McInerny to close Dealing with a changing retail landscape in Waikiki, venerable kamaaina retailer McInerny is closing three stores this year, leaving the 145-year-old company with 14 shops in the islands.
3 isle stores
The locations are at the Kahala
Mandarin, Hilton Hawaiian
Village and Royal HawaiianBy Tim Ruel
truel@starbulletin.com"We are downsizing. There's no secret to it," said Michael Windsor, president and chief executive officer of McInerny parent InterPacific Hawaii Retail Group Ltd.
The company is closing its 35,000-square-foot McInerny Galleria at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center, and moving some of the store's key departments into the 25,000-square-foot McInerny Ltd. that is also located at the Royal Hawaiian center. There is no specific timetable for the closure, but it should happen later this year, Windsor said. "We are going to gradually get down to one store," he said.
The closure presents a sizable opening at the 293,000-square-foot Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center, which is owned by Kamehameha Schools.
McInerny has already started cutting some jobs by attrition, and it's not clear how many more jobs will be lost. "There will be some reduction coming; it won't be significant," Windsor said.
The company also plans to close one McInerny Ltd. at the Kahala Mandarin Oriental Hawaii and another at Hilton Hawaiian Village, both by the end of June. Last year, the company closed a 15-year-old McInerny Ltd. at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki.
All told, McInerny had sales of about $18 million last year, down 25 percent from 2000, and revenues are likely to drop some more this year because the company is closing stores, Windsor said.
Unlike other local retail executives, Windsor did not blame the company's woes on the recent events of Sept. 11.
Business has simply gotten harder for the little shops in Waikiki in recent years because major international players have been expanding their presence here, while at the same time the customer base has been shrinking, Windsor said.
DFS Group spent $65 million to expand the DFS Galleria Waikiki, which opened in early 2001.
Macy's West is renovating and expanding the former Liberty House stores, including the two Waikiki department stores at Ala Moana Center and on Kalakaua Avenue.
Honu Group Inc. is building a 110,000-square-foot luxury retail development near the Ewa end of Waikiki at 2100 Kalakaua Ave. Next door is the King Kalakaua Plaza, an 80,000-square-foot retail center opened by Honu in 1998.
Other local retailers than McInerny have been feeling the pinch.
Chun Kim Chow Ltd., a 93-year-old company that owned Ethel's dress shops began shutting down its 24 isle locations late last year. The firm closed its last shop, an Xavier Men's Shoes at Ala Moana Center, on April 10, said family member Renton Nip.
Local Motion Inc., whose Tokyo parent has filed for court protection from creditors, in January closed a D-va store at Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center and a Hawaiian Style store in Iwilei. Also, on the day before Sept. 11, the company closed two stores on Kalakaua Avenue.
Crazy Shirts Inc. went from more than 70 stores nationwide in mid-1996 to 42 stores in 1999, then filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and was sold at auction last year, and now has just under 40 stores, mostly in Hawaii and California.