Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Is High-End Children’s Clothing Store Discriminating Against Hasidic Jews?

A high-end children’s clothing shop is facing a bit of scandal — and not for its steep prices or frivolous sartorial designs.

Shan and Toad, an online store that carries brands like Kenzo, Little Mark Jacobs and Gaultier Junior, is facing criticism for its very specific return policy.

The company — which “aims to please!” according to its website — issues refunds for non-sale items ordered from customers anywhere in the world.

Well, anywhere in the world except five U.S. locations: Brooklyn, NY; Monsey, NY; Monroe, NY; Lakewood, NJ and Passaic, NJ.

Are you scratching your head as to what these five places have in common? Well, to some, it was alarmingly obvious: All five cities have an overwhelming presence of Orthodox Jews.

 

Screen Shot 2016-09-07 at 5.36.03 PM

 

So is Shan and Toad’s return policy discriminatory?

Maybe yes — but maybe not.

Yes, it’s possible that this policy discriminates against a certain demographic. According to a , 4o percent of Monsey’s population speaks Yiddish at home  and over half of population of Lakewood, home to one of the largest haredi yeshivas in the world, is Jewish.

But it’s also possible that it discriminates against shopping habits of residents of those areas — and that there is an excessive amount of returns from these zip codes. As one reporter, Judi Franco of New Jersey Radio 101.5, put it, the return policy is discriminatory, but “not against Jews — against people who return too much!”

As of press time, we don’t know for sure. Shan and Toad did not respond to multiple phone and e-mail requests for comments on Wednesday.

Even if the shop’s prices may be criminally expensive — take for example this $1,085 cape dress — its two-tiered return policy is not illegal in either NJ or NY, which stipulate that businesses must post a clear return policy on their websites, but does not put any limitations on these policies.

Perhaps surprisingly, the owner of Shan and Toad, Shana Laub, is herself an Orthodox Jew and a mother of five girls.

The contact number on the company’s web site has a California area code, though some outlets erroneously reported the store is based in Israel  — where, by the way, almost all clothing stores do not offer refunds, only store credit.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.