Since IKEA won’t come to us, a Hawaii businesswoman decided she would serve as the intermediary.

Jane Murao opened haul2hi in July and considers herself a personal shopping service for Hawaii residents wanting stuff from IKEA but who can’t get to the mainland to pick out things for themselves.

Haul2hi specializes in hauling items to Hawaii that IKEA doesn’t offer online and that the retailer usually won’t ship to the islands.

"I’ve always wanted to do this," she said. "I’ve worked in retail before but my passion is logistics."

Most of her business is conducted online.

Customers click on the IKEA links on Murao’s haul2hi website; note details about desired items, such as article numbers, color and quantity; and list them at the "Get a Quote" page. Murao will generally email a price quote in 24 to 48 hours.

The next shipping deadline for orders is clearly marked at several places on her website.

One might assume her shipments arrive via ocean freight, but "we have a really sweet deal with an air shipper," and it’s only a few dollars more than by boat and is obviously much faster. "I buy the space that I need" based on customer orders every two weeks, she said.

Orders bound for neighbor islands tend to take a bit longer, as they get transferred from the air carrier to Young Bros. Ltd., or by whichever method customers work out with her.

All items are shipped for customer pickup at the haul2hi showroom, but customers can pay extra for delivery.

Many customers, however, want to see and touch, and perhaps sit on items before plunking down ducats, so Murao has a small showroom in Kalihi. She doesn’t sell items from the showroom, however, in keeping with the arrangement she has with a Portland, Ore.-area IKEA store.

Retired newsman Jim Manke and his wife, Joan, found haul2hi after searching locally to find headboards for their Kai­lua home.

"We have a condo in Oregon that we furnished, 60 percent, with IKEA furniture," which he described as being of good quality and reasonably priced.

Being familiar with IKEA, they had an idea of what they wanted to find locally. "We went to four furniture stores, and when we found a store that would sell us just the headboard, it was in excess of $200 and it was not of great quality," he said.

Their online research turned up haul2hi, and they made contact. With Murao’s help they found two sets of headboards and bed frames for "less than what we would have paid for a headboard," not counting shipping, "but for the quality of the furniture, I consider it a bargain," Manke said.

It is impossible to count on two hands and feet the number of people who have expressed to your columnist a desire that IKEA set up shop(s) in Hawaii. Many of those requests also included a bit of drooling about the food IKEA serves.

At last check they have no plans to open a store in the islands, but never say never, right? The company has 298 stores in 26 countries, and all but one are franchises.

"I’m a huge IKEA lover," Murao said.

Murao redecorates her small haul2hi Kalihi showroom frequently with different arrangements of different types of IKEA furniture and accessories, say, a kid’s room, a bedroom, a living room and so on.

"We try to keep it relevant to what people are looking for and is going to be the most cost-effective," she said. "There are endless possibilities."

The showroom closes a few times a year so Murao can take research and development trips to the mainland.

She needs to "stay on top of the product lines," see which items have been discontinued, and the like.

Most of the time, the showroom is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and by appointment outside of those days.

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Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.