Murray Klein (March 25, 1923 – December 6, 2007) was a Jewish American entrepreneur who helped transform New York City's famous Zabar's speciality food emporium from a small Jewish delicatessen based on Manhattan's Upper West Side into one of the city's premier culinary destinations. Klein was a part owner of Zabar's for more than 30 years before his retirement in 1994. Though not a member of the Zabar's family, Klein is credited with making many of the decisions concerning publicity, product pricing and speciality merchandise.
Early life
Klein, whose birthname was Mordecai Klein, was born in 1923 in a shtetl in southwest Ukraine, which at the time was part of the Soviet Union, near the border with Romania. Klein was away at a trade school at the time of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. His parents and five siblings, were captured and killed in Nazi concentration camps during World War II.
Klein was later sent to a Soviet labour camp, or gulag, by his own country for part of the war. He managed to escape the camp and joined the Irgun, which was a Jewish guerrilla movement active in the Middle East. He helped smuggle arms to the part of Palestine which later became known as Israel during his time as a member of Irgun.
Klein was captured and held as a political prisoner in Italy. He was released following a hunger strike and settled in a displaced persons camp at the Cinecittà film studios in Rome in 1945. He set up a successful bread business while living at the camp. Klein remained at the camp at Cinecittà for five years before emigrating to New York City in 1950.
Zabar's
Murray Klein was first hired by Zabar's as a stock clerk and floor sweeper in 1953. The business had been founded by Louis Zabar, whose family was also Ukrainian Jewish, during the 1930s.
Klein had an unpredictable relationship with the Zabar family during the 1950s. He quit Zabar's on several occasions during those early years at the store, which even led to litigation. However, Klein returned to Zabar's in 1960, this time in a full partnership with the Zabar family. Zabar's, which had been a chain of stores, had been reduced to the single flagship store at West 80th Street and Broadway on the Upper West Side by this time.
Klein, who was in charge of pricing and speciality products, oversaw much of the recovery and expansion of Zabar's over the next couple of decades. He continued to sell Zabar's famous lines of Eastern European and Jewish specialities, such as pastrami, lox, bagels and smoked fish to appeal to Zabar's core and most loyal Jewish clientele. However, Klein also actively broadened Zabar's product offerings to appeal to Manhattanites who were increasingly looking for more sophisticated foods as part of the so-called "food revolution".
Klein often initially sold these new gourmet foods, such as white truffles, at a loss in order to attract new customers. This was, perhaps, one of the first major instances that the concept of loss leader was introduced into the gourmet food market.
Klein also began selling housewares, such as food processors, at Zabar's, which were often priced well below the average market rate In another instance, Klein began hanging kitchen utensils and other food instruments, from the store's ceiling, all of which Zabar's offered for sale.
Perhaps most importantly, however, Zabar's, under Klein's guidance and introduction, became one of the first stores in the industry to begin selling high quality, luxury foods, such as coffee, preserves and French cheese, under Zabar's own private store brand labels. These products were priced much more cheaply under the Zabar's brand name than could be found at other competing stores. Klein would look to buy luxury products directly from the producer in large volumes, and thus was able to sell more cheaply at Zabar's. In doing so, luxury products that were previously financially inaccessible to most consumers were suddenly affordable. In turn, customers were more likely to engage in more impulse buying while visiting Zabar's. Klein's ideas for selling luxury products cheaply led the way for the rest of the industry. Today, stores such as Trader Joe's, Wegmans and even Whole Foods Markets, employ Klein's same ideas to market and sell their own store brand, luxury products.
By the mid-1970s Zabar's had gained not only fame within New York City, but had also developed a national following, with much of the credit for Zabar's popularity and success going to Klein.