April 4, 2024 | Cynthia Yip |
KAPOLEI, Hawaii (Island News) — It is a trend we have been seeing all too much recently, local businesses being forced to close their doors. But a popular restaurant in Honolulu is preparing to open up in a brand new location Ka Makana Aliʻi in Kapolei.
Amidst the challenges faced by small businesses and restaurants, there is a beacon of hope in Kapolei. Scratch Kitchen and Meatery is gearing up for its grand opening on May 2, 2024.
Gary Chen is Scratch Kitchen & Meatery’s owner. He says doing business in Hawaii is challenging, “our overhead is the issue that’s why we try to combine the different concepts into one location to minimize the overhead costs to survive. Our goal to survive and to move forward.”
Sherry Menor-McNamara, with the chamber of commerce of Hawaii, says, “as an island state , its inherent that some of costs will continue to increase. With that said, policies do drive up the costs of doing business. And Hawaii is the worse place to do business. That, according to many rankings. So at the chamber we launched our blueprint 2030 in January as an effort to find solutions to improve the business climate here in Hawaii. We’ve seen businesses reach a tipping point, so we do not want that trend to continue then we lose the fabric of our communities the local businesses and many of them and many of them have been in operation a long time. Business that have been passed down through generations, we do not want that to happen.”
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