LIHU‘E — Mary Rich, owner of Kaua‘i Products Store at Kukui Grove Shopping Center, isn’t going to lie. Her sales are down, and she believes many businesses on the island are facing similar difficulties. Although she remains upbeat, Rich is
LIHU‘E — Mary Rich, owner of Kaua‘i Products Store at Kukui Grove Shopping Center, isn’t going to lie. Her sales are down, and she believes many businesses on the island are facing similar difficulties.
Although she remains upbeat, Rich is honest about the current economic situation and has been one of the few to openly admit her struggles, something many business owners are finding hard to come to grips with.
“I’m surviving,” said Rich in an interview Thursday. “January was deadly.”
One of the few remaining local businesses at the mall, Rich’s store provides an outlet for over 200 Kaua‘i vendors whose products line her shelves, including Aunty Lilikoi, Aloha Wood Art, Banana Patch Studio and Hawaiian Health ‘Ohana.
After a 40-year relationship with the island, her philosophy is to keep the integrity of the store by making sure 85 percent of her merchandise is Kaua‘i made.
Even though Rich said her store is “well-known and well-loved” she concluded that if people don’t walk through the door, there’s not much that can be done about the situation.
She actually began to notice the downward trend of shoppers as far back as August 2007, when the first of the island’s cruise ship pull-outs occurred.
“Nobody would say the word ‘awful.’ No one wanted to say anything about it,” she said.
It wasn’t until she attended a conference with the Small Business Association in June 2008 that she received confirmation of the changing economy.
“When I bought the store in May 2007, I was rolling along. I thought I perceived a slight hit in August, but not really knowing the market here, I wasn’t quite sure, but I know I saw something,” she said. “So, going to the meeting was the first time I had any validation of what I was seeing and thinking is happening. In the meeting it was all out on the table, people were finally saying the words, ‘slow economy.’”
She said that there was seemingly a collective sigh of relief that day.
“We all seemed to have a camaraderie as a group there because we were finally being able to speak out loud about something that we all knew was happening. We finally had somebody addressing it. And, that was nothing compared to what’s going on now.”
Rich said that there are several business owners who once believed sales were only down a third, yet she believes these figures may not actually be reflective of the current situation.
“If we go back several years ago to what the sales were then, I think a lot of us said our sales are down a third because a third keeps you up with the market, it allows you to say it’s not too bad. If you look at the figures for occupancy and tourism, you feel like you’re right in the ballpark,” she said. “Well, let me tell you something, I was saying that too through Christmas, but then I realized, I’m at a new low. What am I comparing to? Three years ago, two years ago, four years ago or am I comparing to last year, when last year was low already?”
Rich said her sales are actually down 40 to 50 percent.
Of course, she said, there are some businesses finding success, but those typically cater to specific needs. She believes entertainment activities are declining, and eating out has taken on a whole new perspective, especially for families.
“If you’ve got four kids, all of a sudden, going out to lunch at $12 to $15 a head is too expensive, especially when you can go to McDonald’s for $5, it makes a difference,” she said. “Unless you’re in one of those niche markets, like McDonald’s, nobody is doing well right now.”
Rich has been compensating for her loss of business by purchasing fewer items for the store.
“I’ve curtailed my shopping, even though the store, to me, has a lot of pukas in it, but there isn’t much I can do about that because you have to time your purchases. You want a full store, but you can’t just go out and spend money because you can’t predict or trust the economy right now,” she said. “In the good ole days, you could predict; you knew that if you purchased certain items they were going to leave the store within a month.”
One of the trends she’s noticed with shoppers visiting the island lately is their wish to purchase smaller, less expensive items that fit snugly in a suitcase, bypassing the option to send larger items home via mail. She said that when airlines began charging for luggage, purchases sagged even further.
Not only has visitor shopping altered, but the number of visitors in general have declined. Some days, as much as 45 minutes will pass before she even sees someone walk by the store.
Optimism still flows through Rich’s veins, and she believes things will eventually turn around and what goes down, must come back up.
“I think that things will improve slowly and I think that the stimulus package is huge, and I’m hoping that it is the beginning of people’s minds having more hope. The problem that exists, I think, today, is with the whole mood of the country; we start this pessimism and it’s like a virus.”
She continues to be frank about the challenges she faces.
“If we have more months like we’ve had, I think it will get increasingly harder to hang on. A lot of people are using the word ‘scary’ right now” she said. “There are a group of us that are hanging on for dear life, but we’re not taking the tumble just yet.”
• Coco Zickos, business writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or czickos@kauaipubco.com
