This week marks the end of an era; it’s not just the last hurrah for 2023.
As of today, Jerusalemite parents and kids will no longer be able to pop along to the Happening store in the Malha Mall to buy a gift or souvenir for their offspring’s pals or to take to their classmates’ birthday parties.
Over the years, thousands of local youngsters have gleefully wrapped their hands around fun gadgets. posters of pop stars, and birthday cards (who remembers actual physical greetings cards in this digital day and age?) or merrily strolled home clutching a ribbon attached to a balloon purchased at the veteran gift outlet.
But by the close of day on December 29, the renowned Jerusalem gift store Happening will be no more.
After three full decades of sterling retail service, the store cash till will fall silent, and Ram Yissaschar will lock the front door for good.
“It is sad,” says the 50-something proprietor.
“But how much can you keep on struggling, fighting to keep your head above water?”
The ending of one's life's work
For Yissaschar, Happening has not just been his day job, it has been his life’s work.
The family enterprise started out under the name of Campus, a gift shop Yissaschar’s dad, Benny, established in the early 1970s.
Over time, Campus joined the now-nationwide Happening chain, and the shopping mall store opened for business 30 years ago.
“I opened the store when Malha opened,” says Yissaschar, with more than a hint of pride.
I wondered whether the war and the economic fallout that is sweeping across the national economy and, no doubt, will continue to play havoc with our financial well-being for some time to come did the deed for Happening.
But it seems that was more in the last straw league.
Yissaschar paints a sorry across-the-board scene for small businesses here in the capital and the across the nation.
“It is partly due to the war, but it is really a combination of a number of significant factors. It is not easy running an independent business in this country. Running a business, paying rent in a shopping mall like Malha is not easy at all. The expenses are really steep and totally out of proportion to anything reasonable,” he says
Yissaschar doesn’t hold out much hope for a much better future for businesspeople who go it alone.
“Even if you are good at what you do, and efficient and excellent in your work, it just isn’t enough. In order to survive and make good money, you have to be a tycoon with several chains and stores. That’s the way the world is going. Shopping malls don’t have any privately owned stores. It’s all big chains.”
Yissaschar says he and Happening have been through the mill and back a couple of times over the years.
“We survived the COVID pandemic and everything that happened here in Jerusalem,” he says.
The Second Intifada, not to mention periodic terror attacks, also knocked the stuffing out of the city’s economy.
“We got through all the wars, and then this war comes along. All these things just add to the things you have to deal with.” Evidently, it is time to cut his losses. “You have to know when to make a change,” Yissaschar somberly observes.
Some of us are more adept than others at replotting our life course. As professional as Yissaschar has been, since he began overseeing the Malha store, surely it is not going to be easy waking up on Sunday morning knowing there is nowhere he has to be, for the first time in 30 years.
“Yes, it is a brave step to take, but I think you need to have a lot of faith – in yourself and in general – to take a step like this.”
But the wheels of progress have turned in all sorts of directions since Happening and the Malha Mall first opened their doors to the consumer public.
“Shopping behavior has changed,” says Yissachar.
“Today you can buy everything online. I think the COVID-19 period taught people very well how to shop online.
“And we are now in the era of the Max Stock,” Yissaschar says, referencing the chain of super-thrifty all-purpose general stores (and their ilk) which seem to sell just about anything and everything the consumer might need or desire.
“That also impacts very greatly. And there is the time between the pandemic and the war. There was a recession which wasn’t talked about a lot, with high interest rates.
“People were left with less money to spend, and the things we sell are considered luxury items. If people don’t have much money in their pockets and there’s a recession, we are the first sector to suffer.”
IRONICALLY, HAPPENING’S dying embers appear to have sparked particularly brightly as the death rattles grew louder.
“Even so, there is something connected to people’s emotions going on,” says Yissaschar.
“Our business is based on making people happy, buying presents for each other, making each other happy, demonstrating love, and celebrating special occasions.”
The war in Gaza, it seems, opened the emotional floodgates.
“Everyone changed after October 7. And things like celebrating a birthday and other special events, and buying someone a small gift, suddenly all that took on even more significance. Over the past month, we have really felt it in the store. People, at least in Jerusalem which has been affected less by the war, and on Hanukkah, people have been coming to buy presents.”
That was augmented by the word of the store’s impending demise getting out and about.
“People have reacted very emotionally after they heard we were closing down. People have been in tears over it.”
Thirty years is a big slice of life and, presumably, today’s adult consumers were once the recipients of treats bought by their parents, grandparents, or pals.
“This store has been with so many Jerusalemites down the line. We have provided them with everything they needed for their special happy occasions.”
It transpires that Benny Yissaschar, now 79, kick-started the whole scene.
“My father pioneered the gifts sector in Israel. He opened stores called Campus in downtown Jerusalem – first on Jaffa Road, and then on King George Street. He opened them in 1972. That’s almost 52 years ago.”
That’s quite a generational spread.
“Sometimes you see four generations of a family coming here. They were all served by my dad – and then by me in the 30 years since we opened at the mall. Everyone bought their decorations and balloons here. We’ve sold millions of greetings cards.”
That’s quite a legacy, but it is patently, and sadly, time to move on.
“I think we did some good in the world,” Yissaschar suggests. “But we need to adapt. We can’t just sit around and wait for something to change for us. I made the final decision a couple of months ago, after the war started. I didn’t want to go through another period of survival. I could have said, ‘Okay, let’s tough this one out too.’
“But I think I’d do better to invest all that energy in something new.”
Another Jerusalem landmark is gone, but hopefully it won’t be forgotten too soon.
“My father was known as Benny Campus,” Yissaschar laughs, “and I became Ram Happening.” ❖