Your Business Grows Here
Al Medeiros tilts back on a folding chair in the shade of his panel truck as the crowds line up at his Paniolo Popcorn booth, lured by the smell of warm butterscotch. The sun is climbing high, but business is…
Community & Economy
Passionate Smoothie
Lanikai Juice’s most popular smoothie is the Pacific Passion, which is made by blending passion fruit, pineapple, mango, papaya, banana, yogurt and honey. “We use fresh yogurt and we don’t use any concentrate juice,” says Pablo Gonzalez, owner of Lanikai…
Chores Let Kids Have Skin in the Game
We usually call them chores. But in the broader perspective, they’re a sensible way to share the load of a household among all its members. Call it skin in the game for kids. Call it helping everyone get through the…
My Favorite Things: Ernest Nishizaki
Ernest Nishizaki, executive VP and COO of Kyo-Ya Management Co. Ltd., which owns the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and four other Sheraton hotels in Waikiki and on Maui, is a local boy and Leilehua High graduate with deep roots in the…
Food before you fly
You’re on your way to Honolulu International Airport and you just remembered your flight doesn’t serve a meal. You’re a penny-pincher (and right now, who isn’t?) and you don’t want to pay high airport prices. Lucky for you, there are…
Tourism Forecast: More Visitors But Storm Cloud Looms
Waikiki and other resorts statewide are more crowded these days. Visitor arrivals are up while beaches, stores and restaurants are filling again with tanned people spending their money. But there is a cloud on the horizon: Union contracts covering most…
Illegal Sex, Drugs and Gambling
A vast, illegal economy operates just beneath Hawaii’s legitimate society, and many people who earn their money in the legal economy spend part of it in the black one. The narcotics trade serves both street-corner junkies strung out on crystal…
Hawaii’s Underground Economy
One billion dollars a year. That’s the estimated taxes in Hawaii that don’t get paid by contractors and waiters, accountants and attorneys, hairdressers and everyone else who hides all or part of their cash income. Just about everyone contributes knowingly…
This is a Tourist Spot?!
When Mitch D’Olier left Honolulu’s Victoria Ward Co. to lead Kaneohe Ranch, the largest landowner in Kailua, on Windward Oahu, he thought he would see few tourists on the job. “When I was at Victoria Ward, about 30 percent of…
