Aiea’s popular Samurai Snacks closes

A popular snack shop in Aiea shut down Monday after 20 years of serving the community with yummy treats.

Samurai Snacks Aiea LLC, at the Aiea Shopping Center, initially planned to close next week, but once the store Friday announced on Instagram its plans to close May 24, customers flocked to the store throughout the weekend and Monday for its soft-serve ice cream, freshly popped popcorn and other goodies.

A steady stream of customers lined up in front of the store at lunchtime Monday waiting to enter Samurai Snacks to purchase treats.

Walls once covered with an assortment of snacks were bare, with only a few racks left of colored puff rice, shoyu peanuts and other goodies.

The store’s display freezer was nearly empty at 12:30 p.m., with only a dozen yuzu-flavored Hawaiian Frost frozen dairy cups left. Other flavors such as chocolate haupia, lychee, honeydew melon, chocolate banana, Kona coffee and mango had sold out.

Many customers, such as 21-year-old Justin Deuz of Salt Lake, left the store carrying a cup of soft serve in their hands.

Deuz, who has been a loyal customer since he was a child, stopped by the store one last time Monday for Samurai Snacks’ vanilla and strawberry swirl soft serve, a customer favorite. The store has been here for so long, and now it’s going to be gone, Deuz said.

Once all of the store’s products sold out, Samurai Snacks Aiea permanently closed at 2 p.m. Monday.

Running a small business has been tough in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Mari Kimoto, daughter of owners Chris and Marlo Kimoto.

“My mom and dad has worked really hard behind the scenes,” Mari Kimoto said.

Staff shortages, inflation, supply chain issues and minimum wage and rent increases were among the reasons that led the store owners to make the tough decision to close.

Tina Yamaki, president of the Retail Merchants of Hawaii, said small mom-and-pop businesses can’t compete with large stores and hotels that are able to pay their employees more.

“They don’t have national backing,” Yamaki said. “So the single mom-and-pop stores, they really suffer.”

The Kimotos acquired the snack shop 20 years ago from previous owner Glenn Yamamoto.

“My parents bought this when I was 1 year old,” Kimoto said. “I’ve just grown up with this business.” The Kimoto family said they are grateful for all of their customers’ and vendors’ support. “Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all the support and aloha that we’ve had for the past 20 years,” Kimoto said Monday.

Samurai Snacks Aiea was the sole franchise store of Samurai Inc., a Kalihi factory on Umi Street that manufactures snack products sold at supermarkets and stores in Hawaii.

While the factory has a small walk-up window where it primarily sells soft serve and popcorn, the Aiea snack shop carried a large variety of snacks that included snacks from other vendors.

Roz Funakoshi, vice president of Samurai Inc., said, “Samurai Kalihi would like to say mahalo nui loa for 20 years of partnership. The people of Hawaii have lost another precious treasure.”

“There are no words to express how saddened we are of their closing, but we understand it well,” Funakoshi said. “We wish the Kimoto ohana the very best in their future endeavors.”