Every Chanukah, like clockwork, the same outrage resurfaces: “Donut prices are outrageous! Highway robbery!” And every year, I can’t help but ask – are we serious right now?
Let’s break this down. When did stuffing your face with donuts for eight days straight become a core part of Chanukah observance? Yes, there’s an inyan to eat fried foods, but in case anyone forgot, that used to mean homemade latkes.
When I was a kid (and I’m not that old), donuts were a treat – not a staple. You’d get one at the Chanukah mesiba in school and maybe another at the family party. That was it. Today? You can’t walk three feet without being assaulted by a pile of donuts, each one bigger, fancier, and pricier than the last.
But let’s set aside the absurdity of donut overconsumption. You know why donuts cost $8+? Because you’ll pay it.
You stand there staring at that price tag in disbelief – “$8 for this fluff of fried flour and sugar?” – and then promptly buy two dozen. What message do you think that sends to the seller? Should they lower the price out of the goodness of their heart, or keep charging what they know you’ll pay?
Here’s the hard-to-swallow truth: The problem isn’t the bakery, it’s you.
Want to see prices drop? Stop buying them. Or at least stop buying them from the expensive places. I promise you, there are still places that sell donuts for less. Better yet, dust off a recipe and make them yourself. And if that sounds like too much effort, here’s a wild idea – skip the donuts.
That’s right. Imagine surviving Chanukah without gaining 10 pounds and flirting with heart disease. Hashem yerachem! How will we ever celebrate without stuffing ourselves silly with overpriced pastries?
Let’s get real. Donut inflation isn’t a mystery. It’s basic economics – supply, demand, and the collective inability to say no. So next time you’re tempted to complain about prices, take a second and remember: You set the market. And if you want to change it, put down the donut.
Sincerely,
Overstuffed Baalebus
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29 Responses
I have another suggestion. Move here to Israel where yummy donuts are six for 10 shekel ($2.73) in the supermarket, a little more in the bakeries. And there’s no shortage.
A Happy Mom
1. You can find perfectly good donuts (and pastry) for less, but it lacks the snob appeal of premium brands.
2. Frum Jews in America feel the need to show off how well off they are in part to justify their decision to live in golus rather than in Eretz Yisrael (this doesn’t apply to Hareidim who are still in exile, are regard Eretz Yisrael as being under zionist occupation).
3. Labor costs and food costs are rising, largely to inflation caused by labor shortages in America (too few babies born over the last few generations) and a government that doesn’t see a problem in printing large amount of money for dubious programs.
I all for this strike. I don’t pay for the donuts. As I take the leftover that is discarded at the end of the week. Or that someone else paid for at a party 🥳.
Agreed. Another take on this is a problem of our generation that challenges everything we are taught by our Gedolim (Chassidishe and Litvishe alike). There is a huge difference between needs and wants. Basics and luxuries. No one is saying that a little luxury here and there is terrible, but these are not things we need, only that we want. And prioritizing is a critical element of sanity. We are disobeying Torah dictates and the guidance of all our tzaddikim and baalei mussar when we allow indulgence to more than an occasional thing. Those marketing 8-10 dollar donuts, which is agreeably completely absurd, are doing exactly what businesses do. They charge what people will pay. The sanity of the customer does not matter to the seller. So when we choose to be crazy, we are fulfilling our right to be nuts, and the bakeries are just doing business as usual.
Why do matzohs cost more than an esrog?
Perfectly presented… you covered all the bases.
Yasher Koach and a Freilichen Chanukah.
This is true for a lot of the exorbitant things we pay for as a frum community. If we stopped paying $4000 for 3 weeks of sleepaway camp, camp prices would go down. If we stopped paying $30,000 for a year of “seminary” camp in E”Y, they’d stop ripping us off. We have collective power but no one wants to be different than their friends and neighbors, so they go into debt buying $8 donuts. I’m not sending my top bais yaakov girl to E”Y next year, and I don’t buy chanuka donuts, I make my own using Rhodes rolls dough- 36 donuts for $4.99. Feel free to follow my example everyone, and maybe if enough of us do it, the insanity will stop
I’m trying to connect all your points in the article.
You’re saying that since we are being unhealthy, we DESERVE to be punished with price gouging?
Or are you worried that we are rebelling against your family tradition (“When I was a child…”) of donuts only being a treat? Now they have become a “staple”?
In the olden days, you claim, people only ate donuts at Chanukah parties and at school, but now… what?
Now people are “assaulted” with “piles” of donuts “every three feet”? Where exactly?
Are their homes overflowing with donuts in their dining room, living room, kitchen and bedrooms, all day and night!?
And then everyone, according to you, comes home and spends the rest of the day “stuffing” their faces with donuts?
You think the average person sees $8 donuts and “promptly buys two dozen” to eat alone at home!?
What in the world are you talking about?
You sound like either a self-appointed member of the Jewish Health Police or a secret agent for the Jewish Donut Sales Department, worried about people criticizing your outrageous prices.
Yes, there’s an inyan to eat fried foods, but in case anyone forgot, that used to mean homemade latkes.
The minhag of eating donuts (סופגנין, פאנטשקעס) on Chanukah is much older than you think.
Rabbeinu Maimon, father of the Rambam, writes: “[People] shouldn’t be lenient regarding any custom, even the lightest of customs. And one is obligated to make every effort to prepare festivities and foods to publicize the miracle that G‑d did for us on those days [i.e., Chanukah]. It has become customary to make “sufganin,” known in Arabic as “alsfingh” . . . This is an ancient custom, because they are fried in oil, in remembrance of His blessing.”
‘אין להקל בשום מנהג ואפילו מנהג קל, ויתחייב כל נכון לו לעשות שמחה ושמחה ומאכל פירסום לנס שעשה ה’ ברוך הוא עמנו (ובהם) באותם הימים, ופשט המנהג לעשות סופגנין בערבי אלספינג והם הצפחיות [בדבש] ובתרגום איסקריטין, [והיא] מנהג הקדמונים משום שהם קלויים בשמן זכר לברכתו. וכתב רבינו ניסים ז”ל במגילת סתרים כי כל מנהגי האומה באלו המנהגות כמו זה, והראש בראש השנה, החלב בפורים ובמוצאי פסח, והפולים ביום הושענא רבה, אותם המנהגות אין לנו לבזותם, ומי שהנהיגם זריז ומשתדל הוא כי הם מעיקרים נעשים ולא יבוזו במנהג האומה, וכבר אמר הנביא ע”ה ‘ואל תטוש תורת אמך דת אומתך אל תעזוב’. ובקבלות הגאונים ראשי ישיבות נזכרו מנהגים כמו אלה בהנהגותיהם בסיפוריהם ולא יתבזה דבר ממה שעשו הקדמונים’
Menachem,
Thanks for the laugh!
What better way is there to celebrate our victory over Greek hedonism than with $8 donuts?
Another stupid mailbag rant
Just buy the regular donuts.
Going on a frothing at the mouth rampage on $8 donuts is like complaining about a $6 slice of pizza with a hundred toppings on it. If that’s too expensive, just buy the plain slice and enjoy.
The donuts stuffed with gefilte fish are amazing. But if you are fleishig I recommend the donuts filled with cholent. The bochurim love them.
You got sonething against Chanuka donuts? Why don’t you rant about sushi – at $2-$4 per bite size piece of rice? Makes $8 donuts sound like a bargain!
Taves Achila has NO limits ….The stores will see anything and everything for as long their is a customer for it. If anyone feels $ 8.00 is expensive for a Doughnut just look at it and tell yourself Sorry i can live with a plain simple Doughnut for less.
There is good news here my friends. The more $8 unhealthy donuts we eat, the fewer years we will live, which translates to us needing much less money in the long term. See, I just figured out a way to justify $8 donuts as being a bargain.
Anyone have the recipe for “Rhodes rolls dough- 36 donuts”? Please post
We eat enough donuts 🍩 to get heartburn for eight days straight. Talk to your doctor about this.
Which idiots are paying $8/donut. You can easily get them in the kosher supermarkets for no more than $2/donut.
There we go again, the same $10 donut hype and rant every Hanukkah.
#1. Regular $1 – $2 donuts still exist, so you can still enjoy the donut custom without having to buy the expensive ones.
#2. The $10 donuts aren’t for everyone, just like a $10000 custom made Italian suit, if it’s not for you then it’s not for you, just stick to the basic donuts.
#3. The main reasons why these kind of donuts and their price exist is because of two main things. A- There are many people in business who are out there to get everyone, whatever way they can find to rip off people, especially when it comes to something like observing a mitzva or a minhag, they jump to take advantage of consumers. B- There are too many fake “frum” people who have a lot of money, and buying a regular donut is not up to their standards, so they have to come up with something better to flaunt their money. Today it’s the $10 donut, tomorrow it’s the $500 mishloach manos platters, the next is Pesach hotels and cruises, and so on. If you’re part of that crowd, then the $10 donuts isn’t anything new, it’s part of the typical lifestyle. If you’re a simple person and have true Torah values, then you won’t indulge in too much gashmiyous. That’s the simple and basic way to sum it all up.
Baruch Hashem we do not have this “donut” eating minhag nor it’s craziness, instead we have a real, original and authentic Hanukkah tradition making “homemade” middle eastern sufganiyot, round crispy dough balls fried in honey and oil, exactly the same type brought down from רבינו מימון, which has exactly the same type and taste of the Man mentioned in the Torah. In our classic tradition they are called “Awamat”. Feel free to look it up and learn something original.
So to all of you people out there still hyping about the top notch $10 donuts and throwing away your money, or even worse eating your hearts out because you can’t afford it, we got news for you, we are not even a bit jealous of you because we got something much better, donuts that you have never tried. We got the REAL deal!
A freilichen Chanukah 😉
I told a baker he is crazy for asking these high prices so he responded saying : I’m not crazy – I want to make money, you are crazy for buying them.
Without a scintilla of doubt, this is the most rational and sensible Mailbag article ever written. Each word is divrei emes. Jews will always complain yet keep doing what they do.
For the person who asked for the recipe- buy a bag of Rhodes rolls dough. Spread dough balls out on parchment paper and let rise 4 hours. Heat a sautee pan half filled with oil until a wooden spooon inserted bubbles. Cut the square of parchment paper around the donut and lift by the paper and insert in oil donut side down. Remove paper. Let fry 1- minutes until golden brown and then flip with slotted spoon and fry 1-2 minutes on the other side. If it browns to fast, the oil is too hot, so lower it. Remove with slotted spoon to wire rack to cool.
When cool, fill with custard or jelly by making a hole and in the side and piping it into the hole. Top with powdered sugar or whatever else.
You can fry around 4-5 donuts at a time.
My economics professor said ” when you shop you are voting with your money. When you buy something, that’s votes for that item”.
@Overstuffed Baalebus
this letter writer signed “Overstuffed Baalebus”.
He should change the title to : …” …..And why its MY fault”!
If you’re buying donuts that have cholov Yisroel ingredients like candy, syrup, and creams then the prices add up quickly. Have you bought regular sugar and flour recently from the supermarket? Eggs were $5 a dozen recently. Vegetable oil (not jewish brand) is $5 a liter bottle. It used to be $2. Another example- I won’t pay $11 for a jar of Lotus spread until it’s on sale for much less.
I don’t think the sellers are making as much as you think. Overindulging in general is a larger topic.
wait one second, you are blaming the insane pricing on some of the people who actually walk out of the store!
Anyone over 40 should watch the fat with Donuts. Skip them. You already saved $50. So many great foods you can eat now. Enjoy and stay healthy.
as so many other people on these responses said, donuts costing 2$-4$ certainly exist! you don’t have to buy the more expensive types.