Not as much as was hoped. The City Store at Ala Moana Center is suffering from slow sales. The vendor tells the city that the reason is because the store is new and the early part of the year is not a hopping time for retail sales.
City Councilman Mufi Hannemann thinks the store needs more help from the city to make a go of it and, not surprisingly, lays the blame on the mayor's doorstep.
It apparently hasn't occurred to any of these guys that tourists just might not want to buy this crap. OK, it's not crap. But a lot of what they are selling are things that could have been manufactured in Boise, Idaho. A brand new street sign that says "Bishop Street" isn't going to have a lot of impact back on the farm. (Unless, of course, the visitor had been mugged on Bishop Street and wanted a momento of the occasion.)
Yes, there are some people who want to buy a piece of Hawaii, even if it is a brand new street sign that has never done any actual duty. But I think there are more people who would like to buy a piece of Hawaii history, like an actual weathered life guard sign from Waimea Bay, the most famous big-wave surfing spot in the world.
So while the city council and the mayor try to figure out how to better market the City Store itself - which is a great idea - the vendor should try to put a little more Hawaii memorabilia into the store.
For instance, if they want to sell street name signs, why not put the shiny new signs on the street and bring the old, weathered ones into the store? Why not sell old bullet-riddled "Stop" signs that have Hawaii graffiti on them instead of generic "Stop" signs that could have been made in Kansas?
I think a big seller would be those King Kamehameha landmark signs. The city should take down the old ones, complete with the name of the landmark, and sell those. And they could replace them once a year, leading to a steady supply of landmark mementos.
Another possible line of merchandise would be items saved from historical renovations such as the Hawaii Theatre. The City Store should have snapped up all of those old seats and sold them piecemeal.
THEY could also have an entire line of historic photographs, featuring legendary Hawaii residents like Duke Kahanamoku and Robert Louis Stevenson.
And the City Store shouldn't have to rely on "real" city and county items. Parts of Hawaii's history are the make-believe worlds of "Hawaii Five-0" and "Magnum P.I." These types of shows provided the images that actually brought a lot of tourists to Hawaii. I'm sure that some tourists would love to take home some of the props that had actually been used on these shows. There probably still are wardrobe items worn by Tom Selleck and Jack Lord sitting around in some Diamond Head Film Studio closet. Aloha shirts worn by Selleck would probably bring in quite a few bucks, particularly if they were accompanied by a photo of the actor wearing the shirt. And how about Jack Lord's undertaker-style blue suits? There's gotta be a "Five-0" buff out there who would spring for one of those.
There are all kinds of possibilities for the the City Store, from theater seats to Spirit of Hawaii Stealth Bomber T-shirts. The point is to begin selling genuine pieces of Hawaii history, not just cold, mass produced "High Surf" T-shirts and "No Left Turn" signs. That kind of thing is just going to continue leading to a financial "Dead End."
