Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Verizon Hawaii to
shut 4 Phone Mart stores

---

Star-Bulletin staff

Verizon Hawaii Inc. is closing four former GTE Phone Mart stores, affecting a total of about 14 employees, saying that the outlets were not performing up to standards.

The closings, scheduled to occur near the end of June, include one Oahu location in the Hawaii Kai Shopping Center, as well as stores in Kamuela and Kona on the Big Island and on Molokai.

With the cuts, five Phone Marts will remain on Oahu, as well as one each on Maui, Kauai and the Big Island.

Verizon is currently looking for a third party, such as a bank branch, to operate an outlet on Molokai.

The affected employees are being offered other jobs within Verizon, or have the option to take voluntary severance, the company said.

Verizon, formed in July in the $75 billion merger of GTE and Bell Atlantic, is Hawaii's largest telecommunications company with about 650,000 customers and 2,600 employees statewide.