KALAHEO — Last weekend, after 17 years of business, Steve and Lorna Freitas took down the sign from their mini-mart.
The blue building on Kaumuali‘i Highway where Papalina turns into Opu has been the heart of Kalaheo for almost two decades.
During the late night and early morning hours, when all else in the relatively sleepy town is quiet — storefronts shut, the hilltop homes dark, the highway empty save for a sporadic passerby — residents could always count on the lights from Steve’s Mini Mart and a car or two in the parking lot.
Opened in October 1990, the business has always been family-run. Freitas, his wife and their daughters are familiar faces around Kalaheo, as they have manned the store over the years.
Looking back on the last two decades, Freitas said he’s seen Kalaheo grow with new residents and development. And as a business owner, he said he always considered it a good thing.
“It doesn’t matter where people come from, you treat your customer base well,” he said.
The decision to sell the business, he noted, coincided with interest from a buyer, helping the process come together easily.
Now a week into retirement, Freitas is please to be done with the long hours, including the 3:30 a.m. wake-up calls to open the store at 5 in the morning.
“My wife and I, we’re not spring chickens anymore,” he said.
However, Freitas will miss talking to customers day-in and day-out.
“It’s a nice feeling to have the interaction with all the people,” he said. “… That was the most rewarding for me.”
From late-night snacks to Tylenol for a sick child, Freitas said the store served the community as much as it provided for his own family.
“We gave the community some place to stop by if they needed anything,” he said. “One of the reasons you run a business is the community, not just yourself.”
As such, Freitas said he stressed consistent business hours so residents knew they could count on Steve’s.
And despite the change in ownership, the store didn’t skip a beat. The Freitas closed up on Sunday and new owners Serafran Octavio-Callejo and her husband James “Kujo” Callejo took over Monday morning.
The couple have two sons, Jesse and Jalen, and are expecting another child.
Octavio-Callejo’s mother, Marina Octavio, left her lunch concession business at Kukuiolono Golf Course to join and help finance the venture.
According to Octavio, the store’s new name, Kujo’s Mini Mart, comes from her son-in-law’s old football nickname.
Aside from that change, the concept and the hours will remain the same, she said.
“We’re going to clean up a little and expand the food section,” Octavio said Friday.
While the new sign for Kujo’s has yet to go up, Freitas said he’s placed the old one bearing his name in the garage — if nothing else than to keep the memories fresh, he said.
“It’s been there a lot of years, and I can’t part with it now.”
• Blake Jones, business writer/assistant editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or bjones@kauaipubco.com.
