Burger King Pahoa

[Obie]

The Woodland Center belongs to Paul Ogasawara. Longs, Burger King and Luquins all lease from him.He is as local as you can get. He pays $84,000.00/ year in property taxes.

[AaronM]

Dead end corporate jobs barely qualify as jobs.  

Instead of giving your money to the Burger King shareholders, how about you do as suggested above, and support locally owned businesses whose profits are reinvested locally?

Both are franchises, owned locally...

Then I'm even more insulted.  Somebody who lives here decided to contribute a fast food joint to the community?  Thanks for nothing.  I hope they get high on their own supply and suffer the consequences, like diabetes, hypertension, obesity, gastrointestinal distress, or any of the other ailments associated with eating garbage food like heart disease, stroke or premature mortality.

If you want to open a burger joint, why not source all your ingredients locally and make your food from scratch?  Is it really cheaper to barge crappy ingredients over than it is to buy local?  If so, wouldn't the dramatic increase in quality afford you more customers willing to pay more to get more?

I know I didn't go the Wharton School like the geniuses do but this seems like a lazy approach that will eventually end in closure like KFC and all the others before them.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Dead end corporate jobs barely qualify as jobs.  

Have you ever seen the graduation rate for Pahoa High?  Not the seniors who graduate, but taking into account those who start out as freshmen.  

81% of Pahoa students are economically disadvantaged.  What type of businesses would you like to see offering employment at Woodland Center or Puna Kai?  An A.I. Research Center, a think tank, maybe some kind of medical assembly clean room factory?

[terracore]

"Is it really cheaper to barge crappy ingredients over than it is to buy local?"

Yes. And not everybody likes the flavor of BIs 100% grass fed beef. Unless it's barged or flown to the west coast, finished on grain, processed, and sent back.

Anybody know what happened to the mobile slaughterhouse? All I could find on it was "financial difficulties" and it closing in 2019.

[AaronM]

Dead end corporate jobs barely qualify as jobs.  

Have you ever seen the graduation rate for Pahoa High?  Not the seniors who graduate, but taking into account those who start out as freshmen.  

81% of Pahoa students are economically disadvantaged.  What type of businesses would you like to see offering employment at Woodland Center or Puna Kai?  An A.I. Research Center, a think tank, maybe some kind of medical assembly clean room factory?

Wow, so either our kids are A.I. researchers or burger flippers?  Yikes.

There is another thread lamenting the lack of roofers. That's always a good trade for youths with strong backs...

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

either our kids are A.I. researchers or burger flippers?  

Some graduate and may go to college and become A.I. researchers.
Some don't graduate, and we should be happy if they find a job locally.

Of course there's a gray area in between.  Those graduates work in slow motion at the county real estate tax office or planning department.  If they have a relative who helps with the job application.

[AaronM]

Why should we be happy if high school dropouts are able to find jobs locally? As a famous poster often points out - nobody is required to live in Hawaii. I hear there are lots of fast food places in Las Vegas and Los Angeles - two cities with large Hawaiian populations.

If the notion persists that school is optional and that we'll find something for you to do anyway, then where is the motivating factor to require more of oneself? (Oneself - remember him?)

Maybe if the prevailing concept becomes that knowledge and skills are your tickets to staying in Hawaii Nei, then perhaps our grad rates would go up...

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

where is the motivating factor to require more of oneself?

Do you think even fewer jobs in East Hawaii will make a high school freshman or sophomore sit up in the back of the classroom and say to themselves "well… my older brother the car thief and dad the addict lost their jobs when the burger joint closed down, so I better get my grades up from a D to a C- and make something of myself."

Have you ever been hit in the back of the head with a spitball by the kids who sat behind you in high school?  The ones who never did their homework.  Skipped school every other day before they dropped out?  I don't know how the lower bell curve kids from my school days turned out, but I do know they didn't find school easy.  They needed a lot more than motivation to make it through, because they generally weren't getting the necessary encouragement from home.  

[HiloJulie]

Well I’m sure the best thing those kids can do is to procreate. Right?

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

best thing those kids can do 

Everyone is good at something.