TheBuzz

Erika Engle

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GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Strawberry Connection owner Becky Choy helped customer Dustin Ebesu of Kaneohe to his car after he made a purchase at the Dole Cannery store yesterday. The store will shut down tomorrow.

Gourmet store
closes up shop

Strawberry Connection
pioneered the retailing niche

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When Strawberry Connection of Hawaii Inc. closes its doors tomorrow, the only two people left unemployed will be its owners, President Becky Choy and Vice President John Stoudt.

Its six employees have found other jobs, Choy said.

That is not to say Choy and Stoudt won't be busy; they will have legal matters to attend to as the 19-year-old company will file for bankruptcy protection.

At the root of the company's woes is debt carried over from its former Kalihi location. Choy did not divulge the amount, referring TheBuzz to attorney Jerrold Gubin, who did not return calls.

Lease rent at Strawberry Connection's old Kahai Street location kept going up and "the bank didn't want to refinance the balance of the loan," Choy said.

None of the debt was from wholesale or retail customers owing the company money, she said.

"We have excellent customers. Even in my retail, people, knock wood, I don't think I've got a bad check."

GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Customers browse at Strawberry Connection at Dole Cannery. The store moved there two years ago from Kalihi.

The store moved to Dole Cannery in 2001 as Choy and Stoudt tried to figure out a plan to pay off the debt and still clear a profit, spending two years "trying to exhaust everything," she said. "I guess we were all tired of fighting."

Choy and Stoudt decided to "pull the plug before we get any deeper."

Friend and competitor Karen Syrmos, chief executive officer of Island Epicure, thought back to when Strawberry Connection was about the only business of its type.

"I'm just really saddened by (the closure), they were really a leader on the retail level," she said, wishing them luck in their future ventures.

"If you think about it, just 12 years ago you could not get a jar of kalamata olives," Syrmos said. The options were Strawberry Connection and later, R. Field Wine Co., then at Ward Centre.

Now it's another story. Syrmos's job at Island Epicure is an example. Foodservice distributor Y. Hata & Co. Ltd. recently created the gourmet foods unit. And many once-rare gourmet-type items have become increasingly available at regular grocery stores.

"People are demanding better and better quality food and major national brands have bought up many of the small gourmet companies so the distribution process for those brands is much more efficient," said R. Field's Richard Field. His stores are part of selected locations of Foodland Supermarkets Ltd.

Strawberry Connection drew its name from its first business function -- wholesaling strawberries. The company then branched into specialty produce and other products for its hotel, restaurant and catering clients.

It later added a retail component and then a deli for food service.

Strawberry Connection was among Field's suppliers, he said.

"They came along at a time when the restaurant industry started to boom, with more and more creative cuisine. They may actually have helped that along, but I don't know if they got any credit for it," Field said.

Strawberry Connection's success spawned competitors.

"People were coming into the store, writing down what they could get, duplicating us, it's very common," Choy said. "It's business, there's nothing you can do about that.

"But because we were strapped I couldn't continue my growth like we had planned. That's the sad part."

Growth that could have served the increasing demand Syrmos and Field see for gourmet and specialty items.

"The volume of foot traffic and revenue was not what we projected," Choy said.

Landlord "Castle and Cooke has been fair," Choy said. "I've enjoyed the stay here, and they're still continuing to be very fair to us. If we didn't have the overhead debt it would have been a very viable business."

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Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com