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Honolulu Lite
I needed a cheap whistle to use in a luncheon talk last week so I finally ventured into Marukai's 99&CENT Shop off Ward Avenue. This store
bucks high pricesI've been intrigued by the store, where everything costs 99 cents, but I found the theory behind it scary. There aren't many things that cost less than a buck these days and I wasn't sure I wanted to see them all gathered in one location.
Nevertheless, I went inside. How to describe the ambience? In the movie "The Graduate" a guy took the Dustin Hoffman character aside and whispered the secret to financial success in his ear: "Plastics." I think the 99&CENT Shop is what the man was talking about, a veritable shrine to plastics, large heaping towers of plastic -- boxes, baskets, bowls and bric-a-brac.
China apparently has vast plastic ore deposits because most of the 99&CENT Shop items come from there. I wouldn't be surprised if the Great Wall, upon closer inspection, turned out to be made of plastic.
I asked a clerk if they had whistles and, in seconds, he produced an entire stringful -- plastic, of course.
Just around the corner in the same building, Sports Authority offered an "official referee's whistle" called "The Thunderer" for $12.99. Mine was more like "The Squeaker," but just what I was looking for.
How can a store survive on 99-cent items? I asked Jeff Heggland, assistant store manager.
"It's a price people cannot refuse," sounding exactly unlike Marlon Brando. "It piques people's interest."
Marukai has a lot of 99-cent outlets in Japan, except there, they are "under 100 yen shops." The company decided to try the concept in the United States, opening two stores in Los Angeles. The one in Honolulu has been open since 1998, although it's kind of a secret. Heggland said the store depends on the advertising concept known as "the baby luau effect." In other words, it's all word of mouth.
But it's been effective. Other stores, like Daiei, have opened 99-cent departments. Chinatown business owners, swap meet and craft-fair vendors buy cases of merchandise from the 99&CENT Shop to resell at higher prices.
"They like the black rubber slippers," Heggland said.
The store survives because some items are worth more than 99 cents and some less. The trick for shoppers is to ferret out the more valuable items. Stationery and gifts are the most popular. The merchandise changes, so you get grazers who revisit the store often. You have to keep expectations in check.
"Don't expect too much," said Francis Kawahigashi. But when you find a bargain, load up.
It's hard to describe the strange variety of items. And it is a refreshingly non-politically correct venue. (In the toy area, you'll find enough plastic guns to make a million moms mad.)
There are tons of kitchen stuff, from glassware bowls and stemmed wine glasses to sponges and detergents. Some are mysterious. Elenor Tanaka held up a metal spatula that looked like it came from an Easy Bake oven.
"What do you think this is for?" she asked.
I had no clue. I countered, asking her what some dark chunks of matter in plastic bags were. She had no clue. (A clerk said they were charcoal. In Japan, people put them in water or rice for purification.)
Ninety-nine cents seemed steep for a chunk of coal. But the bamboo back scratcher from Taiwan seemed reasonable. And the green plastic foot massager was a steal.
Charles Memminger, winner of
National Society of Newspaper Columnists
awards in 1994 and 1992, writes "Honolulu Lite"
Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Write to him at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, 96802
or send E-mail to charley@nomayo.com or
71224.113@compuserve.com.
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