KOLOA — Fewer people are going to the weekly Koloa Sunshine Market but sales don’t seem to be impacted, Branch Harmony, the market’s host, said Monday. “There appears to be about a 15 percent drop in the market traffic,” he
KOLOA — Fewer people are going to the weekly Koloa Sunshine Market but sales don’t seem to be impacted, Branch Harmony, the market’s host, said Monday.
“There appears to be about a 15 percent drop in the market traffic,” he said. “At one point, we reached 400-plus shoppers. Last week, it was about 300.”
Following his protocol of leading shoppers from the outer waiting area of the Anne Knudsen Park parking lot to the edge of the inner parking lot where vendors set up, Harmony said the activity is still the strongest in the first 30 to 45 minutes of its opening.
Harmony, who has been shopping at the Koloa Sunshine Market since June 1989, said the demographics haven’t changed in spite of the lower traffic.
“About 80 percent of the shoppers are visitors,” he said. “Of that group, 30 percent are returning visitors. About 15 percent of the shoppers are transplants and just five percent are residents because at noon on Monday, most of the residents are at work.”
Larry Feinstein, the county’s Sunshine Markets monitor, said he just finished the numbers for July. Based on that, the sales are still strong.
“The Koloa market, which relies heavily on tourist traffic, has been particularly strong,” Feinstein said. “I suspect the timeshare and condo market on the South Shore is less impacted by the tourism drop than the large hotels.”
The vendors had varying opinions on the current flux in traffic.
One of the vendors that deals primarily in produce noticed that with the decline, her sales have dropped proportionately.
“They are here to buy fruit,” the vendor said. “I had sales but then I bought pineapples, so now I end up with a deficit.”
Another vendor noted that her sales in flowers have dropped proportionately to the drop in traffic. This is due to not only the drop in market traffic, but an increasing number of vendors that deal in the same items.
Shoppers at some of the local markets not run by the county are able to get items they cannot find at the supermarkets, or even at the Sunshine Markets.
Masa’s Shave Ice, operated by the Kenny Miyoshi family, has been enjoying brisk traffic since setting up out of a refurbished tour bus about a month ago at the Kukui Grove Monday Market.
“We’re still waiting to hear about a permanent place, but in the meantime, we’re here every Monday,” Miyoshi said, adding that Masa’s has been accepted to sell shave ice at the swap meet hosted by the Grove Farm Co., Aug. 15, in Puhi.
Another vendor, Chris Kauwe, has been raising bees for five or six years and only recently started selling Honi Honi Honey and beeswax at the Kukui Grove market.
“This is the only place I sell the honey and beeswax,” he said. “It took a long time for me to learn how to do the honey, but now I have enough that I can come out and start selling.”
Another vendor at Kukui Grove that is not in the county’s Sunshine Market circuit is Pat O’Day, who offers a variety of flowering orchids from the back of his van.
There are vendors who offer some flowering plants at the county’s Sunshine Markets, but those are often secondary to the produce they sell.
“The farmers’ markets were originally created to provide an outlet for local farmers to sell their produce to residents on the island, and I think we need to rekindle that intention,” Feinstein said.
On Sept. 12, Kaua‘i Community College, in conjunction with the Kaua‘i County Farm Bureau, is launching a new market modeled after a successful market on O‘ahu that is sponsored by the Hawai‘i Farm Bureau Federation and hosted by Kapiolani Community College, Feinstein said.
“In addition to all sorts of locally grown produce, there will be value-added products and processed foods as well,” he said. “Food vendors will be in attendance and there will be informative lectures and workshops available for all. There are spaces still available and interested people should contact Melissa McFerrin at the KCFB for applications.” She can be reached via e-mail at kcfb@hawaiiantel.net.
Feinstein said the county Office of Economic Development has authorized the farm bureau to develop a Kaua‘i Grown program that would be the agricultural equivalent of the successful Kaua‘i Made program.
This program is currently in the planning stages and when complete, will launch at the county’s Sunshine Markets and roll out to other markets, Feinstein said.
For more information on Kaua‘i Sunshine Markets, visit www.kauai.gov.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com
