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Bestsellers THE State of Hawaii doesn't know how well a full-scale bookstore at Honolulu Airport would work, but it intends to find out by having Bestsellers move into the main terminal for a one-year term, starting in January.
lands at airport
A full-scale store will open in
the Honolulu terminal next month
in a one-year experiment to
gauge the demandhttp://www.hawaiibestsellers.com
By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin"The traveling public wants a book to read," said Brian Minaai, a deputy director of the state Department of Transportation, which runs the airport. Unlike the duty-free business and other concessions, however, the state has no experience with a full-scale airport bookstore, selling all types of books as well as recorded music and other products that modern bookstores offer.
That is why it couldn't put the first airport bookstore up for competitive bidding, Minaai said. Assuming that the store, a 1,200-square-foot shop opposite the Starbucks coffee shop in the main terminal, on the way to Gate 11, does well enough, the idea is to offer the concession up for bid in the future, after the state has seen Bestellers' airport figures and can judge what minimum rent to set for bidders, Minaai said.
For now, the rent arrangement with Booksellers is not being disclosed.
Brian Melzack, the Bestsellers chief executive who brought his business to Honolulu with a store that opened in Bishop Square in August 1998, has experience in operating full-scale bookshops in airports.
He ran Classic Bookshops, a chain of 150 stores based in Toronto, that had a few shops in Canadian airports.
It merged with another book business, W.H. Smith Ltd., which had many more airport outlets right across Canada.
Melzack opened his second downtown Honolulu store in the Dillingham Transportation Building at the start of this month and, in between, started getting tourist experience with a smaller store in the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
"Giant bookshops are going in at other airports," he said.
Hawaii has a big traveling public.
The longer distances to get to anywhere else from the islands mean longer flights, more waiting time and therefore more time to read.
Besides, Melzack said, not all tourists get a chance to see a real bookshop during their stay and the airport provides a good opportunity to pick up Hawaiiana materials for friends and children, some good reading for themselves for the long trip and music to keep memories of the islands alive once they are back home.
"It will be an important display of books that will give the flying consumer a very good indication of what our culture is all about," Melzack said.
His experience, he said, has left him amazed at the hunger for knowledge about Hawaii that is not readily available on the mainland.
The Bestsellers outlet at the airport will open about Jan. 18-20, he said.