Posted on: Sunday, July 8, 2001

Bob Krauss
Isles full of 'Aloha' and restaurants

By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

The new telephone book, Our Honolulu's infallible guide to the economic and social temper of the times, presents a contradictory picture of the mood we're in.

Yellow pages tell us that we're not sure economic recovery has arrived, while the white pages express unprecedented aloha.

Consider the evidence. In 1972, I recorded three columns of telephone numbers with "Aloha" at the beginning of company names. In the next 10 years, Aloha added only one column to the telephone book.

But that number jumped to 7 1/2 columns last year. This year there are 9 1/2 columns of Aloha telephone numbers. That's an increase in Aloha of 26.6 percent in the last 12 months.This is taking place amid indications that we are suspicious about economic recovery. The number of yellow pages of business numbers dropped from 1075 last year to 1054 this year. Most of the sections show similar small declines or are holding steady.

One shining exception is the section for restaurants, the biggest in the book and growing. This section represents an interesting evolution from 25 years ago. At that time, automobiles were the yellow pages champion, the darling of Our Honolulu.

Then we began suing each other after accidents, and the number of attorneys grew and grew until they pushed automobiles out of first place. Meanwhile, our taste buds came alive as our penchant for litigation waned.

Last year, the restaurant numbers almost tripled, dropping attorneys into second place. At the same time, doctors also made a run that overtook automobiles, perhaps reflecting our increasing interest in staying healthy.

For comparison, the Big Five in 1999 went like this: 1. Attorneys, 87 pages. 2. Doctors, 67. 3. Automobiles, 59. 4. Dentists, 33. 5. Restaurants, 26.

The lineup this year: 1. Restaurants, 77 pages. 2. Attorneys, 73. 3. Doctors, 50. 4. Automobiles, 45. 5. Dentists, 22.

My hunch is that in another 10 years, automobiles will drop to the bottom or out of the Big Five as they create more and more problems.

Of the Big Five, only restaurants showed an increase this year; all the other sections decreased — attorneys by one page, doctors by four pages, automobiles by 13 pages, dentists by 10 pages.

Real estate declined one page, plumbing a page, movers two pages and roofing a page. Contractors held steady, as did beauty operators, termite treaters, carpet sellers and storage companies.

For the first time in years, churches increased a page, schools two pages.

In the white pages, the Lees remain Honolulu's first family with by far the most numbers, 32 columns, followed by the Wongs, 23 1/2; the Kims, 17; the Youngs, 15 3/4; the Changs, 14; the Chuns, 13; the Smiths; 12 2/3; the Laus, 11 1/2; and the Nakamuras, 9 1/3.The biggest gains this year were made by the Smiths, Laus and Nakamuras.