Shop owners feeling strike's effects
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
Small businesses from Hale'iwa to Hawai'i Kai have seen sales fall anywhere from 10 percent to 80 percent in just a week as they've realized how many of their customers rely on TheBus.
Howard Montgomery of Big Ono Bake Shop in the Kekaulike Market says he may have to lay off workers because of the bus strike.
Matsumoto's Shave Ice on the North Shore still had a long line of customers spilling out of the store on Labor Day. But owner Stan Matsumoto noticed a definite drop-off in business that he figures has run 10 percent to 15 percent since bus workers went on strike Aug. 26.
"Usually on Labor Day, we don't get a break from 11 o'clock on," Matsumoto said. "This year, we had lots of breaks in between when the line went down to nothing. Usually it's steady outside."
On the other end of O'ahu, Debbie Iwakami has seen the effects of the citywide bus strike in a 25 percent drop in revenue at her Kokonuts Shave Ice & Snacks shop in the Koko Marina Shopping Center. Many of her customers ride the bus to Hanauma Bay and stop at Koko Marina after visiting the popular snorkeling spot.
"My God, it's terrible," Iwakami said. "When are they going to settle? When are they going to start to work so this will end?"
Economists have said that it's impossible to measure the cost of the bus strike on Hawai'i's economy. But small businesses, in particular, have noticed an immediate loss of revenue.
For the most part, they're coping the same way they did through two wars, the threat of SARS, Sept. 11 and a slumping Japanese economy: trimming costs, holding off on inventory purchases and offering discounts.
Most business owners interviewed yesterday said they have no plans to cut back on store or employee hours because they said they worry about the effect on good employees.
"I hang on to everybody," said John Moore, the owner of Strong Current Surf Shop in the center of Hale'iwa.
But perhaps no business area has been hit as hard as Honolulu's Chinatown, where many customers — particularly elderly ones — rely on TheBus to do their shopping.
Yesterday, many merchants said business has fallen 50 percent to 80 percent.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
Jenny Louie, who runs a passport photo and photo restoration business on North King Street, ran her fingers through the 30 completed photo restoration jobs that have been waiting to be picked up since the strike began.
Judy Ke of Golden Trade Jewelry & Hair Fashion, says business has dropped off in Chinatown since the bus strike began.
"Mostly elderly customers," Louie said. "This is terrible. It's just like the second SARS. I have time to clean my windows. Before I had no time. I can go shopping. I can close anytime because no customer."
Howard Montgomery, the owner of Big Ono Bake Shop in Kekaulike Market, told his three employees yesterday morning that he might have to lay them off if the strike drags on much longer.
Montgomery certainly likes to take care of his employees, and he has even been driving some of them to and from work.
"But there's obviously a limit to how long we can absorb a full payroll without a full amount of sales," he said.
After 10 years in Chinatown, Montgomery wonders how the economic situation can get worse.
"The only thing that hasn't happened is locusts and frogs dropping from the sky," he said. "If Moses had had access to all of the stuff that's happened in Chinatown, he would have gotten the Israelites out in three days. The joke for us is that if business got up to a trickle, we might be OK. Because it's certainly less than a trickle."
Montgomery's announcement of possible layoffs hardly surprised employee Donna Dumlao. But as the mother of five children who relies on TheBus for all of her transportation needs, Dumlao isn't sure where she would find work or how she would get there.
Fellow employee Natara Stuber still was processing what could happen next.
"In the next couple of days, I have to pay bills," she said.
Outside the market, Judy Ke leaned across the door frame to the empty Golden Trade Jewelry & Hair Fashion and wondered aloud when buses might start bringing customers back.
"Dead," she said. "No more business. Real sad."
With revenue down at least 80 percent, Ke said "how can you pay the rent of a couple thousand dollars a month with no customers?"
But business owners such as Paul Min will figure out how to keep their businesses going.
"Everybody will survive," said Min, the owner of You Market II, right next to You Market owned by his sister and brother-in-law. "There's always a way. We just need to buckle down."
Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.
