Kosher Outlet opens in Brent Cross Town

Kosher Outlet has opened the doors of its new premises next to the Toys “R” Us on Tilling Road, selling everything from groceries to toiletries to baby products.

We’re delighted to have Kosher Outlet as part of Brent Cross Town. This is a discount supermarket, but it’s much more than that; it’s been a pillar for many families in North West London’s Jewish community for the past 12 years. 

To understand what makes the store special, think of the millions of people shopping for food in London. For many of us, picking up what we need is affordably priced because that’s what most other people are shopping for too. But the kosher food market is much smaller and so far more expensive. This means that week in and week out, simply the cost of everyday living can mount up relentlessly for kosher shoppers.

“I thank God that I’ve got the ability to help people,” says the outlet’s director, Marc Lerner. “When you come in and see people with trolleys, you know that this is going to make a massive difference to them.” We’re standing in the cavernous stock room of Kosher Outlet’s old building in Edgware, just before the move. The shelving has already come down and stacks of everything from instant noodles to tin foil are all around us in neat rows ready to be packed up.

Kosher Outlet was founded in 2009 in the wake of the financial crisis. As the crash hit incomes across the country, Lerner and a handful of colleagues got together with the aim of creating a cost-price supermarket. It was registration-only to start with and they hoped to help a hundred families. Today, he estimates that as many as a thousand families shop here weekly – and it’s open to everyone, whether they’re here for the savings or the many flavours of juice shipped in bulk from Israel.

The move to Brent Cross Town will bring Kosher Outlet closer to customers in Golders Green, Hendon and Finchley. It’s also a relief to Lerner that the shop will only be closed for two weeks between locations. “Do we have a Sabbath special dessert or are we going to have an extra cereal during the week? Those are the decisions that some of our customers are making. For us, it was imperative that we keep it closed for a real minimum amount of time.”

But he’s very clear: this is not charity: “We’ve had people in the community say, ‘Let me give you a donation of £10,000.’ There’s nothing I can do with it!” The way he sees it, all that Kosher Outlet is doing is using its size to buy in bulk and sell at cost: “People should be able to buy food, and the strong principle is for them to buy it with respect.”

Lerner gives the impression of boundless energy. During a short tour of Kosher Outlet, he fields calls, greets customers and all the while a walkie-talkie crackles on his belt, an incongruous accessory to his neat suit – Lerner volunteers as a paramedic in his spare time, alongside a day job in property and work for three charities.

“When you come in and you see… To me, it just gets me every time,” he says, “How grateful we have to be for what we have.” The outlet took a while to gain acceptance and smaller shops worried that the discount model would undercut their prices. But its longevity is tribute to the place it’s earned in the community: “We’re doing the right thing and it works.”

Kosher Outlet is aimed at those who keep kosher, but everyone’s welcome. Nor is it just a food shop; as Lerner tells us, you can run a whole household out of it. So whatever you’re after, it’s worth popping into the striking white marquee on Tilling Road for a browse.