WE were feeding our faces at Fishmonger's Wife the other day when the waiter urged us to enjoy -- while we could. The popular restaurant on the mauka side of Ala Moana Center will close at the end of August, he announced, so nearby space can be readied for a Nordstrom department store. Hawaii is paradise—
for shoppers, that isOh wonderful, I thought between forkfuls of fish. Most local people can't afford to buy stuff at Liberty House unless there's a sale, let alone at a soon-to-be Nordstrom or an up-and-coming Neiman Marcus.
I made a mental note to visit Fishmonger's Wife as much as possible, as well as the Waikiki Theatres before they are demolished next year to make way for a $140-million retail complex.
Let's see, that would be the Waikiki Royal Walk, the anticipated brainchild of developer Jack Myers -- not to be confused with the nearby Waikiki Promenade, the planned $100-million retail baby of developer Duncan MacNaughton on the former site of Canlis restaurant.
In addition, there's the $200-million retail center in Kakaako envisioned by Victoria Ward Ltd., and the aforementioned expansion extravaganza at Ala Moana Center.
Oooh, ahh, oh wow. It has finally come to this. One can never be too thin or too rich, and in Hawaii, there can never be too much shopping.
These mega-developers should know. They know everything.
Well, not exactly. Remember back in the late 1980s, when resort builders erected a whole bunch of upscale resorts because they said high-end tourism would be "recession proof?" The rich would always have money to travel, right?
So much for corporate infallibility. And as the economy continues to sink like haupia on a hot day, the only perky-looking entree on the table appears to be retail-related.
Oooh, ahh, oh no. How very, very sad for this once great state.
Look, I like hitting the malls just as much as the next guy, and S-A-L-E is my favorite four-letter word.
It doesn't even bother me that most of the stores moving into these developments will be from the mainland, which likely means mainland owners and managers and only low-level jobs for local people.
So what if the once illustrious Canlis and the three large-screen theaters were just about the only reasons for residents to venture down to Kalakaua Avenue at all? Why shouldn't they be replaced by two gigantic shopping centers geared toward high-spending Japanese tourists?
These aren't reasons to grieve.
HERE'S why we should get out the crying towel: We have lost control of our destiny, and nobody seems to care.
Where is the public feedback about these major plans? Where are the letters to the editor and calls to radio talk shows, either challenging Hawaii's being turned into a shopping mecca for rich visitors or hailing these developments as the best remedy for an ailing economy?
Are we participants in this radical change in island character, or indifferent zombies? Have the "little people" talked themselves into believing that what they want for Hawaii doesn't matter anymore, that they must bow to the whims of big-wig developers, politicians and out-of-state money?
Kind of brings a new meaning to "shop 'til you drop."