Friday 5 for November 2: Dreaming

1, If you suddenly received a ton of money and could open up some kind of store or service just for the pleasure of having it (assume it wouldn’t have to be too financially successful!), what would it be? 

 I always wanted to operate either a record store or a radio station.

 

 2. What service or store that no longer exists do you miss most? 

Plenty - Aloha Airlines, Mid Pacific Airlines, Woolworth, Kress Stores, Western Stores, Job Lot, Records Hawaii, The Record Museum, Tower Records, Radio Free Hawaii, Froggies, Hasegawa Store in Honokaa, Hamakua Fountain, Tou Inn, Dairy Queen in Honokaa, and other eating places too numerous to mention.



3. What local business do you think you could make better if you were to take it over? And if you don’t mind sharing, what changes would you make? 

Not exactly local, but at the Don Quijote Stores I'd bring back all of those one dollar items they used to sell that came from Japan.

4. What spot nearby seems to be impossible for businesses to survive in?

Restaurant Row complex near Downtown Honolulu has had a historically high rate of turnover. Many eating places have come and gone there over the last 20 years. There frequently are many vacant spots for people to set up a restaurant, but they remain empty.

Kalama Village Center, a small strip mall located in Hawaii Kai is mostly empty.

5. We’ve all seen stores that combined books and records, beer and laundry, or coffee and whatever. One of my favorite places to get coffee in Honolulu is a cafe and florist, and there is a car garage that’s also a diner in a town nearby. What would be a cool hybrid of two disparate ideas for somewhere you’d like to hang out? 

How about a classy coin laundry, bookstore and internet cafe mixed into one business.

Questions posted Nov. 2 at Scrivener's Friday 5.