For generations of Hawaii families, Sears’ Ala Moana Center flagship store represented the place in Honolulu since statehood to buy everything from tires to shoes to refrigerators, a one-stop shopping experience where a working family’s dollar seemed to stretch a bit further.
Fifty-three years’ worth of Sears shopping memories at Ala Moana Center came back to life Thursday as news spread that Sears will sell its Ala Moana store to the mall’s owner and close it sometime next year.
For loyal customers such as Barbara Rezentes, 66, of Kaimuki, shopping at Sears came to represent the memories and moments she spent with her family, especially her late mother, Margaret Rezentes.
Tears poured out of Barbara Rezentes as she recalled the hours that she and her mother shopped for clothes and appliances at Sears.
"We always came to Sears, even when it was by the old police station, and I remember riding up on the old escalators," Rezentes said. "When it moved to Ala Moana, my mom always had to come to Sears for everything we needed. I’m just shocked that Sears is going to close at Ala Moana. Just shocked."
Germaine Young, 58, tilted her head back so she could remember the aroma of popcorn at Sears’ old candy counter present whenever her parents brought her to Sears’ Ala Moana store each fall for the annual rite of back-to-school shopping that marked the end of summer.
"The only store they would bring me to was Sears," Young said. "It was reasonable, and they could buy me everything for school from head to toe."
Sears represented the more affordable alternative to Hawaii’s other pillar of retail shopping, Liberty House, before it evolved into Macy’s. But Sears seemed to have a wider range of merchandise to cover everyone in the family, said Alika Kalaulili, 61.
With 15 others in his family, Kalaulili remembered the thrill of back-to-school shopping where he was free to pick out "four pairs of pants, four shirts and one pair of shoes," he said. "We always looked forward to it."
His parents would bring the boys to shop in one shift and the girls in another to try to control the spending.
As he grew up and fathered his own five boys, Kalaulili continued to shop at Sears for Craftsman tools because of their quality and guarantees, bought all of his major appliances at Sears and went on to purchase big-screen televisions, stereos and other Sears presents for his children.
He began to tick off a long list of Sears purchases over the years.
"I got my weed whacker here, all my tools for my cars, my chain saw for cutting down trees," Kalaulili said. "It’s sad to hear they’ll be closing. It’s a landmark. Everyone knows Sears."
Before Sears opened in its current location in 1959, Kamuela Ho‘okano, 68, used to play in the empty lot where E.K. Fernandez stored its carnival rides, and Ho‘okano would start them up himself and ride for free for hours.
Once Sears opened as Ala Moana’s flagship retailer, "there was no other store that carried everything you needed," Ho‘okano said. "And they had the toughest denim you could find. Everyone shopped at Sears."
Ho‘okano and Kalaulili now spend every Tuesday and Thursday playing their ukulele and guitar, respectively, near Napoleon’s Bakery at the miniature food court in Sears.
Sally Willett Embry, 65, remembered her mother putting her and her sister on a plane to fly from Hilo to Honolulu, where they stayed for the summer with their "Nana."
Before Sears moved to Ala Moana, Nana would take the girls shopping for school clothes at the Beretania Street site.
"My favorite recollection of Sears was riding the escalator. There were no escalators in Hilo that I knew of. Up and down we would go," Embry wrote to the Star-Advertiser. "We moved away for several years, and imagine my shock when the HPD moved into my Sears store. But the Sears at Ala Moana was a joy to shop in, during its day. I bought my baby girls’ clothes there, tools for my husband, as well as my fresh Christmas tree — could not wait for them to come from the Pacific Northwest. Many more memories of Sears come to mind … too numerous to mention."
Darrah Makanui’s mother, Linda Iwamoto, worked at Sears’ Ala Moana store as a salesclerk. Makanui later brought her own daughter, Tihane Lopez, in to Sears for back-to-school shopping, and bought all of her family’s appliances at Sears.
But Makanui’s spending habits began to spread to other businesses as big-box retailers sprang up around Oahu and later to Kauai, where Makanui now lives.
Her husband, Abraham, a carpenter, also used to buy all of his tools at Sears — "until Home Depot opened," Makanui said.
"It’s a shame because Sears has been around for a long time," Makanui said.
Joseph Garcia, 69, used to work for Macy’s but always considered Sears "a traditional store for Hawaii families."
"It’s been a mainstay of our community," Garcia said.
Even though he worked for Sears’ competitor, Garcia was always a Sears customer for "anything that had to do with the home — or fixing up the home," he said. "It was The Place for traditional families."
Star-Advertiser reporter Dave Segal contributed to this story.
