Tug strike's effects on retailers hard to gauge
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
Hawai'i's small businesses may never know whether they actually made or lost money over the course of the three-day tugboat workers strike that shut down barge deliveries to Neighbor Island communities.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Sales were down for perishable fruits and vegetables that never made their way from the docks of Honolulu Harbor to places such as Moloka'i.
A tug helps maneuver a cargo-laden Young Brothers barge out of the harbor on its way to the Big Island. The Inlandboatmen's Union of the Pacific ended its three-day strike Sunday.
At the same time, customers emptied stores shelves of Island staples such as rice, toilet paper and milk — partly to stock up for the Fourth of July weekend and partly out of fear that the strike could drag on indefinitely.
But stores such as Friendly Market Center in Kaunakakai on Moloka'i price their rice and toilet paper as discounted loss leaders. And the strike coincided with the time of the month when many of Friendly Market's customers use food stamps for their purchases, said Crystal Egusa, one of the market's managers.
"Our gross sales were large and we had a lot of hoarding," Egusa said. "But a lot of it was on our everyday, low-price items. With the combination of a long weekend, food stamps and hoarding, I don't know if we actually made a profit because of all of the factors."
With Young Brothers and Hawaiian Tug & Barge making up for the strike by towing more barges this week than usual, small retailers around the state are more interested in restocking their shelves than computing the losses or gains from a single weekend.
Many of them are like Pine Isle Market on Lana'i, where general manager Kerry Honda has not sat down to balance out the sales and expenditures associated with the strike: The additional cost of paying for extra shipments of air cargo offset by the rush on low-priced items such as rice and toilet paper.
At times like tugboat strikes, Honda said he doesn't really focus on the profit end of the business.
"We're a service," Honda said. "You can't think about if you're going into the hole. It's an everyday part of doing business here. We look at ourselves more as a community provider."
The strike clearly meant more business for Kamaka Air, the smallest of the handful of air-cargo operators that fly out of Lagoon Drive on the edge of Honolulu International Airport.
Kamaka Air specializes in two daily deliveries each for Lana'i and Moloka'i to provide fresh fish, meat and produce. On Friday, Kamaka Air pilots instead flew nine trips and a handful of others on Saturday, when the company usually takes the day off.
And each plane that flew over the weekend was stuffed to its 2,500-pound capacity.
"We were up 100 percent," said Kamaka Air's bookkeeper, Amanda Hebert. "We doubled everything that we usually do. We were flying nonstop all day and even on Saturday."
Owner Jerry Jackson, who flies most of the runs, was unavailable to comment yesterday because he was once again en route to Moloka'i.
"Jerry was pretty tired at the end of each day," Hebert said. "He's still trying to catch up and he'll be busy until everything evens out and everybody trusts the barges again."
Like other small businesses that became critical links in the supply chain last week, Kamaka Air never considered raising its rates, Hebert said.
"No, Jerry wouldn't do that," Hebert said. "We kept everything the same. But it sure was hectic around here."
It's not unusual to have regular barge service disrupted to Lana'i, said Wally Tamashiro, one of the brothers who owns Richard's Shopping Center in Lana'i City.
Tides and other water conditions often delay barges a day or two — just like the disruption caused by the tug workers strike, Tamashiro said.
That's life on the Neighbor Islands, he said.
"But the word 'strike' gives people a different idea," Tamashiro said. "I had a run on my rice, toilet paper and paper towels. I ran out of everything."
With so much hoarding, Tamashiro now has to worry about a new problem: A drop in sales until customers run out of their hoarded supplies.
"I don't think I lost money because the guys run up my rice and toilet paper," Tamashiro said. "Now they're sitting on them in their house."
Reach Dan Nakaso at 525-8085 or dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.
