CAREFUL SHOPPERS who are interested in getting the best value for their money learned a long time ago that other than outdoor markets, the best place to shop is in a supermarket geared to a haredi clientele. Everything, but literally everything, is cheaper in these facilities and often better.

There's certainly no better retail outlet for alcoholic beverages, which are often priced at half of what they cost elsewhere. Certain products on the shelves of haredi-oriented supermarkets cannot be found in regular supermarkets. By the same token, many of the products in regular supermarkets will be never be seen in haredi- oriented supermarkets because the standard of kashrut of those products does not meet the requirements of the haredi community.

Why are the latter facilities so customer friendly? Because most of their customers are making purchases for large families and they are buying in bulk, and bulk sales are almost always cheaper. However, customers can't help getting confused.

For instance, the largest chain of haredi-oriented supermarkets is owned by the same people who own Shufersal, which is the largest mainstream chain of supermarkets. Although Shufersal, formerly known as Super-Sol, is increasingly introducing a lot of its own branding and selling products under its label at prices lower than identical products under other brand names, it isn't doing much to increase its range of merchandise. On the contrary, many products that were on the shelves when there was less affluence in the country have disappeared. Conversely, there are new products in the stores that are pushing for haredi customers. But here, too, there is confusion - even more so.

More than a decade ago, the Greenberg chain opened up for the haredi shopper, but financial problems got in the way. The store sign was removed and replaced by Zol Po, which in turn was replaced by Alef, which has just been replaced by Yesh, which is owned by Shufersal. Yes, there have been subtle and even major differences with each name change, but the average customer can't grasp why it has to happen. For that matter mainstream customers are not quite sure how to differentiate between Shufersal, Shufersal Deal, Shufersal Big, or Shufersal Sheli except for the floor space that, at its maximum, allows for a greater variety of goods.

Yesh was launched this week at a ceremony attended by Shufersal co-chairmen Rafi Bisker and Sholom Fisher, along with Shufersal CEO Effi Rosenhaus. There are currently 48 Yesh branches with four more due to open before the end of the year. The target is to have 56 branches by the end of 2009.