A recent Star-Advertiser story about visitors getting lost in Chinatown made it clear that it’s time for the Chinatown walking-tour map , long available online, to appear on smartphones to help direct locals and visitors to the shops and restaurants they want to frequent.

As it happens, creators of a coincidentally and aptly named app thought just that, and are taking the necessary steps to incorporate Honolulu’s Chinatown into ShopSuey. 

The website chinatownhi.com includes a link to a walking map that could help contribute to the app effort by Shopping Made Mobile Inc. Chinatownhi.com is maintained as a community service by Greater Good Inc., established by Honolulu entrepreneur Evan Leong.

The site was created to present a unified front for the United Chinese Society; United Chinese Coalition; Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii and Chinese Merchants Association in conjunction with the City and County of Honolulu, primarily as a resource for the annual Chinese New Year celebration, Leong said.

"We don’t make any money off the site," he said, but if it can serve as a resource for the app creators, "that would be good for them," he said.

The ShopSuey app available free for the iPhone via the app store, while the Android version is in the pipeline. As a local start-up, it needs funding in order to get things to market.

"I started the company about three and a half years ago," said co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer George Chalekian.

He and his partners have raised more than $300,000 locally and from family and friends, "boot-strapping the company through its development phase," he said.

Hawaii had just started its way toward economic recovery at the time, but the business community wasn’t sure if it was an actual recovery or if the economy would be "bouncing along the bottom," to repeat an oft-use phrase of the time.

The impetus of the app, Chalekian said, was to connect smartphone-equipped shoppers with merchants they might otherwise pass by. "Like Google is to maps … we’re going to be that shopping app," he said.

"If we make it better and easier for the shopper, that’s going to help the merchant, which is going to help local malls," said Chalekian. "If we can do that, we’re going to keep more money in the state, but of course our ambition is to go national."

Other key players include CEO Jason Hoopai, Marketing Director Anna Covert, Sales Director Carl Schwarm and Lehua Sparrow, head of engineering and product operations.

The app already maps out merchants at Ala Moana Center, Kahala Mall, Waikiki Beach Walk, and other major shopping centers, as well as large retailers such as Home Depot, Sparrow said.

Shoppers use it to see what’s going on at each retailer, while merchants use it to let shoppers know what the deals are and increase foot traffic, she said. Merchants who sign up will be able to access the app to update information therein and participation will be free for six months on a trial basis, she said.

The app team is working to line up a meeting with Chinatown area businesses to discuss opportunities, and they’d like to do the same for other communities, such as Kaimuki, Sparrow said. 

Kapolei Ruby Tuesday now on track

Initially projected to open in 2009, then last year, then late in the second quarter of this year, the Kapolei Ruby Tuesday is to be open by "October 13," said partner Rick Nakashima.

That’s the hard date? "Yep, I’m hoping, and you know, I could be wrong, but you’ve got to set a goal," he said, expressing confidence construction crews will finish by then. Nakashima hopes the slab will be poured this week.

It’s behind-schedule because of the economic downturn, a change of location within Kapolei Commons, and the long, drawn-out permitting process, Nakashima said. This will be the partners’ first ground-up build, as other locations were built out in existing spaces.

The Kapolei Ruby Tuesday will mirror the Moanalua restaurant. "We decided to go with it because that restaurant really flows well," he said.

The new location will seat 240 diners and will total 5,400 square feet: 4,400 square feet indoors, plus a 1,000 square-foot lanai, which is "great" for large parties, as the tables can be put together, he said.

Flow is not the only consideration for the layout decision. The Moanalua store is "one of the top-performing Ruby Tuesdays in the world," he said. That is often true of Hawaii locations of big national chain restaurants. http://archives.starbulletin.com/2001/04/25/business/story2.html

The hiring of about 100 staff members will begin in late August, but applications are available at the local franchisees’ website.

On the ‘Net:

http://rubytuesdayhawaii.com/