10-acre Puna Kai shopping center.

[shockwave rider]

Rents in "downtown" Pahoa Village are similar to the Hilo Bayfront without the foot traffic. Rents in the current shopping center are clearly too high for the available customer base, or they would all be rented. I just don't know how many fast food places and small retailers Pahoa can support.

When I commuted to Hilo daily I did most of my shopping in Hilo, now I only go to Hilo for work twice a month and I still do the bulk of my shopping then, and just fill in perishables from Foodland or Malama Market and the Farmers market. The new shopping center is going to have to be pretty competitive on pricing to change that pattern.

[leilaniguy]

With Malama Market as the anchor I don't see anything changing.

[macuu222]

I don't understand why Malama doesn't keep prices the same as Hilo. Longs does with what little foodstuffs and alcohol they sell.

[leilaniguy]

Because other than the Natch or a fruit stand They're the only game in town, real ghetto.

[terracore]

On one end of the spectrum is ghetto pricing, on the other is "stack them deep and sell them cheap".

The moral of the story is "economy of scale". You can google that yourself, but the point is that the more stuff you sell (aka the bigger your store is) the lower your prices can become. I'm not saying the biggest Malama market is going to be the cheapest. But it probably won't be the most expensive. Especially if a different market leases it's old location.

[leilaniguy]

A little competition would be phenomenal, maybe a small Cost U Less. I got the grocery flyers out today and compared Malama with Sack n' Save, both owned by the Sullivans: turkeys, Malama $10.99 with $25 purchase, Sack n' Save, FREE! Canned ham $16.99 Malama, Sack n' Save $14.99. half ham, $2.59 Lb. Malama, Sack n, Save $2.29. Everything is like that.