CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Stacey, Steve and Sunny Pak opened the family's UPS Store earlier this month at 1670 Makaloa St. They were looking for a business that was less dependent on the visitor industry, Sunny Pak said.

---

Family business
new for holidays

The Pak family sold their gift shop
to leave tourism dependence

The fortunes of Sunny Pak and her family used to rise and fall with the visitor count.

Not anymore.

Pak and her husband, Steve, sold Sunny Gift Shop in the Ohana Village Hotel, their visitor-geared retail store in Waikiki, to open a UPS Store earlier this month.

The store is on the second floor of the new Palama Super Market on Makaloa Street, near Daiei Kaheka.

"I was looking for something (targeted) toward local business. Then I looked at other franchises, but I don't have any experience about the food business," she said.

The family had plenty of retailing experience, beginning with a presence in the International Market Place for three years in the 1990s. During that time, the Paks expanded the business, opening the hotel-based shop and running both by themselves.

Stretched too thin, one of the locations had to go, so the International Market Place location was closed.

While running the shop with Steve and daughter Stacey, Sunny was also the assistant general manager at retailer Bally in Waikiki, where her general manager gave her an idea, prompting her to look into UPS.

In June 2003, "I decided to be one of the franchisees of The UPS Store," she said. The company had purchased shipper Mailboxes Etc. "and I think this is a good opportunity," because of the increasing volume of people engaged in e-commerce online, the potential to service traditional shipping and mailing business and "some tourists need to ship (gifts) after shopping," she said.

The sale of the store along with savings and a loan from American Savings Bank combined for the $250,000 the Paks needed for the franchise fee, fixtures and other start-up costs.

Marketing help came from Sunny's sister Jae Sun.

"I am Korean, and most Asians, they really don't know what The UPS Store does because we always go to the post office," Sunny Pak said.

The Paks advertise on Korean-language KBFD-TV and in publications to help get the word out.

Census information shows the Makaloa-Kaheka area has a higher ethnic Korean population than anywhere else on Oahu.

More than 50 percent of the Paks' customers are Asian, many of them Korean, she said.

The store's popularity became evident as customers would tell her how happy they were to have her Korean-speaking service available.

"I'm so happy because it's convenient and Grandma doesn't speak English," Pak was told. "I can help them -- you cannot get that service at the post office."

One customer returned with an edible expression of gratitude.

"She was so happy, after she shipped out the package, she even brought us goodies."

Pak is convinced she made the right decision.

Korean is not the mother tongue of all her customers, however. Many appreciate the convenience of not having to stand in long lines at the post office.

The Pak family is now firmly ensconced within the growing ranks of UPS Store minority franchisees.

"Minority ownership of UPS stores is certainly not unusual," said Steve Holmes, manager of corporate communications for The UPS Store and Mailboxes Etc.

The company is not allowed to ask a franchisee about their ethnic background, but some volunteer the information.

"Even prior to the rebranding (of UPS combined with Mailboxes Etc.), as our company has diversified, there has been an increase in the number of (franchise) applications from people representing a wide spectrum of cultures and backgrounds, looking not only to pursue the entrepreneurial dream of owning their own business, but serving a market that has a higher concentration of people from their own particular background," Holmes said.

The UPS Store has franchisees who are Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, Middle Eastern and Hispanic, for example.

Pak's stories of grateful and demonstrative customers are familiar to Holmes.

"People are very appreciative of a business when they walk in and the people behind the counter can speak their native tongue, or a language they're much more comfortable with," he said.