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Women whip up sales
at Ward’s retail outlets

Thirty percent of the businesses in Ward Centre and Ward Warehouse -- 100 retail stores -- are women-owned, according to General Growth Properties Inc.

In some cases, the businesses are husband-and-wife owned, but "I think we've always had a high percentage of women-owned businesses," said Diane Bruce, marketing director for General Growth.

Overall, the Ward complex has close to 70 percent that are locally owned, Bruce added.

It is due in large part to the specialty-retail nature of both centers, "so it's a smaller space and (the owners) can test out their new ideas and be very creative," Bruce said. "Our market is very local and a lot of times that is the market that they're after."

In addition, Bruce said that because the complex is in central Honolulu, the location is prime for the retailers and convenient for customers.

Some proprietresses are tried and true retail veterans of many years, with shops including Nohea Gallery and Sedona.

Some are new, such as Gayle, Weddings & Lifetime Events, now open at Ward Warehouse. Owned and operated by Gayle Fujita Ramsey, the business provides a variety of services for wedding planning and other special events such as anniversary or birthday parties or luaus, including day-of-event help.

"Victoria Ward Centers is a great location because so many of our partners are tenants as well, making it a convenient one-stop shop for our clients to visit," she said.

Unlike regular retail shops, however, Ramsey's services, out of the kiosk fronting the Chowder House, are available only by appointment through 845-2400 or the company Web site (see below).

Chefs cook up big money

The Chefs for Hope fund-raiser for the Salvation Army's Hurricane Katrina relief efforts Monday night raised more than $126,000 unofficially, according to Daniel de Castro, public relations director for the Salvation Army in Hawaii and the Pacific.

"We were so overwhelmed, the generosity of these folks," he said.

The effort was put together in two weeks, according to Jo McGarry, the fund-raiser's "organizer of all the chefs."

McGarry, a food columnist for Midweek and the Star-Bulletin, praised the chefs, beverage companies and other purveyors who donated every bit of food and cooking equipment to make sure all the proceeds went to the relief effort. She believes the total may go higher.

"They're so great," and it may have been the largest, or one of the largest gatherings of Oahu's culinary glitterati, with 27 chefs in attendance.

"Usually you get 18 or 19," McGarry said.

Business support for fund-raising efforts is vital and has been pouring in, and in events such as Chefs for Hope, "100 percent of the proceeds are going directly to providing services to those survivors," de Castro said.

"It's tremendous, the kind of response from the business community as well as individuals ... My phone has been ringing off the hook," with businesses, schools, community organizations and individuals planning ways to raise money to help Hurricane Katrina's victims, he said.

"We're thousands of miles away from where the devastation happened and (these efforts demonstrate that) there's just so much compassion and humanity in Hawaii," de Castro said.

He knows. He's the one in charge of getting a whole lot of thank-you letters out in the mail.

Why ads don't work

The title of the upcoming dinner meeting of the Sales and Marketing Executives of Honolulu, "Why Advertising Doesn't Work," was just too anachronistic not to delve into. What were they thinking? Isn't advertising their whole kuleana?

The featured speaker at the event is a former radio broadcaster turned sales executive turned college instructor turned professional speaker and consultant.

Paul Weyland is co-writing a book with the same seemingly condemning title, with the oh-that-explains-it subtitle, "and other marketing myths."

The 5:30-to-9:00 p.m. dinner event at the Kahala Mandarin Oriental Hotel will be Tuesday.

The flyer prepared by SME Honolulu empathizes, "Almost all of us, or our own clients, have said, 'I tried advertising and it doesn't work.'"

Saying that radio, television or print "doesn't work" when you don't know what you're doing is like saying a car doesn't work because you don't know how to drive, it says.

The gauntlet's been thrown.

Registration deadline is today via phone at 942-7000 or online.