Marukai to close Kaneohe outlet

Marukai Corp. will soon shutter its Windward Mall store, but company representatives are not publicly releasing a closing date.

Large, 30-percent-off display signs throughout the specialty shop give no hint of a closure, but employees at the Windward Mall location have stopped restocking perishable items and are telling customers that the store has lost its lease and will close in early 2013 after a decade at the neighborhood shopping center.

A Marukai Discount store manager, who asked not to be identified, said, "We are not to give out any information."

A spokeswoman for Windward Mall also wouldn’t comment.

The Japanese retailer, which has three stores on Oahu including a members-only Marukai Wholesale Mart in Honolulu, employs seven workers at the second-level mall outlet. Company representatives have not addressed whether employees will be laid off or transferred to another location.

Marukai has 270 employees in Hawaii and another 400 workers in California, where it operates six stores, according to the company website.

The stores sell an array of Asian products, some for 99 cents, as well as groceries, furniture, electronic appliances and health products.

Kaneohe shoppers and residents from as far as the North Shore who frequent the specialty outlet said they were saddened to see the shop go because it means they may have to drive farther into town to get unusual Asian products.

"I’m just sad to see it go because when we come here this is one of the stores that has things that are affordable and also has a wide range of items," said North Shore resident Jennifer Duerden, 44. "They have things for adults and for kids. They have food items, nonfood items. It’s really convenient having it here at the mall. Some of the items they have are Asian foods and different items that we can’t find elsewhere easily."

Kaneohe resident Bernie Kaluhiwa, who has shopped at the store for the past few years, said she will miss the unique items you can sometimes find at bargain prices.

"You cannot find the products; you’ve got to go to town to get this kind of stuff," Kaluhiwa said. "It is specialty Japa­nese (items). You don’t have anything like this in Kaneohe or on the Windward side."

Marukai Corp. USA, established in 1965 by Marukai Corp. in Osaka, has specialized in importing discounted Japa­nese products to Southern California and Hawaii by establishing cost-effective importing routes and reselling more than 20,000 specialty products to 80,000-plus members, the company said on its website.

The company expanded In 1982 to include membership-based shopping, with the opening of the Marukai Wholesale Mart in Gardena, Calif. Two more outlets opened in 1987 and 1996 in Hono­lulu. The first Marukai 99¢ Shop opened in Hono­lulu in 1998, followed by Marukai 99¢ Super Store in Wai­pahu in 2002.

In 2003, Marukai 99¢ Shop opened in Windward Mall and SACK-N-SAVE supermarket in the Stadium Market Place. It later expanded its merchandise from only 99-cent items to a variety of higher-price products.