[ FABRIC OF LIFE ]
Kaimuki was a fledgling neighborhood of homes and businesses just getting paved roads and sidewalks when Takao and Masako Okawa opened a dry goods store on Waialae Avenue. The year was 1926. Novelties help fabric shop
outlast its competitorsBy June Watanabe
jwatanabe@starbulletin.comThey called their store Kaimuki Dry Goods, but, in answer to their customers' desires, it was more of an emporium, offering sheets, shoes, jewelry, candy, toys -- the general goods of life. When it was Christmas, they sold ornaments. At Easter there were Easter baskets.
As the years passed and daunting competitors set up shop, the store added "ready-wear" to its inventory. It found different niches to fill over the years until, in 1967, it settled into its name.
Seventy-six years since its founding, Kaimuki Dry Goods is no longer on the main street of town, but is still a "destination store" just a few blocks off the beaten business track. It can lay claim to being the last independent full-service fabric store in the state, according to DeeDee Miyashiro, the Okawas' granddaughter.
Her mother, Edith Takeya, was just a teenager when the store first opened. Takeya eventually assumed control of the business in 1972, following the retirement of her sister.
Ninety years old on Oct. 16, she still goes into work three days a week and remains the common thread in a family business that has survived monumental changes in both the local marketplace and shopping habits.
DENNIS ODA DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
A varied inventory keeps customers coming back to Kaimuki Dry Goods, run by Edith Takeya and DeeDee Miyashiro.
Consider that Hawaii was once known as "the sewing-est state in the nation."
At one time, Hawaii sold the most McCall's patterns, per capita, in the nation, Miyashiro recalled. For one particular zipper company, Kaimuki Dry Goods sold the most zippers, per capita, than anywhere else.
That's no longer the case, and many contemporary fabric shops in town have either folded, downsized and/or refocused on crafts.
Takeya believes her store has managed to survive because it did not branch out, not even when all the shopping malls came courting. Less overhead, she explained.
Miyashiro thinks a big reason is offering customers what they cannot get elsewhere, from novelty items to high-quality fabrics.
The store's motto: "You can find it at Kaimuki Dry Goods."
"We try to carry everything our customers have asked for," said Miyashiro, a 1966 Kalani High graduate.
Walk into the store on 10th Avenue, and you're hit by an array of colors, textures and designs.
There are thousands of bolts of fabrics lining the walls and jamming the tables in just less than 5,000 square feet of space (about 800 of it the floor-to-ceiling packed "warehouse" off the showroom).
If the store doesn't have it, it'll order it. It's not unusual for a bride-to-be to buy the fabric for her entire wedding party. Mosquito netting, rubberized flannel, poi strainer ... they've got it.
Today, the hardest part of staying in business is "not knowing what (customers) want anymore," Miyashiro said. Outside of quilting, which has been the big draw in the fabric industry for several years, "There is no trend."
Her biggest competitor is not another fabric store -- it's Ross, the discount chain.
But the store, she says, is "holding its own. ... We just go with the flow." She credits her 18 employees, especially assistant manager Pam Metzger, with the company's continued success.
After 36 years in the family business, Miyashiro does not see herself working another 24 years, when the store would mark its centennial.
With no fourth generation to carry on when she retires, "Hopefully, it will continue," she said, "but not as a family business."
Where: 1144 10th Ave. Kaimuki Dry Goods
Original location: On Waialae Avenue, between 11th and 12th avenues, where Top of the Hill restaurant now sits
Opened: 1926
Employees: 18
Open: Seven days a week; closed New Year's, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas
Owners: DeeDee Miyashiro and Kenneth Takeya, grandchildren of founders Takao and Masako Okawa
