Aloha!
One of the
reasons I love my job, it allows me to travel to Honolulu a few times a year to
visit our customers. A few weeks ago, Linda Nguyen and I were in Honolulu
to deliver Christmas greens and visit our friends.
A group that we adore
and I want to see thrive and survive are the lei ladies of Chinatown and the
airport. Leis are one of the nicest ways to utilize flowers. On the
mainland, we never see the array of exotic leis which are so beautiful.
And when you realize the amount of flowers and work involved - they are an
incredible value.
Chinatown
Lei Shops
In Chinatown
Honolulu there are about 13 lei shops. We stopped to talk to our
customers Bronson at Lei of the Island, Mimi and Sam at MP Lei Shop, then Ronny
and Cindy at Cindy’s Lei Shoppe. A few blocks from Chinatown, we stopped
at Sunrise Leis to check in on Edith who recently broken her wrist. Edith
is an “Auntie” and has been a great supporter of KB for years and years. We
were relieved to see she is up and selling leis again. We heard the
number of lei shops in Chinatown is growing which is surprising but wonderful
to hear.
I had never
been to the airport lei shops, but Linda’s customer and friend Milan of Martha’s
Leis Stand has her shop there. The lei shops at the airport started when
the tradition of giving leis to arriving passengers.
Today there are
about 10 lei shops at the airport with easy and convenient parking.
Imagine just $3.00 for a single dendro lei, why wouldn’t you give your arriving
friends a lei?
Lei
Future
Another
prediction, wearable flowers are a future trend, the lei is where it will have
originated from. We just need Miley Cyrus to start wearing them…
RHK
