 Hey guys, welcome back to my YouTube channel. This is Daniel Rosel here, bringing you this video from my home office here in Jerusalem. Great news today, in my opinion, although some people seem to be a little bit cautious. And that is that there is news of not just one, but two international grocery chains who are apparently going to be coming to Israel. One of those, a certain that's car for for those who haven't been to a car for I've been to one in France. I think I've been in Italy. Maybe that wasn't worth car for. I think it was car for chain of grocery stores. And they have announced a memorandum of agreement and M. M. O. A. With a Yair Bitan, which is a Israeli chain of grocery stores. They own both Bitan and the mega chain. People probably have are more, more familiar with mega and also spar, which is apparently a Dutch store is apparently also coming to Israel. And spar gets me just excited as car for because I grew up with spar in Ireland. I never knew they were Dutch. It's like kind of for those who haven't been in a spar and are familiar with the Israeli concept of a McCollet, McCollet somewhere between a convenience store and a full-fledged supermarket. It's kind of like that. So this is really, really positive news for those of us in Israel because as I've mentioned or I try to mention on this YouTube channel blogs, I've written stuff like that. Israel is insanely expensive. And given that we're currently undergoing these food shortages globally as a result of the disruption of Ukraine being one of the world's bread baskets, we're seeing the price 11 going even up, going up even more and more. Not only that, but we also know that electricity prices are going up in Israel next month, August by 9.7%. It's 10% needless to say. So I think it's easy to miss whatever the expression is to miss the big cost by looking at the small cost of a loaf of bread. But it's all part of a big picture of Israel being too expensive and this country being dominated by oligopolies, cartels and monopolies. I'm going to jump into the times of Israel coverage. There has been coverage I've seen in Hebrew. Generally, I recommend checking news about Israel in Hebrew, but I'm just going to jump into the English coverage for the benefit of a more global audience. I've just changed my levels a tiny bit. So this is from the times of Israel today and they say Arrival of French supermarket car for will drop living costs. Lapid who is our new Prime Minister predicts PM stresses the government backs market competition. Now, I may be mistaken about this. I don't think I am, but it's possible that I am mistaken. I think this is the first time an international grocery store has taken a bet on the Israeli market. Now, I started a thread today on living financially smarter in Israel, which is a Facebook group. And I would have considered myself traditionally one of the more pessimistic people one may encounter in this life. And oddly enough, I find myself in the weird position of being the group. What sort of a pessimistic optimist saying, guys, this is good news. People are saying, well, you know, it's going to be another IKEA for those who don't know IKEA exists in Israel as a franchise, but it's not. But it has extortionate local prices. One of the most expensive ideas in the world. You can look up an IKEA product in Israel, look up an IKEA product in the U.S. And you'll usually find the Israeli product is two times the cost, if not more. So the pessimists of this group are saying, you know, don't get too excited. It's going to be another Israeli franchisee situation. It's going to be not really car for it's going to be car for with Israeli prices. And I would firstly say, well, you don't know that to even if it turns out to be car for with Israeli prices, the fact that we have more competition in the market and the fact we have the first intern, the first signs of international competition in the Israeli market, which is two deficits from a competition standpoint, one, we are a relatively small market of only about 10 million consumers to Israel has the requirement of kosher cash route, which exists nowhere else in the world. So even if all that's negative, negative, negative, I argue this is a great day. It portends much hope for international competition coming into Israel and lowering our obscene cost of living, much has happened in the airline industry. So was that was my sort of rented the way let me go back to the times of Israel coverage from today. It says, Prime Minister Lapid predicted Sunday the rival of the major French supermarket chain car for in Israel will contribute to a much needed drop in the cost of living. Yes, it is much needed. The premier made his remarks as it was reported that in a separate development, the Dutch owned international supermarket chain spar has also into agreements to open branches in Israel. Lapid says in remarks at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting, the car for would bring great reductions in prices for basic items. We expect additional large companies to follow suit Lapid said it can't be that in a rich country like Israel, there are citizens who can't make ends meet and this is a huge paradox of Israel. We've gone so quickly from a small capitalist backwater to an advanced economy was the very high cost of living. The problem is in Israel only 10% of the economy works in the wanted high tech sector. The technology companies meaning that 90% of Israelis don't work in high tech barely make ends meet and they've been left behind and this has led to rapidly rising rates of income inequality is measured by the Jenny coefficient, etc. In Israel back to the article stressing the government backs competition. Lapid warned all the players in the market that those who raise prices in an irresponsible way are likely to get up in the morning and find themselves unexpected composition. Well, damn, I help. I hope so. Great. This is brilliant. I don't know how anyone can read this coverage and be pessimistic, but you know, such as such such are these finicky beings known as humans in March Electra consumer. Now just some the brass tacks of this deal in March Electra announced that assigned a memorandum of understanding with car for to open 150 branches to replace its, you know, to be tan branches and I had up here on my screen that branches. They also own mega. As I mentioned, mega might be a better known aim to people than in Israel than you know, you know by tan car for products are expected to appear in a note by tan stores this summer. So this is a race. This is very quick. We're in the summer already, right? And the first car for branded supermarkets. So they're going to firstly start selling car for products, then actually open, you know, supermarkets with car for branding will open at the end of the year already not so far away. We're already in almost August. Financial news outlets, globes reported at the time the franchise agreement is for 20 years with an option for another 20 years after that. And that's it. Now the spars stuff. I did find coverage in in Hebrew. If I can find it here saying that there is a little bit not shake your ground potentially that this memorandum of agreement is in violation of another one. So that's not as clear cut for those who don't know spar. I can't believe it would be so weird to go to a spar in Israel. I grew up with the store in Ireland. It's this somewhat lovely inviting kind of great tree logo, right? So that would be amazing if you had not just one, but two international stores. Well, let's just let's not get our hopes too far inflated. There's also some English language coverage by this Netherlands based retail chain spar to enter Israel. I meet Zev until recently CEO of you know the Tan car for Israel has signed a letter of intent on launching spar under a local franchisee. So things are happening. I don't want to say too much more because you know people I understand the pessimism that you know we've been so accustomed to living with this frightful cost of living here in Israel that you kind of say it's going to be IKEA v2, but I think that we can hope for better. I just want to say I think personally glass half empty price when I'm going to call me. I'm very excited. I think this is great. Even if these branches don't it ends up being what's the worst that can happen is they're just as expensive as the other Israeli supermarkets and the status quo is maintained. The best that can happen that what we were hoping for is that these intro the entrance of international competition will lower prices for Israeli supermarkets and the point I don't see people I see people missing on my opinion is that this would also serve to put Israel more on the map. So you're going to have international tourists from France and Europe coming in here on their vacation and they're going to see sparring to say, Oh, I know spars spars in Israel. Car four is an Israel. And again, these are I think really positive things. It's all part of the grand vision of Israel of making this a unique country, but also a normal country where we don't have to deal with a frightful obscene cost living because me and all the other hardy working Israeli citizens and taxpayers are well and truly tired of being extorted by these local monopolies cartels and oligopolies. Thank you guys so much for watching. If you have your own thoughts about the entrance of these international companies Israel, don't hesitate to leave a comment. If I got something wrong, leave me a comment. Engagement is good. Thank you guys much for for watching this YouTube video and more videos. If you want to get more from them, more for me about Israel and the other topics I cover here, please punch the subscribe button and you will get those updates on your fees. Thank you. Coming soon more videos.