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Under the Sun Cynthia Oi |
Hawaii’s values are not
up for a cheap tradeCASH registers were beeping furiously one busy Saturday in a toy store. Shoppers crowded counters where two women scanned bar codes, collected cash and thanked customers with programmed, sales-clerk enthusiasm.
I was returning a model kit I'd bought no more than 15 minutes before, having found a more suitable gift for a birthday boy at another store. The clerk was polite, but required me to divulge data I didn't think necessary for a refund.
She wanted my home address and phone number, a photo ID card as well as my Social Security number. When I balked, she said the company used the information to call refundees to make sure they'd actually returned a purchase and gotten refunds. Was this a program to better service? No, she said. Then what? She explained that the calls were to check on employees to make sure they weren't stealing stuff and hiding them as returns.
Jeez, really? Is this a big problem for the store? She said she didn't know, but the company apparently is concerned enough to institute the checks. She paused, then blurted that maybe if employees were better treated, there wouldn't be a theft problem. That maybe if her hours weren't limited to just a shave below the level that triggers benefits like health insurance, the company would inspire loyalty. That maybe if the boss didn't call her a mere 30 minutes before her starting time to tell her she wasn't needed that day, she and other clerks would feel more secure.
I'm guessing from her spontaneous tirade that she'd held in her frustrations about her job for a while. She took a second to gather herself, replaced her scowl with a fixed, stiff smile and gave me my refund without any more questions.
I felt sorry for her. Like many others, she's holding on to a job that she doesn't like and that doesn't pay well simply because she can't find another one. Even though unemployment numbers here fall below national levels, good jobs are hard to come by.
No wonder then that when businesses come to Hawaii promising new jobs, politicians and government officials fall all over themselves to roll out the red carpet. Often they will grease the skids, provide tax credits, tweak laws that protect taxpayers and the environment or offer assistance to make end-runs around regulations.
What they fail to investigate is whether these jobs are worth having, whether the businesses will hire newly minted professionals from our colleges and universities, offer advancement to management or merely supply minimum-wage work. They don't look at whether these jobs will fruit into a sustainable industry, whether these businesses will have an adverse effect on the cultural atmosphere or whether they will extract more from the local economy than they will put in.
When big-box outfits encounter community resistance, they bawl that such opposition stains Hawaii with an anti-business tint. That characterization has become the standard complaint, even from politicians.
If an anti-business climate means we don't sign off on our environmental values, then anti-business we should be. If anti-business means we demand roads, sewers, water improvements, schools and playgrounds in exchange for allowing massive luxury housing projects for those wealthy enough to afford second or third homes, then I should think we'd stand proud of being so. If anti-business signifies a desire to maintain public access rights to shorelines and mountains, then good.
Hawaii shouldn't be a cheap date. There are substantial disadvantages to doing business in our island state, but that shouldn't negate the need to be selective. Businesses come and go, but our natural resources, lands, oceans, our way of life should be constants. These are assets. They ought not to be blithely traded away.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Cynthia Oi has been on the staff of the Star-Bulletin since 1976. She can be reached at: coi@starbulletin.com.
