Coming into bloom at Ala Moana Center

For years now, Ala Moana Center has been morphing from a local shopping center into Every Mall, USA. With the addition of Bloomingdale’s as an anchor tenant in the fall of 2015, that transformation may be essentially complete.

"Bloomie’s" will take over part of the space left by Sears at the opposite end of the center from Macy’s, which is owned by the same parent company. And like Macy’s, it evokes images of New York and other big cities.

There’s also the Dallas-based emporium Nieman Marcus, and Seattle-headquartered Nordstrom anchoring the center’s crossbar. Just about every national retailer you can think of is there, most trying to localize their inventory somewhat.

So welcome to Hawaii, Bloomie’s! It’ll be great to have another bedrock department store to choose from in Christmas 2015.

Taking care of our kamaaina guests

Hotels throughout the islands urge locals to spend a weekend at their luxury accommodations, so naturally Weldon Kekauoha was upset when a Halekulani Hotel security guard questioned whether he and his family, lounging at the pool, were guests.

"It’s quite obvious that we were singled out purely because of the color of our skin" when an "older, Caucasian woman" asked the guard to challenge their presence at the pool, said the Na Hoku Hanahano Award-winning musician.

Halekulani management apologized profusely, saying such a confrontation never happened before and that steps would be taken to ensure it never happens again. That’s a good lesson. The incident ought to serve as a cautionary tale for the entire industry to heed.