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This week marks the end of an era. It’s not just the last celebration of 2023.
As of today, Jerusalemite parents and children will no longer be able to visit the Happening Store in Marja Mall to buy gifts and souvenirs for their offspring’s friends or to take to classmates’ birthday parties. .
Over the years, thousands of local young people have happily wrapped their hands around the fun gadgets. Pick up a pop star poster or birthday card (in this digital age, who remembers actual physical greeting cards?) or clutch a ribbon attached to a balloon purchased at a well-established gift outlet. I went home happily.
But by the end of December 29th, there will be no more Happenings, Jerusalem’s famous gift shop.
After a full 30 years of excellent retail service, the store’s cash registers will go silent and Ram Issachar will close its front doors for good.
“It’s unfortunate,” said the shop owner, who is in his 50s.
“But how long can you continue to struggle to keep your head above water?”
The end of a life’s work
For Issachar, Happenings was not just a daily job, but a life’s work.
The family-owned business began as a gift shop called Campus, which Issachar’s father, Benny, founded in the early 1970s.
Over time, the campus now joins a national chain of happenings, and the mall’s store opened 30 years ago.
“I opened my own store when Marja opened,” Issachar says with a hint of pride.
I wonder if it is an act of what has happened that the war and its economic effects will spread throughout the national economy and will undoubtedly continue to wreak havoc on our economic well-being for some time to come. I did.
However, it seems that it was the last of the Straw Hats.
Issachar paints a full picture of a disappointing situation for small businesses here in the capital and across the country.
“There’s the impact of the war, but it’s actually a combination of many important factors. Running an independent business in this country is not easy. Running a business in a shopping mall like Maruha, “Paying rent is never easy. The expenses are really high and disproportionate to the reasonable amount,” he says.
Issachar doesn’t hold out much hope for a better future for businessmen striking out on their own.
“Even if you are good at your job, efficient and good at what you do, it is not enough. In order to survive and make a lot of money, you have to become a tycoon with several chains and stores. No. That’s the way the world is. There are no independent stores in malls. It’s all big chains.”
Issachar said he and Happening have traveled back and forth to the factory several times over the years.
“We survived the coronavirus pandemic and everything that happened here in Jerusalem,” he says.
The Second Intifada knocked the stuff out of the city’s economy, not to mention periodic terrorist attacks.
“We’ve been through all the wars, and then this one comes along. All of this just adds to the number of things we have to deal with.” Clearly, it’s time to cut losses. Masu. “You have to know when to make changes,” Issachar says gloomily.
Some of us are more adept at re-planning the course of our lives than others. Issachar has been a professional ever since he began overseeing the Marja store, but waking up on a Sunday morning knowing that for the first time in 30 years there is no place to be is no easy feat. .
“Yes, it’s a brave step, but I think you need to have a lot of faith in yourself and in general to take a step like this.”
But ever since Happening and Malha Mall first opened their doors to consumers, the wheels of progress have turned in all sorts of directions.
“Shopping behavior has changed,” Issachar says.
“You can buy everything online now. I think the COVID-19 period has really taught people how to shop online.
“And we’re now in the era of Max Stock,” says Issachar, a super-thrifty general store that seems to sell anything consumers need or want. (and similar) chains.
“That has a huge impact as well. And there’s a time between the pandemic and the war. There was a recession that doesn’t get talked about a lot, and interest rates were high.
“People have less money to spend and the things we sell are considered luxury goods. If people don’t have as much money in their pockets and there’s a recession, we’re going to be the first sector to be hit. Become.”
Ironically, the dying embers of the happening seemed to shine especially brightly as the sounds of death rattles grew louder.
“There’s still something going on that has to do with people’s emotions,” Issachar says.
“Our business is based on making people happy, buying each other presents, making each other happy, showing love and celebrating special occasions.”
The war in Gaza seems to have opened the emotional floodgates.
“Everyone has changed since October 7th, and everything has suddenly become even more important, whether it’s celebrating a birthday or other special event or buying a small gift for someone. . We’ve seen that in our stores over the past month. At least in Jerusalem and Hanukkah, where the war is less impactful, people are coming in to buy presents.”
The feeling became even stronger when word got out that the store would soon go bankrupt.
“People had a very emotional reaction when they heard we were closing. People cried when they saw it.”
Thirty years is a big chunk of life, and today’s adult consumers were probably once the recipients of treats bought for them by their parents, grandparents, and friends.
“This store has always been with many Jerusalemites. We provided them with everything they needed for their special and happy occasion.”
It turns out that Benny Issachar, now 79 years old, was the one who started the whole scene.
“My father was a pioneer in the gift sector in Israel. He opened a store called Campus in downtown Jerusalem, first on Jaffa Street and then on King George Street. It was 1972. That was almost 52 years ago.”
It’s quite a generational spread.
“Sometimes I see four generations of families coming here. They were all provided by my father and then by me for 30 years since we opened in the mall. Everyone comes here to decorate and decorate. We bought balloons. We’ve sold millions of greeting cards.”
This is quite a legacy, but clearly, and sadly, it’s time to move on.
“I think we’ve done some good in the world,” Issachar says. “But we need to adapt. We can’t just sit back and wait for things to change. I made my final decision in the first few months of the war. It was before. I didn’t want to experience any more survival. I could have said, “Okay, let’s take this seriously.”
“But I think it would be better to invest all that energy into something new.”
Another Jerusalem landmark has disappeared, but we hope it won’t be forgotten soon.
“My father was known as Benny Campus, and I became Rum Happening,” laughs Issachar. ❖
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