Kokua Line
Kokua Line
Price Busters requires
no bag searchesQuestion: Price Busters opened a new store on Hotel Street last week. Upon entering the store, a security guard said I would have to check in my Longs shopping bag. I also saw him ask an old man carrying an athletic bag to please open the bag so he could look inside. I thought that was absolutely appalling. I asked the guard if they would do this every day, and he said yes. I have shopped at other Price Busters, and this has not been the policy. Why they are now asking us to check in our shopping bags?
Answer: Customers are asked to check in their bags before entering for their convenience and also for security reasons. But Kamuela Potter, vice president of operations for Price Busters, said it is not the policy to search or look into customers' bags.
If that happens, she said you should ask to speak to the manager.
Potter also said the bag check-in policy is in effect at all other Price Busters stores.
"It's amazing what people carry into the stores, because they're shopping at other locations," she said. "I think most of our customers appreciate having their bags held."
Q: With the UH Warriors football team's great accomplishments this season, Hawaii fans are coming out in support, but traffic afterward is a nightmare. Lanes are blocked off without advance warning; you cannot see the cones until you're right up on them; traffic directors are hard to see with their blue vests, and there is no real order in traffic after you leave the stadium. Does the stadium do what it pleases instead of following proper procedures on traffic control?
A: Traffic control is coordinated with the Honolulu Police Department as well as with special-duty officers hired to help direct traffic, said Scott Chan, operations manager for the stadium. He said a briefing is held with police before each event.
"We try to make the transition from the game out to the parking lot and out as smooth as possible," he said. But with thousands of people trying to make it out at once through a limited number of exits -- six -- there will be problems and delays, he said.
He also pointed to pedestrians trying to get out, "which is one of the major obstacles that impede traffic."
Traffic signals, meanwhile, can only be controlled by a police officer. Stadium employees "do not direct traffic on the main roads," Chan said.
Stadium personnel are stationed at each exit, while police officers are posted at the higher-traffic areas.
As for the cones, Chan said the biggest cones are 18 inches high. "We try to stretch those cones out as far as we can to let (motorists) know where they need to go," he said. He believes there are an ample number of signs to direct people.
"You don't want to put so much signage that it might confuse people," he said. "As long as we direct them to the exiting points, we feel that at least we can corral them and get them going."
Regarding the blue vests, Chan said they are official reflective safety vests used partly to help distinguish football game workers from swap meet workers.
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Useful phone numbers
Got a question or complaint?
Call 529-4773, fax 529-4750, or write to Kokua Line,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu 96813. As many as possible will be answered.
E-mail to kokualine@starbulletin.com