Resort retailing has special demands
By Catherine E. Toth
Advertiser Staff Writer
From kayak rental stands on Kaua'i to clothing boutiques in Kona, stores inside or near resort hotels face similar challenges — coping with the fickle nature of tourist traffic.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
"These shops do well when times are good," said Carol Pregill, president of the Retail Merchants of Hawai'i. "But when times are bad, it's extreme. Look at what happened after Sept. 11. The hotels were empty, and resort shops had no customers."
Emi Choy, sales supervisor at the Moonbow Tropics store at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider, wraps a purchase for Kyoko Kaneda, a visitor from Tokyo. Resort retailers like Moonbow Tropics say establishing a brand can help stores endure fluctuations in tourism.
Resort shops aren't in areas that are typically frequented by residents, forcing them to rely primarily on visitors whose numbers shift with the seasons, Pregill added.
"The challenge we face year-to-year is the fluctuation of business," said Tim White, who owns Take Home Treasures, an 18-year-old retail shop in Kihei that sells resort wear and souvenirs. "I'm just focusing on providing the best products I can at the most reasonable prices. Sept. 11 had a huge impact on my business, and I have yet to see pre-Sept. 11 numbers."
The number of visitors has recovered, but they are not spending as much as they used to at resort-based retail shops, said White.
"People have to spend on hotels, rental cars and food, there's no getting around it," White said. "But they don't have to have me, the retailer. ... People don't have the frivolous $500 to drop that they did five years ago."
The president of Moonbow Tropics, a family-owned specialty clothing store that has expanded to five locations in Hawai'i, says a key to enduring the ups and downs of the tourist trade is establishing a brand.
Moonbow Tropics has worked at building a reputation for high-quality aloha attire and personal customer service, said president Alan Jay.
The 10-year-old business actually has grown since Sept. 11, opening a store in the Sheraton Moana Surfrider last year and another in Lahaina this week.
"We branded ourselves at the highest level of merchandise and guest service," Jay said. "We have stayed consistent with who we are even despite the economic drops and challenges we've had. We find that staying consistent through the long haul will help us continue to grow."
Three-fourths of Jay's customers are tourists, and a good portion of them are repeat visitors to his stores, he said.
Each retail shop has different merchandise to cater to various customers who frequent that particular location. The company's store in Waikiki, for example, may feature different high-end products geared toward the Japanese visitor that aren't in its Maui stores, Jay said.
Adapting to a changing visitor market is another key to success, Pregill said.
Although the Japanese visitor market has shown strong signs of rebound this summer, the growth from the Mainland since Sept. 11 has changed the visitor-based retail industry, Pregill said.
"Sept. 11 was such a shift for us," Pregill said. "Recovery came fairly rapidly with the Westbound visitors ... and the kinds of products and product lines had to change to accommodate these new visitors. "
Maui Dive Shop tried years ago to cater to the Japanese market but found it too difficult. The company decided to focus on its Mainland clients, which make up the majority of its customers.
"We just weren't successful at it, and we phased out of it," general manager Jeff Strahn said. "That actually benefited us, because after Sept. 11 that market really suffered."
Reach Catherine E. Toth at 535-8103 or ctoth@honoluluadvertiser.com.
