B'nai Brith Canada Update on The Removal of Ahava Products from The Bay's
Shelves

Monday, January 17, 2011

There have been a variety of responses from representatives at The Bay
throughout the past week regarding the removal of the Ahava products from
their shelves; yet, each of these representatives has provided a different
explanation for the removal of the products, which has led to much
confusion. The responses given were variations of the following:

1. The Bay has discontinued Ahava products because they have not been
selling well.

2. The manufacturer (Ahava) has discontinued the products because globally
sales were down.

3. Ahava is rebranding and repackaging their product, and in the interim,
The Bay has pulled their products off the shelves, but will stock the new
products this coming spring.

4. The products have been removed from the shelves for political reasons.

5. The decision to restock Ahava products in the spring has not necessarily
been finalized.

These responses, however, remain problematic for several reasons. Firstly,
to pull off everything from the shelves just at the time of the protests
targeting The Bay leads one to doubt that the swift removal of the Ahava
products by The Bay is merely coincidental.

Moreover, there has also been evidence from other jurisdictions that sales
of Israeli-made products have actually increased during such protests, so
taking the Ahava products off the shelves at this point is a decision that
does not make sense from a retail perspective – The Bay is seemingly losing
business. Moreover, other retail outlets continue to sell Ahava products and
report very good sales.

Most unnerving is the fact that while The Bay continues to make its claims,
the anti-Israel boycott campaigners are claiming a major victory in that the
store has emptied its shelves of all Ahava products.

Adina Klein aklein@bnaibrith.ca
Project Assistant
League for Human Rights
B'nai Brith Canada
(416) 633-6224 ext. 112