Sudas closing shop: Last old-time landmark in Kihei will soon fade into Maui history
By MATTHEW THAYER and EDWIN TANJI
Staff Writers
KIHEI -- The last old-time landmark in Kihei is shutting down on Tuesday, with no indication from the landowner of what will replace it.
The Suda Store will close, just two months after the adjoining Suda Snack Shop shut down.
"As you know, when the snack shop closed, we said we were going to try to stay open," said Roy Suda, the eldest in the clan that has been operating the business since his mother took it over in 1967.
He said the family had been discussing new lease terms with the landowner, the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, but finally decided, "It was time to retire."
It was a saddening announcement for regulars, including Kimokeo Kapahulehua, cultural adviser for the Kihei Canoe Club, whose canoe hale usually is described as being "across from Suda Store."
"This is the club's 26th year and that is how long we have been together, how long we have been neighbors," Kapahulehua said.
"This must be the new Maui. In the last month, we have received news of Waikapu Stop, Shishido Manju and Suda Store closing. It seems like all the mom and pops are closing down.
"The sad part for me personally, this will be the last little store, mom and pop store, family store in Kihei. We don't have any more little stores like this left in Kihei."
On the other side of the counter, Roy's daughter, Ronnelle Suda, had mixed feelings. A 17-year veteran behind the store's counter, who, like her aunts and father, started working at the store when she was just a teenager, Ronnelle always has greeted people with a happy face and cheerful welcome.
"For me, mixed emotions," she said. "I'll miss the loyal customers. You get kind of close to them. The part-timers that stay for a few months, you get to know them."
But it was a hot, humid Kihei day Wednesday and the old store felt it. Ronnelle said she won't miss that.
"I won't miss the heat," she said. "During the summer, it is so hot."
Roy Suda also expressed regrets over shutting down the store, which was a gateway to Kihei until the Piilani Highway displaced Kihei Road as the main thoroughfare through the booming South Maui district.
"When Suda Store goes, Kihei is going to be changed forever," Roy Suda said.
But he said he and his sisters, Therese Suda Fogarty and Janice Fernandez, also thought maybe it was time to move on with their lives.
"After so many years, they're not getting any younger," he said.
The store has been open for more than a generation, six days a week, from early in the morning to early in the evening, transforming from a neighborhood grocery to a snacks and bento specialty shop. When the snack shop opened in a renovated garage, the space inside the former Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. plantation store that dates to 1944 was turned to other uses. Most recently uses included a fish market with Roy Suda as chief fish cutter.
"My sisters decided they had enough already. They made the final decision, we're going to close up," he said.
Scott Morris of Kihei will be among those to miss Suda's. He stopped by Wednesday to pick up an order of hapuu, fresh-caught grouper that isn't often found in markets because it's a relatively uncommon catch.
"Best fish in town and the friendliest people," Morris said. He said he will miss picking up his favorite fish, hapuu, at Suda's. "It's one of the few places on the island where you can get it," he said. "Hopefully they will pop up somewhere else soon."
He was joined by Dino Tapuro, who brought his kids by to pick up refreshments Wednesday afternoon.
"I grew up with Suda Store," Tapuro said. I grew up right up the road. It's sad to see them go."
His daughter, Kekai Tapuro, said she and her sister paddle for Kihei Canoe Club and they - like many, many other paddlers - will miss the convenience of having the store right across the street.
"We're sad," she said. "We'll miss Suda Store."
Roy Suda said he believes that Maui Council Member Wayne Nishiki will be able to continue his farmers market, which regularly uses the parking lot along Kihei Road in front of the Suda Store. For more than 20 years, Nishiki has been operating his fresh produce market with consent of the Sudas.
"He's going to have to deal directly with the Weinberg Foundation now," Roy said.
The Weinberg Foundation did not respond to a call from The Maui News on its plans for the site.
The Suda Store is part of a 29.2-acre commercial parcel that the foundation had planned for development several times over the past 10 years. The most recent plan was proposed five years ago as "Maui Nui Park," to include a dolphin research facility for The Dolphin Institute currently housed at Kewalo Basin on Oahu.
But the research facility was opposed by a number of Maui organizations and individuals, prompting the Maui County Council to approve a law that bans captive dolphins. The Dolphin Institute has since been invited to relocate to facilities proposed as part of the Ko Olina development on Oahu.
Still, in presentations on Maui Nui Park, foundation representatives had assured county planners that Suda Store would remain where it is and as it is.
With the store closing, Kapahulehua wondered what the foundation will do with the prime property that fronts on both Piilani Highway and Kihei Road at the entrance to Kihei..
Kapahulehua wondered if the Maui Nui project would now take over the entire property, including the rustic, asphalt-covered lot that circles the store and former snack shop and that the canoe club and other beachgoers regularly use for parking.
"I wonder if they (property owners) are going to continue this as a part of the park or are they going to leave it as it is - as a building the public can use," he said. "We hope when they build the Maui Nui Park they will make sure there is enough parking for us and for them. If they are not going to use the building, then we should be able to use the area for parking."
Kapahulehua said the club recently petitioned the Weinberg Foundation for the right to park on the property, but the request was denied.
Just as they did with the snack shop, the Sudas said they will keep regular hours until Tuesday: 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. today, Friday and Monday; and 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
"It's official. Tuesday we'll be gone," Roy Suda said.
Maui News
Thursday 7/24/03
[These stories actually bring tears to my eyes...I never ever thought I'd get this old.]
AI
