When it comes to image,
perception can differ
from reality

SAFEWAY has the best corporate image among companies doing business in Hawaii, but its ranking slips if people shop there, according to research released yesterday by SMS Research & Marketing Service Inc.

SMS asked 2,500 Hawaii residents to score nearly 80 companies according to 40 criteria. SMS grouped the respondents into categories, including those who have never heard of the company; those who have heard of the company but do not use its services, which SMS labeled as "Hawaii residents"; and those who have heard of the company and use its services, which SMS labeled as "users."

Each group's answers provided differing rankings.

The Hawaii residents group named Safeway No. 1 while users ranked the company No. 11. In an opposite result, Kapiolani Medical Center ranked second among Hawaii residents and first among users. Times Super Market was third among residents and No. 13 among users, its first time in the top ten since SMS began compiling the corporate image ranking in 1988.

Burger building

More on the name in a moment.

Construction delays that just about every Hawaii business can relate to are behind the delayed opening in the old Waikiki Sizzler space. The new cheeseburger restaurant was to open in May or July but it is now scheduled to open in mid-October, said Michael Conti, chief operating officer of California-based Cheeseburger Restaurants Inc.

The opening will coincide with the 15th anniversary of the very first Cheeseburger in Paradise -- on Front Street in Lahaina.

Company founders Laren Gartner and Edna Bayliff vacationed frequently on Maui, and "walking up and down Front Street ... they couldn't find a great place to go hang out and have a great, juicy cheeseburger," Conti said. A second-floor location was secured and the island-themed burger bistro was born in October of 1989.

"In 15 years it has become an icon on Maui and is still going strong today," and last year had its best year (in sales) ever, said Conti.

Now about that name.

Singer Jimmy Buffett, who wrote the song "Cheeseburger in Paradise," sued the company over the use of the name for the restaurants. The Lahaina and first Waikiki Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurants were allowed to keep their names in a legal settlement with Buffett. However, the new restaurant will be called Cheeseburger Waikiki, Conti said.

Maui's second restaurant by Cheeseburger Restaurants Inc. is called Cheeseburger Wailea. The Las Vegas restaurant in the Desert Passage mall is called Cheeseburger at the Oasis, and so on.

An Ala Moana location planned by the company in January has been removed from the drawing board as the two sides could not reach lease terms. That plan and those funds will be channeled elsewhere.

"We have three new locations on the drawing board as we speak," Conti said. "We are expanding out across the United States right now, but never forgetting that Hawaii is our home. If it wasn't for Hawaii, there would not be a company here today."