5781 Chametz Purchase after Pesach

Vaad HaRabbonim of Raritan Valley

Purchasing Chometz After Pesach, 2021

One may not eat or derive benefit from chometz which was owned by a Jew during Pesach. The following is a partial list of local stores and their status regarding the purchase of chometz.:

1. All stores under Vaad supervision are acceptable for the purchase of chometz.  The Vaad encourages the community to patronize local kosher establishments, whenever possible.
2. Baked items may be purchased immediately after Pesach, Sunday evening, April 4, from the Vaad-certified Dunkin Donuts. However, items baked on Yom Tov should not be consumed before 9:15 PM. In general, throughout the year, one should wait one hour after the end of Shabbos or Yom Tov before eating Dunkin Donuts baked products.
3. The following enterprises are acceptable for the purchase of chometz: Acme, Aldi, BJ’s, Costco, CVS, Duane Read, H Mart, Rite Aid, Sam’s Club, ShopRite (provided the individual ShopRite store is owned by a non-Jew, which includes ShopRite on Route 1 South, ShopRite in East Brunswick and Bound Brook, or any ShopRite with a Kosher Experience), Trader Joe’s, Walgreen’s, Walmart (in-store purchases), Wegman’s and Whole Foods.
4. On-line orders of chometz should not be placed until the conclusion of Pesach. On-line companies such as Amazon.com and Walmart.com sell products from their own inventory or from suppliers. Chometz from their own inventory is acceptable, but chometz from a supplier may come from a Jewish owned company. Therefore, a reasonable effort should be made to determine whether the supplier is Jewish.
5. Stop & Shop and Target are owned by non-Jews, however, C&S (Cohen & Siegel), one oftheir primary suppliers, is Jewish-owned. (In the case of Target, C&S only supplies frozen food items. Fresh chometz sold at Target does not originate from C&S and is acceptable.) Some Rabbonim have arranged a sale of the chometz for C&S, but there are divergent halachic opinions about the efficacy of the sale of a food establishment that continues to operate on Pesach. The Vaad recommends waiting until Lag B’Omer (Friday, April 30) to purchase overt chometz from these stores. (Overt chometz includes cereal, cookies, crackers, pretzels, grains, and flour. Products which contain vinegar, such as mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard, may be purchased, since it is probable that the vinegar is not chometz.)
6. C&S does not supply fresh bread. Therefore, fresh bread under hashgocho may be purchased at any non-Jewish owned store, including Stop & Shop and Target, immediately after Pesach.
7. Non-chometz items may be purchased from any Jewish or non-Jewish-owned store (e.g., fruit, vegetables, eggs, cooking oil, etc.)
8. Since many alcoholic beverages (except for wine) are either definitely chometz or possibly chometz, they may not be purchased from a Jew who did not sell his chometz. The depletion of inventory in liquor stores takes longer than in supermarkets. As such, we recommend waiting until after Shavuos to purchase alcoholic beverages (except for wine) from a Jewish-owned store that did not arrange for the sale of chometz. Locally, one may purchase alcoholic beverages from Rite Aid which is a non-Jewish owned corporation.