Content area
Full text
My family has a grocery store called Morihara Store. My grandfather's brother started it in 1932, then came my grandfather, my father, and then I took it over. I'm the fourth generation in Hawaii. We recently acquired a deli business, Kula Country Store, which was our competition across the street for a long time. In gross revenues, we do about $2.5 million.
In the early '60s, it was a slow period for Maui. A lot of people moved away. We were fortunate--being store owners, we always ate, so there was never the feeling of poverty for us. But my family, at one time, considered giving up the business and moving to Oahu. There was a lot of opportunity on Oahu.
Then the tourist industry started to boom here, and Maui started to get a reputation as an upper-class destination. The lifestyle changed dramatically. I grew up in the country with a little country store where I dealt with farmers and ranchers. We used to go into the woods and cut the kiawe trees...