I understand where SJS is coming from, and don’t think it is fair to belittle her ideas, whether or not you are in agreement. I don’t have to accept every word that every poster says as being Torah m’Sinai, in order to learn something from those words. Whatever your personal hashkafa, you can reflect on a statement and agree or disagree, and follow your strict religious heart. If that heart tells you you must always do exactly what your LOR tells you, whether or not it is a p’sak, then do so with simcha.
Our LOR (plural) almost ran a kosher store out of business, and in fact the owner had to sell his business in order not to go bankrupt. His crime – adding a rav hamachsir, who was extremely reliable and makpid on kashrus, in addition to (not instead of) the local hechsher under which the store existed. This did not sit well with the LORs, and they threatened withdrawal of their hechsher, which although regrettable, would still have left the store under an extremely reliable hecher (that was never a question). Then the LOR proceeded to issue a “suggestion” that nobody patronize this store until the store is again under their hashgocha. That is what happened. Most people who follow their rabbonim implicitly, stopped shopping there. Those who continued to do so, explained that there was no question that the store was under the hechsher and hashgocha of an experienced, reliable mumcheh in kashrus, and that the LOR really had no right to be so arbitrary. After all, does it make a difference if I buy an OU product in a kosher store or in a national grocery chain?
I listened to my rov, but we could see he was extremely uncomfortable with publicly making this “suggestion” to the oilem. So I did not shop at this store until it had changed owners and was once again under the hashgocha of the LOR. I will always feel they were very wrong, especially to cause someone to lose his parnassah, even though he sold the store. it caused the owners great agmas nefesh I am sure. And are there NO stores anywhere that do not have more than one person certifying their kashrus, so that their store is available for any and all Yidden that might want to shop there? Let’s say you only accept KAJ, and someone else only accepts some other certifying vaad. Isn’t it better to have both, so that the KAJ shopper and the Vaad shopper are both satisfied that the store is kosher for their needs?