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Island Snow is back on an expansion track and is building out a second Windward Oahu location in the former Mary Z’s space in Kailua Shopping Center.
Island Snow once had several locations around Oahu, but then closed all except its flagship near Kailua Beach, made famous by holiday season visits by President Barack Obama.
"The date got pushed back a little bit," but the second Island Snow in Kailua should open in the beginning of next month, said Brockton Kodama, director of operations and son of founder James Kodama.
The roughly 1,600 square feet will have a slightly different feel than the location frequented by the president and the first family during their Christmas vacations here.
"If you’re familiar with our past stores in Ala Moana and the Royal Hawaiian Center, we’re bringing back a little more of that feel," Kodama said.
"We don’t want to do exactly what we’re doing at the other location and have a redundancy," he said. The shopping center location will have a bit more focus on clothing retail, though it will, of course, serve shave ice.
The new store will be more of a shopping destination than is the beach store, and it will have "a lot more dedication to women’s clothing," Kodama said. "Probably a 50-50 split between men’s and women’s clothing."
Both the flagship and the new store will be overseen by Richard Whaley, who regularly is interviewed on TV news about the first family’s visits.
The company has had only the one Kailua location for about the past five years. The Waikiki store closed when the elder Kodama retired, though he still spends time on company matters. It is under his father’s supervision that Brockton Kodama is taking Island Snow "to the next level," Kodama said.
As for Mary Z’s, owner Terrie Farmakis closed the store at year’s end to retire.
"Terrie has told me it was an honor to serve the lovely ladies of Kailua and that she loved every aspect of owning her store," said her sister, Mary Zanakis.
"She has reached that magical age and now retires with great memories of her adventures" as a longtime Kailua retailer, she said.
Ad group invites public voting
The Hawaii Chapter of the American Advertising Federation is encouraging you to go online and vote for your favorite television commercial of 2014.
In an effort to engage consumers of advertising (read: you) in the annual Pele Awards, the industry organization has this year launched a "People’s Choice" award category.
"Advertising, marketing and media is a vital part of any business plan," said Dennis Christianson, CEO of Anthology Marketing Group, the agency presenting the theme of this year’s AAF-Hawaii Pele Awards.
It is a $300 million industry in Hawaii that employs hundreds of people, he said.
"If you look at all the media dollars, design work and everything that’s done, it’s a very big industry," he said. "We reach into areas of the market from Kailua to Kahului and all the way to New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong, so it’s a massive industry that we have in our own little backyard."
And it is from the aforementioned backyard that AAF-Hawaii would like to receive feedback.
So, what was your favorite TV spot of the past calendar year?
Was it the First Insurance commercial featuring beautiful nature shots and a hiker who emerges from the rainforest to find a boulder atop his vehicle?
Maybe it was the Hawaii Gas spot in which the actors had to stuff money into meters to get more hot water for a shower, or heat for the oven, or for more dryer time using coins purloined from a son’s shattered piggy bank.
Or maybe it was the HEMIC spot in which a company executive sent a memo about employee salaries not to "Allan," but to "All Staff."
Those three are among 11 contenders whittled down from among all the entries by a panel of industry professionals who are judging the overall AAF-Hawaii Pele Awards competition this year.
Votes must be cast by 11:59 p.m. April 23, and only one vote is allowed per person.
The winner of the public vote will be announced at the annual awards gala April 25 and then be posted on the voting site.
Serving as emcee for the gala this year will be Jimmy Gold (not his real name), "a semilegendary late-night talk show host … in the tradition of Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and perhaps Jimmy Hoffa," Christianson joked.
He declined to name the person for-real on-the-record, but said Jimmy Gold is "being played by a favorite son who is making a return appearance to Hawaii."
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On the Net:
» peopleschoicehawaii.com
Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.
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BRUCE ASATO / 2013
COURTESY ANTHOLOGY MARKETING GROUP