Posts: 311
Threads: 15
Joined: Jun 2010
quote:
I also have found the store to be unwilling to even consider a customer suggestion concerning products to carry.
.
Yep, this has happened to me many times so I have given up trying to get things stocked in the Pahoa Natch store..even though I spend hundreds of dollars weekly there. Actually, I used to - I have found Kea'au Naturals much more friendly and willing to obtain what I ask for so I shop there first and most often.
The Pahoa Natch is continually out of products..regular products that I would have bought but walk out without because "they won't have it for a week or two". Not perishables either and they just can't seem to get their act together there as far as stocking the shelves. I used to walk in with a list of 12 items and leave with only 3. I am so tired of being frustrated in that store so I go elsewhere and only shop there as a last resort.
On a positive note, Ernie at the Hilo store is indeed a treasure - I only wish he was at the Pahoa store!
Posts: 1,062
Threads: 43
Joined: Apr 2009
I have been in a couple of the local stores and was totally shocked at the prices on the items. Spending that kind of money will not make me live long enough to justify the costs.
Besides, study after study has proven that organic and natural doesn't always equate to better quality.
Posts: 1,163
Threads: 32
Joined: Aug 2009
Those who know me know what an effort it was to get myself to even enter the IN store in Pahoa. I started breaking out in hives just entering the parking lot -- but I was having a vegan friend over as part of a larger dinner party and needed advice and assistance on suitable products to serve him. Not only was the clerk hard to engage (I clearly wasn't as interesting as her co-worker), she spent more of her time castigating me for being a meat eater and trying to turn me vegan then she did helping me get what I came there for. Needless to say, I beat a hasty retreat and haven't been back since. The folks at Down to Earth were much more helpful, and I've been back on a couple of occasions and bought stuff that I actually ate myself! So Russell, please remind your staff that they'll catch more customers with organic honey than with the vinegar they seem to prefer.
Posts: 1,139
Threads: 42
Joined: Feb 2008
gotta agree with most of what's been posted. we do eat at IN hilo. love the buffet--great variety. ernie is da bomb! no one and i mean no one else has been so helpful or friendly there.
keaaurich: should the occasion come up again for a dinner party that includes a vegan, check-out down to earth's website for recipes.
"a great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."
w. james
"a great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."
w. james
No, no da Vinci, stop trying to poach Ernie! If he left Hilo, I'd have no reason to go to that store any more. I praised him first! [:p]
Posts: 798
Threads: 38
Joined: May 2005
I say hand that vegan a stick of celery and tell them to STFU and be happy with it.[:p]
Posts: 1,163
Threads: 32
Joined: Aug 2009
<writing down Rob's suggestion re: vegan entertaining...>
Posts: 1,062
Threads: 43
Joined: Apr 2009
quote:
Originally posted by robguz
I say hand that vegan a stick of celery and tell them to STFU and be happy with it.[:p]
That would be a cheap dinner to provide them with?
Posts: 311
Threads: 15
Joined: Jun 2010
quote:
Originally posted by KathyH
No, no da Vinci, stop trying to poach Ernie! If he left Hilo, I'd have no reason to go to that store any more. I praised him first! [:p]
LOL... [
] full disclosure: that was my wife (wyline) posting on my account. But I get the distinct impression that Ernie is much the beloved figure.
Posts: 1,100
Threads: 6
Joined: Nov 2010
It's funny how the stores have a different vibe to them. Island Naturals always seemed to be the yuppie store in Hilo, and Abundant Life the hippy store.
FWIW, Down To Earth is run by a rabidly homophobic, quasi-Hare Krishna cult that Sen. Mike Gabbard of Oahu and Puna's own Alan Yoza are part of. Makes patronizing them kind of distasteful to me, although I suppose it's not much different than going to Wal-Mart.
