Maui Home Depot does big business on opening day
By Christie Wilson
Advertiser Neighbor Island Editor
KAHULUI, Maui — Home builder Josh McEwen joined the throngs who visited the Home Depot in Kahului on its first day of business yesterday, but he walked out of the 150,500-square-foot store without the stainless-steel screws he was looking for.
Christie Wilson • The Honolulu Advertiser
McEwen said the store didn't have the item and he was put off by the opening-day crowd.
Checkout lines were long yesterday as shoppers flocked to the Home Depot in Kahului on its first day of business. The store is the chain's first in the Neighbor Islands.
By 3 p.m., store officials estimated that 2,000 shoppers had dropped by, starting with the 300 who lined up outside even before the home-improvement store opened at 6 a.m.
The opening marked the rapidly expanding big-box retailer's first Neighbor Island store. In about three years, it has planted three stores in Hawai'i, and this week the company said it is still looking at sites in Honolulu's central business district for another store.
On Maui, many like McEwen are wondering whether a community of 129,000 can support two big-box hardware stores, particularly two so close together: Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse is in the nearby Maui Marketplace.
"The island can support us and probably would support them, too," said Home Depot's Maui manager Jessi Holguin. "There's definitely enough for us and all the little guys."
And there was no noticeable drop in business at Lowe's yesterday.
Just a few blocks away at the 10,000-square-foot Marmac Ace Hardware, owner Bill Marrs was predicting his business may actually gain customers. Marmac weathered the opening of Lowe's, he said, because of convenience, the service provided by longtime employees and strong customer loyalty after 30 years on Maui.
