Where, oh where, have all of the superettes gone? I hate to date myself, but those of us in the over-30 crowd know the value of superettes. They’re where we stop when we need something not available at a convenience store and aren’t in the mood for the hustle and bustle of a supermarket.
Thankfully the Pukalani Superette has kept Upcountry youth savvy. My friend Sherri Reeve takes her teenage daughter there all the time.
“I just love their stuff,” Reeve told me recently. “It’s so unique.” She and her daughter Hailey’s top Superette picks are the Chilli Chicken ($4.29/lb.), Spam Masubi ($1.39) and sushi rolls ($4.09/roll or $0.59/cone).
A longtime upcountry resident, Reeve owns The Sherri Reeve Art Gallery in Makawao. “I like knowing I’m supporting small business,” she said. “I walk out of the Superette feeling like I’ve contributed to the heritage of my town.”
Driving by it’s hard to miss the festive banners outside advertising the Superette’s 50th anniversary.
Last week Myles Nakashima, co-owner of the Superette with his brother Aric, took time out of a busy morning to tell me about the history of this unique little Pukalani goldmine.
The story started back in the 1920s when Nakashima’s grandparents, Takeo and Kome Tanizaki, opened the Tanizaki Store.
“My grandparents came here from Japan and they had a store in Wailuku,” said Nakashima. “Then there was a fire and the store burned. So that’s why they moved up here. They bought this whole corner lot, which includes the Shell Station.”
In 1955, the family incorporated the store and changed the name to the Pukalani Superette. The doors opened in December of that year.
The story goes, that on the grand opening day, my mother was giving birth to me,” said Nakashima. “I’ll be 50 in December so I guess that corroborates my story!
“My father Noriaki Nakashima, he was like the Kamehameha of Pukalani Superette,” Nakashima said. “He consolidated all of the shares under one name. He bought out the rest of the relatives. My father was a shrewd one. He was very business-like. Had a great education and he took chances. Of course he also had the good fortune of marrying my mother. He married well!”
His mother, Sumiko Nakashima, ran the store for the next 40 years. When she retired, she passed the store down to her sons. Nakashima’s brother Aric operated the store on his own for 10 to 15 years. Then in 1991, Myles joined in to help.
“So I’m kind of new here!” he said. “Compared to some of the other workers who have been here 30 to 35 years.”
To celebrate the golden anniversary, managers and employees are sporting new uniforms. They’re also planning a special party in October, in addition to their usual weekly anniversary specials. I hope nobody missed the Ben & Jerry’s special a couple weeks ago—$2 a pint.
“We couldn’t do a back-to-the-‘50s pricing because it would just be too low,” said Nakashima. “So, what we are trying to do is 50 percent off regular retail pricing. We have weekly anniversary sale items with a real, real hot price.”
I asked him his favorite thing about running the store.
“That’s a tough one,” he said. “You know, I’m not a negative man. But I always said that if I had an extra several million dollars, I wouldn’t buy a supermarket. But you know, it’s a double-edged sword. The good things are the people and the employees. And the bad things are the people and the employees. When it’s a good day, it’s all good.
“I’m going to develop this new catch phrase for the store in our ads, and it is, ‘We have the best customers,’” he added. “That’s it. We have the best customers. We try to train our employees to appreciate the customers. Some places you go it’s like ‘No boddah me,’ or ‘Don’t take that off the shelf, I’ll have to fill it later.’ Some places you don’t feel appreciated, so we try to train employees to appreciate the customers. We try to go the extra mile. Being a smaller independent store, we are able to cater to peoples’ specific needs.
“If someone comes in needing a special case of wine, we’ll get them a case. We have special requests every day. And that’s a business, to fulfill the customer’s needs, to sell something. Because if you don’t have sales, you don’t have anything. Sales is our number one priority. If we don’t sell things, the wheel doesn’t move.”
MTW
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