Kama'aina business to close after 93 years

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

One of Hawai'i's oldest continuing family businesses, shoe and clothing retailer Chun Kim Chow Ltd., is calling it quits after 93 years.

Chun Kim Chow operates the Kim Chow Shoe Store at Fort Street Mall, plus a variety of retail stores and shoe departments in other stores. The company was founded in 1908. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

Some 238 employees will lose their jobs, from the chief executive officer to nearly 150 sales associates.

The anticipated layoffs, which will not take place before Dec. 31, would be among the largest by a single local company and the largest by a Hawai'i retailer since Sept. 11.

Years of financial losses, worsened by the economic downturn after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, prompted the decision by the company's board of directors, according to the letter to the labor department.

Renton Nip, a local attorney recently brought in to help reorganize the company as acting president, said there is a chance that some parts of the business may be salvaged.

"We're keeping all options open," he said. "A lot depends on our ability to work with the vendors and the landlords."

Options may include filing for bankruptcy, or selling some store concepts and locations, he said. But the retailing dynasty of the Chun family is likely at an end.

The company's founder, the late Kim Chow Chun, arrived in Hawai'i in 1898 as a 29-year-old who learned the shoe repair trade and set up his own repair business in Chinatown. In 1908, he opened the Kim Chow Shoe Store on Bethel Street.

Chun, followed by several sons, expanded the business, which at one point became the largest independent shoe retailer in the state and also operated sporting goods, apparel and shoe departments in all GEM department stores.

In 1994, Chun Kim Chow had gross revenues of about $50 million. But competition from large Mainland shoe store chains, factory outlets, mass-merchandise discounters and off-price apparel retailers cut into Chun's business, which had scaled back in recent years.

"Mainland companies have been coming in every which way," said local retail analyst Stephany Sofos. "It's hard to compete. There are a lot of Hawai'i businesses that do not have the scale of economies with the Mainland businesses."

Sofos said competitive pressures have been exacerbated by the dramatic downturn in business since Sept. 11. "Unless you have a lot of cash reserves, you have to move on," she said. "If you're just marginal and not highly profitable, it's better to close your retail and look at your (assets) like (Chun Kim Chow) has."

Nip, a grandson of the company's founder, called the post-Sept. 11 downturn "hopefully not the final straw, but an important straw."

"We're going to continue to try to find a solution," he said. "The company has had a nice ride, and we're grateful for the support of all of the people of Hawai'i for nearly a century. It's been tremendous support."

Chun Kim Chow operates its signature Kim Chow Shoe Store in downtown Honolulu plus a variety of retail stores and shoe departments in other stores. Among them: four Robins, four Ethel's, four Body Shops, three Wildflowers, one Nicole store, one Xavier store, one Runway-7 store, one Gloria Jean's and three shoe departments for other retailers including Shirokiya and McInerny.

One store is expected to close later this month. Several more will likely follow at the end of December, and most of the stores are expected to cease business at the end of January.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.