LIHU’E — It hasn’t been too hard to locate Kukui Grove Center Sears General Manager Sheldon Life lately. Seven-day weeks of 10-hour days making ready the expansion of Sears in the old Woolworth location here, preparing for a soft opening
LIHU’E — It hasn’t been too hard to locate Kukui Grove Center Sears General Manager Sheldon Life lately.
Seven-day weeks of 10-hour days making ready the expansion of Sears in the old Woolworth location here, preparing for a soft opening on one of the busiest shopping days of the year, and a grand opening yesterday, can take a toll on even the heartiest of managers.
Normally, retail stores won’t attempt this kind of expansion in the fourth quarter, said Life, his voice expressing half relief over the fact that it’s finally over and open, and half near-exhaustion at the work involved in completing the expansion in the middle of the holiday shopping season.
Imagine tearing out all of the former Woolworth kitchen and restaurant fixtures to make way for retail space (demolition work alone was a two-week task, he said), then, essentially, building a new store from scratch, using virtually only the shell of the former Woolworth.
With the 50 brand-new employees, who set up and stocked the entire store’s displays before switching gears and becoming sales associates, also comes a lot of new merchandise and retail ideas, he explained.
Some of the touches are unique to Sears, like its computer system, which the new associates also had to learn.
The store is experimenting with shopping carts, a first for Sears, with the blue buggies about the size of strollers.
Exit cashiering, or the setting up of cash registers near the entry and exit doors of the store, has like the shopping-cart idea been well-received by the shopping public, Life said.
Just 14 Sears stores in the country have the exit cashiering, said Life.
The 50 new floor employees are backed up by eight support personnel (receiving, replenishing, etc.), there are lots of new products, new blue Sears signs on both the expanded and existing buildings, and another rare event for a Sears facility, the return to Kukui Grove of the warehouse and service center.
That makes for a one-destination shop, all geared for customer convenience, where they can purchase, pickup and bring for service and repair any Sears product.
Today, Sunday, Dec. 3, as part of the continuing grand opening festivities, little beauty queens will be signing autographs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the KidCare photo-identification program will be featured from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Samantha Sasan, 2000 Petite Miss Kaua’i; Krystal Ijima, 2000 Young Miss Kaua’i; Courtney Perreira, 2000 Little Miss Kaua’i; and Marina Tangelder, 2000 Tiny Miss Kaua’i, will sign autographs inside the new section of the store.
The original Sears building got a bit of a new look, too, with an expanded TV wall. It still includes hardware, appliances, sporting goods, electronics and more, while the new building features apparel and home fashions.
“We’ve featured hardlines for a number of years, and are delighted to offer softlines to our customers, too,” Life said.
“Our two-building, 71,000-square-foot store is filled with products that families want and need — including Sears and other well-known brands of merchandise,” he said.
As a result of the expansion, Sears has added 70 new associates, and now employs approximately 120 people. The search for associates, Life said, is a never-ending task, as help wanted signs hang in both the old and new locations.
The Sears features national and local brands of apparel, as well as Sears’ own lines of clothing: Crossroads, Canyon River Blues, Apostrophe and Fieldmaster, and, for the children, Franklin the Turtle and Kid Cool.
It also offers an extensive fine-jewelry department, as well as luggage, home fashions, and a new bed and bath department.
Sears appliance, hardware, electronics and lawn and garden departments feature brands such as Craftsman, Kenmore, Kenmore Elite and others. Besides the Sears Portrait Studio, a Sears Optical Shop has been added recently.
There is attached to the older building a six-bay Sears Auto Center.
The Sears at Kukui Grove Center is one of 17 stores nationwide being renovated this year.
The company also opened 11 new stores in 2000.
Sears, Roebuck and Company is a leading U.S. retailer of apparel, home and automotive products and services, with annual revenue of nearly $40 billion. The company serves families throughout the country with approximately 860 department stores, more than 2,100 specialized locations, and a variety of online offerings accessible through the company’s Web site, www.sears.com.
For more information, please call the store, 246-8301.
Business Editor Paul C. Curtis can be reached at pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
