Category Archives: Business

Remember these S&L premiums?

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What ever happened to those premiums that savings institutions used to give for qualifying deposits?

Back when we were graduate students, and then up until the savings & loan crisis of the 1980s (and into the 90’s), local S&Ls would give “gifts” when you made a deposit. We used to pore over the available premiums and then spread savings around as much as possible to get those coffee mugs, bowls, small appliances, etc., etc.

Here’s a 1974 advertisement from American Savings, displaying all the different options available. Click on the image to see a larger version.

These just disappeared as a business gimmick. Did the become illegal? Not a big issue here…I’m just trying to fill in a blank in my memory.

Browsing through procurement requests

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Every once in a while, I browse through the lists of contracts on the website of the State Procurement Office. I pay special attention to requests for approval of emergency or sole source contracts that bypass routine bidding.

This time, there are a few items of interest. No scandals, just run of the mill activities.

• The Department of Public Safety is requesting a sole source contract valued at a total of $144,372.72 over five years for the purchase of 25 Taser 7 weapons, each to include the Taser, handle, holster, dock, rechargeable battery, hardware warranty, cartridges, user training, and “assess to VR content, Oculus GO, and training t targets.” Thirty-three additional licenses are being requested “to allow additional users of the hardware with support from the manufacturer.”

The vendor is Axon Enterprise Inc., described as “the lone provider of the technology….”

“The Taser 7 should not be confused for a common ‘stungun.’ The Taser 7 is designed as a law enforcement weapon and has the ability to be used from a distance. Conversely, a common stun gun must be used by touching a resistive person with two electric prongs resulting in greater danger to a law enforcement officer. Furthermore, the Taser 7 causes neurological-muscular incapacitation when used. This results in a short, but safe timeframe after deployment, when a law enforcement officer can take a resistive subject into custody.”

• The Department of Health is requesting an exemption to award a contract valued at nearly $1.4 million to CQuest America, Inc. for maintaining and hosting the software and database for the Hawaii WIC program, which provides “special supplemental nutrition” for women, infants and Children.

The DOH request provides a history of the federally mandated system, and future plans, as well as the justification for the requested 2-year interim contract.

• Back in April, a major leak was discovered in a water line servicing Pier 1A at Honolulu Harbor “which services all Pier 1 pax & cargo tenants/users. Between Friday 04/19 to Tuesday 04/22, there would be Pier 1 operations with Matson, McCabe, Pasha, 3 on?island fuel companies, and 2 cruise ships. Hence, if emergency repairs were not completed ASAP, then thousands of people would be without domestic water; and thus creating a threat to life, public health, welfare & safety.”

Those affected would have included an “estimated 100+ tenants/users employees,customers & vendors; 4700 pax & 1800 crew; and approximately 523,000+ gallons of domestic/potable water for the 2 cruise ships in Kahului Harbor on Sunday 04.21 & Tuesday 04.23,” according to the DOT request.

The emergency repairs totaled $2,697.90. The work was done by T & K Plumbers LLC.

• On Saturday, April 20, the toilet in the 5th floor office restroom of Mike McCartney, director of the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism overflowed, flooded the office, and leaked down into the two floors below.

DAGS requested and received after-the-fact approval for the $4,472 cleanup done by PuroClean, which was selected because they were available to respond immediately.

• And there’s a request from the Attorney General for a two-year contract valued at about $2.4 million per year to the Kapiolani Medical Center’s Sex Abuse Treatment Center for “accessible and comprehensive continuum of care services for sexual assault victims, family members (non-perpetrators), and community members….”

Early 20th Century social media?

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I’ve been reading through some oral histories of people who grew up around Aala Park in downtown Honolulu as part of a little project I’m committed to.

I thought this description of early 20th century advertising by Japanese merchants was quite interesting. A social media approach long before the advent of online social media.

This is a brief excerpt of an interview with Robert Sato, whose father started in business with a hat cleaning shop in 1913, and later founded Sato Clothiers, which was a well-known local store until it closed for good in 1995.

Sato was asked whether his father’s store did any advertising, and Sato described something they called “kijikoku,” a form of advertising that they placed in Honolulu’s Japanese newspapers.

“Kiji” is gossip, Sato said, and their advertising went into a gossip section in the newspaper. Readers would look for the little gossip items and their subtle mentions of products and services for sale.

Kijikoku is an advertisement whereby he would write out a story about different things, and then paid for the space. And then, it was advertised, but he was put up in a gossip section. This, kiji is gossip. A gossip section was set aside for these people, and they paid for the space, and wrote their own kiji, or news, about—and then, at the end of the kiji was mentioned about some merchandise, you know. And it was the one way of advertising too. It’s not so much a display as such that you know of today.

Q: And what would they write in that kiji, that article?

Well, they’ll write the day, happening of the day, for instance, or something about, oh, everyday life. And you know, if you see your name in the paper, you like to read about it. So he got hold of a lot of articles that he thought was, would be interesting to read, and then mentioned about, you know, his merchandise.

For instance, he probably said, well, you know, “I heard that he is going back to Japan today, and then he took the so-and-so ship,” and in the end, “he wore his Panama hat.” And, oh, you know, he played up his clothing, and then, “He looked nice and when he landed,” and things like that. This is a gossip type of advertising. But that form of advertising very-well, became popular. They like it. The newspaper people like it because there is somebody writing the article, you see, and then they’ll insert it in a very small, little area, but people look forward to read that. It’s a gossip, really. And it was a subtle way of advertising your store or your goods. And then you got to know who’s writing it, you know, my father wrote it as Sato Taichi, you know, he wrote at the end. It said that he was the guy that wrote it, so people used to inquire about it.

Sounds a lot like the use of social media by today’s entrepreneurs, doesn’t it?

A picture of Inequality

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This was the scene at the end of Kahala Avenue in front of Waialae Beach Park this morning. It was a very typical morning.

The house in the background, which sits on about 1/3-acre of land, sold at the beginning of 2019 for a reported $5,283,000. The buyer is a Japanese company based in Hokkaido, Japan. The company director who signed the deed made the news less than two years earlier by paying $22 million for a condominium in the Park Lane condominium at Ala Moana Center.

The house boasts two floors with total living area of 9,351 square feet. It has 14 rooms, including four bedrooms, five bathrooms, and two half baths, according to real estate records. It seems to be a corporate investment in Hawaii real estate.

Back to the beach park. The small red car has been parked across the street in front of the $5.28 million house for months. It is home to a man who would otherwise be considered homeless. It’s his bedroom, his living room, his storeroom, and his workshop. I’m not at all sure how he survives. I can’t say he has nothing, because his car appears to be stuffed with, well, stuff. But I think it’s fair to say he has very, very little. He moves the car from one parking space to another in the same short block to avoid being ticketed by police. But he is somehow surviving.

The Yin and Yang of our modern life.