After days-long outage, Chinatown businesses welcome community’s support

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Customers flocked to businesses in the Downtown-Chinatown area on Friday, seeking to help buoy businesses left struggling after a days-long power outage.

The outage last 67 hours, forcing many businesses to close their doors and throw out inventory.

But at Cindy’s Lei Shoppe on Friday, there was no sign of any slowdown.

In fact, customers were flowing in and out.

“This community has been here for us when we need it for our business and so we need to come and support them for their business,” said Mea Spady, executive director of Kupa’a Network.

“It’s the literal definition of light, like everything’s lit up.”

Karen Lee, who manages Cindy’s Lei Shoppe, said he’s grateful for the support. “We learned a lot about ourselves about the street, about the grit, the perseverance, about the people,” Lee said.

HECO completes difficult underground repairs in Chinatown, restoring power to hundreds

Lee said they’ve been working in the dark for the last four days using candles and flashlights.

They fed their refrigerators with frozen gel packs to keep their doors open through the power outage. “We were determined to stay open and feed our beautiful flowers,” said Lee. “We spent more thinking of keeping things cold rather than when is the power going to come back on.”

Meanwhile, the line was out the door at Sing Cheong Yuan Bakery on Firday.

And at Fete, it was a packed house.

And over at Yi Fang Taiwan Fruit Tea at Fort Street Mall, the lunch rush came in full force.

“We’re excited to be serving our customers downtown again,” said franchisee Tony Wong Cam.

“A lot of juicing, a lot of cutting fruits, a lot of making fresh ingredients.”

His message to customers: “Get out, support all the local businesses. There’s a lot of mom-and-pop restaurants that don’t have social media that equally need your support, too.”

Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi and his team also headed to Chinatown on Friday in a show of support and grabbed some slices at Pizza Mamo on Hotel Street.

“If you can, let’s get down there, let’s support these businesses, they really got hammered over the course of this week and we really want to be supportive of them,” said Blangiardi.

A community walk is set for Saturday to generate interest in Downtown-Chinatown businesses. It’s from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and will begin at the new Inspiration Hawaii Museum on Richards Street.

Copyright 2024 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.