped buying from the overpriced stores for even a few weeks , the prices would drop like a rock.

    We did the same with real estate . We are just outbidding one another to create the high prices . There is not one buyer from outside the heimishe oilom who is bidding against us . It’s a self inflicted problem

    • Agreed this is self inflicted if we would stop buying they would drop the price.

      Supply and demand.

13. Lakewood needs more competition, more stores, more food stores. All of the stores are full, that is why prices are so high.

14. 1. Everything is overpriced in this town. It seams like people don’t even look at prices, just buy buy buy. Things are more expensive here then in boro park. Embarrassing.
    2. The standard of living has gone up like crazy. We have become the epicenter of gashmius for the entire frum world. Fancier homes and cars then LA, boro park, 5 towns ect. The pressure we place on each other is suffocating. The reason why the average income earner needs a donation for every chasuna they make and every yom tov is not because of inflation, it’s because of the standard of living.
    Ir hatorah??

    • Food is not more expensive then in Boro Park. I shop in both. It’s within the same range. All depends on what’s on sale when and where.

15. I don’t know where you shop for food but grocery prices have come down tremendously since the gg opened and besides their specials are better then any other tri state kosher supermarket check it out I have relatives that from Bklyn that do a weekly shopping when they are here
    Yes clothing even men’s suits hats etc are out of control and houses are crazy high

16. When Brooklyn , Manhattan and Florida food prices are Cheaper than Lakewood something is wrong .

    And the Emes is Lakewood is a city of chesed and there’s a lot of charitable programs going on

    And in order for stores to make up for the loss of those charities they have to raise the prices for others

    • Nonsense. Chesed for a few is not a reason to overcharge the other 95%

17. yoker ma’amir hagefen titen pirya vehayayin beyoker…

    the Ramchal writes that inflation is part of the sheker which will disappear when Moshiach will be here soon!

18. Nj sucks 100% everything around here is expensive that’s why everyone is moving out of Nj

19. Lakewood is transitioning between a minor Torah town to general metropolis.
    When most of the families here lived here because the husband/father started out learning in BMG and they stayed here there was a lot more camaraderie and things were simpler.
    Today, a significant portion of the frum families living here moved here for cheap real estate in a town that already had a good amount of infrastructure to support a Jewish community.
    I don’t have any ideas to make life simpler short of BMG opening a new location in a different town possibly in a different state.
    It would require moving at least one of the junior Roshei Yeshiva (aka the children of the Roshei Yeshiva) and a few of the major attraction Roshei Chaburah. It would also restore that a good amount of the Bochurim coming to BMG be sent to the new location.

    • Lakewood 2.0

20. I have plenty of family from out of town and I have traveled extensively for business over the years. Granted, prices have gone up over the last few years and I am not weighing in on whether the stores are price gouging or not, but to say that food prices in out of town stores are cheaper than Lakewood is beyond nuts and completely false. Do you know how many out of towners shop in Lakewood when they are here? The costs of food are not cheap here but it is definitely cheaper than out of town communities so if you want to kvetch about the prices, go ahead, but don’t go making things up

21. View each item on its own,
    Housing is painfully simple, supply VS demand no one can control a market , the seller wants the most he can get, the buyer wants a roof and this is what’s avail. If he cud go across the street and save a 100k he wud, the broker wants a reputation that he is loyal and either way he is helping a yid find a home
    For some reason the Satan robbed the oilam and has made everything in lkwd a huge lachatz, from esrogim to mesivtas..from playgroup to shiduchim, I live in bp its not nearly as challenging lashem hayeshuah

22. This is a Capitalist country. Vote with your wallets! If prices are too high, don’t shop in that store. Why shouldn’t a store charge whatever they want to if sheeple pay any price?

23. While the high prices on real estate, clothes, food, and services are undeniable, I also see lots of unsavvy and irresponsible spending.

    To save on food costs, stop buying (most) prepared foods. Stock up on sales. Take the extra time to go to Costco/Bingo for your weekly shopping. Get used to baking your own challah and desserts.

    Shop around for services. Don’t be ashamed. You need to live, too.

    Real estate? No one is forcing you to buy expensive upgrades or renovations. Yes, you have to get into a house, but it doesn’t need to be perfect from the start.

24. I was for a while thinking of buying in Lakewood. I found that the brokers were pushing up prices by encouraging buyers to bid against each other. The higher the price, the bigger the bigger the commission.

    A food manufacturer explained to me that he charges Lakewood stores more because of his transportation costs.

    As long as everyone in Lakewood has to have only the best and the latest, people in Lakewood are going to pay higher prices. Lakewood is no longer a kollel community that lives on a kollel standard. Lakewood has become a competitor with BoroPark/Flatbush in terms of living standard. So pay up!

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