The new Mashbir

May 4, 2009 - 10:35 AM by Jessica

jlem-mashbirI had a moment of nostalgia — Rachel, are you reading this? — at Jerusalem’s downtown HaMashbir Lazarchan. The Mashbir is Israel’s department store, and really, still, its only department store, as we’ve become a land of chain stores, both locally-created and imported. No Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus’s or Macy’s in these parts. And yet, it’s not really a department store, it’s more of a Middle Eastern general store with more than one floor.

This particular one is located on King George Street, and it is a landmark, built in 1973 as the first modern public building constructed in the wave of construction after the economic slowdown that preceded the Six-Day War. It mimicked the American malls of the day, but was done in Jerusalem style, with smooth white stone on the exterior and a plaza outside the building that still draws people to this day, as a meeting place for all sorts.

The Mashbir isn’t going to be located on this corner for much longer, as the company is planning on using that space for another closed mall and will be moving the Mashbir to a location on Jaffa Road, next to Zion Square and near the new light rail. Sigh. Can’t imagine it’ll be the same. Or that it will have the same semi-Communist, one-for-all feeling that endures to this day, as signified by my shopping experience yesterday:

I was lining up to purchase some socks at a first-floor cashier (note that all of cash registers are programmed to read “the new Mashbir Lazarchan”) — although it was difficult to tell where the line started and ended — and was amused by the conversation taking place between the customers in front of me and the cashier. She was offering them the ‘deals’ of the day, which included a large bag of chocolates, which she tried to convince them to buy “for the grandchildren.” She was turned down. But then, one of the two customers came back, just as she was about to start my transaction, and said, “Friend [although, really, Girlfriend, as she was using the feminine version of Friend], can I have a different bag of chocolate?”

And this is the ‘new Mashbir.’

Tags: , , , • Category: General, Israeliness 

Comments

5 Comments on The new Mashbir

  1. Rachel on Mon, May 4th 2009 6:23 PM

    2. I bought my very first pair of blue jeans at that store! Lee jeans, not Levis (these were only available through the now defunct ATA company which held the manufacturing and sales franchise for Israel). To buy anything at Hamashbir, you had to make your intention known to an imposing high-haired woman of a certain age who wrote out a receipt. You then went to the register, stood in line, paid (eventually) and then brought a small chit back to the saleswoman who grudgingly handed over your purchase. A anti-free market method clearly conceived of by the same Bolsheviks who set up the GUM department store in Moscow. And yet, it’s sad to see the old place go…

  2. Jessica on Tue, May 5th 2009 7:04 AM

    3. Speaking of first pairs of jeans, the first pair of jeans I bought in Israel, back in 1985, were at Rosh Indiani on Dizengoff. The height of cool….

  3. Jack on Fri, May 8th 2009 7:40 AM

    4. Good old 1985- Ice cream at Carvel, Ritchie’s Pizza and drinks at Lalos.

  4. Haveil Havalim #216 The Happy 40th Birthday Jack Edition « Random Thoughts- Do They Have Meaning? on Fri, Jun 12th 2009 12:18 AM

    5. [...] about the New Mashbir brought back fond memories of summers past. We used to go to the Carvel next door for ice cream. Not [...]

  5. Mashbir desires | ISRAELITY on Thu, Jun 10th 2010 4:23 PM

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