Kaimuki’s Handi Pantry
to reopen under
new management

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By Erika Engle
eengle@starbulletin.com

Handi Pantry store No. 11 at 3625 Harding Ave. in Kaimuki is closing, leaving six employees unemployed as of the Jan. 18 tentative closing date, according to a company statement.

The store will reopen under new management in a sublease with Handi Pantry parent company Food Pantry Ltd.

The new operator, which was not named, will interview the workers for similar positions. Oahu's only remaining Handi Pantry, in Makakilo, is not affected. A company official did not return calls.

The Handi Pantry No. 11 is a few doors away from the headquarters of parent company Food Pantry Ltd., which is primarily owned by the Sullivan family. The family also owns Foodland Supermarkets Ltd. but the companies are separate entities.

Food Pantry last year announced it would close Whaler's General Store No. 57 in Dickenson Square in Lahaina at the end of October, but invited the four employees to apply for other positions within the company.

The company in 1997 and 1999 made two high-profile purchases of land in Waikiki.

It paid $13 million for 35,000 square feet of former Magoon Estate land at the corner of Kuhio Avenue and Kaiolu Street in 1997. In 1999 it purchased a 6,000-square-foot parcel at 1837 Ala Moana, next to Kobe Steak House, for $1.7 million.