Kaimukī’s businesses are asking shoppers to support the neighborhood’s small retailers and eateries — and making it easy for you to do just that.
Keep it Kaimukī Saturday returns this weekend, running from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 29, with more than 30 of the community’s small businesses and restaurants participating.
Jordan Lee, who owns The Public Pet, an urban pet supply store located on Wai‘alae Avenue, also founded Keep it Kaimukī several years ago, an initiative that aims to promote and support the community’s small businesses and foster a sense of community.
He says Keep it Kaimukī Saturday was created to think about the neighborhood as a whole and “and to really think about the power of Kamukī and our neighborhood.”
The neighborhood is largely comprised of small businesses, he told Aloha State Daily at a recent media preview for Saturday’s event. Keep it Kaimukī Saturday promotes shopping local, shopping small “and trying to keep the dollar within Kaimukī, because we have such a good variety of shops, eateries, cafés, services. Really, one can enjoy an entire day in the neighborhood.”
In addition to discounts and promotions at a number of retailers and restaurants throughout Kaimukī, a market with free keiki activities and live entertainment also is set 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Ali‘iolani Elementary., located at 1240 7th Ave.
Free self-parking is available at Sacred Heart Academy and St. Patrick Church. You’ll also be able to take free trolley rides throughout Kaimukī from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Now in its ninth year, Lee says, Keep it Kaimukī Saturday gets “bigger and bigger every year.”
“We definitely have more eyes on us and we’re flattered,” he says. “We’ve had other neighborhoods around the globe, really, reach out to us and see what it is that we’re doing is so special. And I really think what that is is having a cluster of business owners that really are like-minded and working together instead against each other. It’s really about community and not competition.”
Summer Shiigi, owner of two Kaimukī businesses, Ten Tomorrow, a women’s clothing line, and Daily Whisk Matcha, a café, helped Lee start the annual Keep it Kaimukī Saturday event.
Shiigi told Aloha State Daily that she comes from a retail calendar, where Black Friday was always the biggest day of the year. But since moving to Kaimukī and hosting Keep it Kaimukī Saturday, it has “actually been our biggest sale driver of the year, which is really nice to just feel the community coming out to support local.”
It’s important, she says, to keep money in the local economy.
“It’s a hard-earned dollar, and I think rather than choosing convenience, being mindful with your shopping and knowing that you could come to a place like Kaimukī and your dollar’s going to work, keeping it in the local community, supporting local makers, creating jobs, I just think it’s more meaning and it’s a really special day.”
Keep it Kaimukī Saturday falls in line with Small Business Saturday, the annual event founded by American Express in 2010 to drive spending at small businesses. It’s held every year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving — and Black Friday — and has been co-sponsored by the U.S. Small Business Administration since 2011.
Dennis Kwak, district director of the SBA’s Hawai‘i District, told ASD that generally, a small business has 500 employees or less. In Hawai‘i, small businesses account for 99.3% of the state’s businesses.
“Small Business Saturday is a really big event for a lot of these small businesses,” he says, noting a study that found that small business owners expect 20% of their annual revenues to come from that one day alone.
That’s “a big, big chunk of money,” Kwak says.
Small Business Saturday is important, he told ASD, “and the reason that it’s important [is] because small businesses make up your community. Without small businesses, we would literally look like a factory. It’s really nice to have unique small businesses that represent and that are there for the local community to be a part of.”
Small businesses also create jobs and support local workers, Kwak says.
According to data from the SBA’s Office of Advocacy, the 251,556 small business employees make up 49.6% of the state’s employees.
Kwak says that small businesses are the “backbone of the economy.”
(ICYMI: Mana Up co-founder Meli James shared similar sentiments about Hawai‘i’s small businesses in this summer).
Find more information about Small Business Saturday here and Keep it Kaimukī Saturday here.
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Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
