Editorial: ‘Tis the season to shop, give local

The message of the 2021 holiday shopping season — like the one last year, in the thick of the pandemic — is “shop local.” Just as in 2020, the aim remains to help local businesses that were so devastated in the shutdown of Hawaii’s tourism-dependent economy.

But there’s another beneficiary this year: the shopper. The more recently acute global crisis with bringing products to market, the “supply chain” problem that everyone is talking about these days, hits the consumer as much as anyone.

The takeaway lesson is twofold: Early shopping is a must this year, rather than being a merely admirable trait; and, as much as possible, buying from a brick-and-mortar vendor or local manufacturer is smarter than purchasing from an out-of-state supplier by clicking around online.

That’s because relying on anything ordered sight unseen to arrive in time for selling or gift-giving is a risky business. This is especially true for complex manufactured goods such as appliances or automobiles that require assembly of components from far-flung source markets, but transportation delays complicate delivery of virtually every item.

The fact that most things that islanders buy have to come in by boat is simply reality here, and the Hawaii consumer can reasonably expect more than even the usual elevation in shipping costs folded into the item prices this year.

However, not all the supply-chain headaches are replicated here, at least. Cargo ships have stalled outside Los Angeles and Long Beach. Once goods arrive in Honolulu, though, they find their way to the retailer without the same logjam at sea or trucking capacity problems afflicting mainland cities.

Starting early, and making the purchase as soon as the item is found, buys the consumer some peace of mind as well as the item itself. And spending locally, whether or not it’s a locally owned business, will support jobs for the state’s residents.

But this is also an opportune time to direct some of that holiday shopping budget toward Hawaii-manufactured items and keep more of that money circulating in the local economy.

Along those lines, the Made in Hawaii Festival (www.MadeinHawaiiFestival.com) is an obvious option, to be held over the Veterans Day holiday weekend at Ala Moana Center. Tickets to the event, this year being held in the open-air but covered fourth-level Mauka Ewa parking structure, cost $13 in advance sales from the website and $15 at the entrance Thursday through Sunday.

Or, any number of local craft fairs could fill the bill. Shoppers may have their favorites calendared already, or a quick web search will pull up other examples.

Further, gift cards for local stores, or for restaurants or venues here, would be a choice for those who simply can’t get going early enough. That’s revenue the businesses may not get otherwise.

The “shop local” directive is not unique to Hawaii, of course. Store managers everywhere are singing the same song, and for the same reasons. And the labor shortages compound the problems for everyone.

But there should be particular sympathies for the Hawaii retail sector, which has lost so much in all this state’s economic turmoil. Only a fraction of that loss was recovered in the 2020 holiday sprees, even after the launch of Safe Travels Hawaii brought back some tourists and a little of the usual business.

Many local businesses launched their own sales websites last season, to overcome shoppers’ reluctance to venture out. But now, vaccines have made it all considerably safer.

Besides, hitting the shops yourself could be the surer way to bag that elusive gift. In 2021, there’s nothing quite like being there.