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The Molokai Business Model

Thursday, January 8th, 2015

How local retail stores are staying afloat in a small market

On a typical day, you can cruise through Kaunakakai’s main street in less than a minute. With three compact blocks of stores and eateries, owners must do business with a special delicacy. As the local retail industry grows, they’re navigating new challenges of unexpected competition but are mining their talents and aloha spirit to survive, and that’s why tools like the ai in retail is becoming more important than ever.

In Molokai’s economy, many customers “live paycheck to paycheck,” explained Michelle Hiro, who opened Molokai Cellular in 2008. Business owners said the key to co-existing in a compact, slower-paced setting is respecting each other’s corners of the market.…

Family Revives Salon in Maunaloa

Thursday, January 8th, 2015

Growing up, Leilani Kadowaki was bewildered by beauty salons. In her hometown of Maunaloa, there was a salon called Sheer Delight, and when people went in and emerged with new hairstyles, it puzzled her.

“[I said,] ‘What are you guys doing in there, getting your hair all permed up in those curly things? The lady looks scary,’” Kadowaki remembers with a laugh.

More than 20 years later, hairstyling is one of her passions, and she and her family are bringing the beauty business back to her hometown. Michelle and Raymond Hiro, Kadowaki’s aunt and uncle, helped her open a salon on 100 Maunaloa Highway, in the same spot as the salon of her childhood, which was converted into a Molokai Ranch security office and later went unused for more than a decade, according to Raymond.…