The venerable Otsuka’s Furniture and Appliances in Kapa‘a will be opening a small mattress store in Lihue’s Kukui Grove Shopping Center. Called Mattresses ‘N’ More, the 1,400 square-foot shop will give Lihue shoppers a taste of what the 30,000 square-foot
The venerable Otsuka’s Furniture and Appliances in Kapa‘a will be opening a small mattress store in Lihue’s Kukui Grove Shopping Center.
Called Mattresses ‘N’ More, the 1,400 square-foot shop will give Lihue shoppers a taste of what the 30,000 square-foot superstore offers.
The new store is just another indicator that Kauai’s economy is booming.
“There’s just no end in sight. Our economy and our island is growing by leaps and bounds,” said Jeff Hayes, Otsuka’s general manager.
“The idea for a more centrally located Otsuka’s store has been in the works for a few years now,” Hayes said. “We felt it was impor”tant to position ourselves in a location that was more accessible to the bulk of the island’s population.”
By creating an ambience that mirrors Otsuka’s Furniture, the new store will be satellite version of the original. Even more, little Otsuka’s will have video from big Otuska’s beamed in and displayed on a large plasma-screen wall television.
“We wanted a specialty mattress store that carried the flavor and feeling of our main store in Kapa‘a,” Hayes said.
The grand opening will be Saturday, June 5.
Otsuka’s was founded by two brothers, Wallace Y. Otsuka and Jay J. Otsuka, in 1935, starting out as a new car agency selling Studebaker automobiles.
The new store will give Otsuka’s three on Kauai.
The rapid growth of Otsuka’s is a testimony to the growth of Kauai, Hayes said.
The furniture industry has seen double-digit revenue jumps over the past year. Riding a building boom driven by mortgage rates of 5 percent or less, the general category that includes home furnishings, appliances, sporting goods — basically, all those things bought with “expendable” income — was up 11.3 percent to nearly $70 billion nationwide this February.
