Pukalani Superette Your "Easy-Does-It-Place"

Pukalani Superette "Your-Easy-Does-It" Place for over 50 years...
And we keep on getting better!

Pukalani Superette is a friendly mix of just about everything a person needs from a snack to a smile. Maybe that’s why the little store on the corner of Haleakala Highway and Makawao Avenue bustles with energy. One of the last of Maui’s true mom-and- pop establishments, the Superette is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and still going strong.

“It’s common sense needs,” said Aric Nakashima, who owns the store along with his brother, Myles. “Soap is soap, canned goods are canned goods. People need canned tuna, they need corned beef, they need Spam, flour.”

Pukalani Superette, or Puk Sup (Pook Soop) as regulars have nicknamed the store, has tailored its inventory to its changing clientele. From its rural beginnings when sleepy Pukalani consisted of just a few homes and Kula was mostly a farm community, the market has adjusted to Upcountry’s eclectic mix of customers.

“Everybody needs coffee,” Aric said, recalling the days when a can of Folger’s would be fine. “But now you need a grinder and beans.” The store now carries various gourmet blends as well as regular and instant coffee.

The inventory reflects the lifestyles of the new Upcountry. One can find bundled firewood, chicken feed, wild Alaska salmon, diapers, lentils, mustard seed, greeting cards, fresh flowers, fishing equipment, cough drops, extra virgin first cold press olive oil, ice, beer, tofu scramble, baked goods, Carr’s Table Water Crackers and the list goes on, not to mention every staple a home might need from light bulbs to aspirin to hamburger.

Most of the fresh produce comes from local farmers and is packaged for individuals, couples and small families. It’s a place where you don’t have to buy more than you need. And unlike some of the big stores, the shelves are almost always well stocked.

“We’re that size where it’s small enough where we can see the whole store, sort of like your house,” Aric explained.

On Monday morning, the shop was buzzing with customers and employees. The checkout clerks laughed and chatted with patrons as they rang up purchases on modern scanners. The hub of activity was the prepared food area where clear containers of favorites like chicken long rice, Spam musubi, stew, dry mein, lumpia and rice stayed warm under infrared lights tempting those hungry for lunch or looking for a head start on dinner.

Prepared food is a big part of the business. In fact, the kitchen has recently been enlarged and the Nakashima brothers are venturing into the catering business. Manager Jerry Masaki is credited with moving the little store into the 21st century.

“A lot were his ideas; he really knows what he’s doing,” Aric said. “We support him.” Today’s innovations aside, it was more than 50 years ago when all this began and it’s been a family operation from the start. The 50th anniversary celebrates the opening of the current building, but it wasn’t the first.

Kaoru and Kome Tanizaki, issei who came from Japan to Hawaii to work on the plantations, first opened a small store in Wailuku. When that business was lost to a fire, in 1927 they built Tanizaki Store at a Pukalani location adjacent to the current building.

The old general store was similar to many of that era with a gravity-fed gasoline pump in front and the simple items people needed inside.

The prepared foods Puk Sup is known for today began back then with sushi.

“My grandmother made sushi,” Aric said. “Two kinds, cone sushi and rolled sushi.”

That legacy was continued by his mother, Sumiko Tanizaki Nakashima, and his aunt. Still shopping at the store last week was Sunao Minobe, whose mother, Masae, also helped make the sushi for many years.

A new and larger store and now a Pukalani landmark was completed in 1955.

“Yoshimura built the store,” said Moriaki Nakashima, Aric and Myles’ father. “It cost $17,500.”

The new store had an auspicious beginning. On opening day, Dec. 13, 1955, when the name was officially changed from Tanizaki Store to Pukalani Superette, Sumiko gave birth to her youngest son, Myles.

In the program for the Ulupalakua Thing April 30, Myles is quoted about the old days. “They had my uncle, Tom Tanizaki, running the gravity-flow gas pumps. ? Legend has it that one day my grandparents gathered the children and grandpa announced that Tom gets the Service Station, Sue gets the Store and Shideo gets shares and the property. I guess that’s how they did things back in the old days.”

To this day, the corporate name is Tanizaki, Ltd.

Moriaki worked for Kahului Railroad, his last 20 years with the company as a tugboat engineer. Sumiko worked at the store seven days a week until she retired in 1990.

The store has always worked on a cash-and-carry basis and Moriaki believes that’s part of its success. In the old days, many small markets took orders and delivered goods, but not Pukalani Superette.

“You might as well open one bank,” he laughed.

That doesn’t mean the market doesn’t have heart. For example, when the employees at Ah Fooks lost their jobs when the store burned down this year, they received gift certificates to buy groceries from Pukalani Superette. Seniors get discounts and the brothers work to keep prices fair.

And the folks who work there seem to like being part of the Puk Sup family. In the early days there were only five or six employees, all women.

“The ladies were getting older and they were still unloading feed,” Aric remembered about the time the staff began to expand.

Now there are more than 50 employees, and some, like Barbara Silva, who’s been with Puk Sup for about 40 years, have been around for a long time.

The store has endured because it has kept up with the times yet held on to its friendly, neighborhood feel.

According to Myles, “We needed a reason why people should shop here. By looking at the velocity reports you can key in on what sells. What was flying off the shelves was hot and cold prepared foods, produce and beverages. We renovated the kitchen, produce case and beverage coolers and upgraded the point of sale system for faster check out.”

Some things remain. Tom Tanizaki was a fisherman and the shop carried fishing supplies. It still has a selection of lines and lures, but Aric fondly remembers the time when fish hooks came in wooden boxes, crafted with tongue-and-groove corners that were later useful as containers for trinkets and other small items.

And even the old store remains in more than memory.

“I can’t actually say it’s not here,” Aric said. “We moved the building to adjoin the store and it became our warehouse.”

The 50-year celebration will continue throughout the year as a banner with the store’s new logo proclaims from the side of the building. There are weekly specials and a big party planned for October.

“We’re celebrating the longevity of being in the same business,” Aric explained. “The essence of Tanizaki, Ltd. is not gone. We’ll have a memorial service for our grandparents and past employees.”

Of course, on the big day there’ll be games and prizes and giveaways and maybe even some music.

Kaoru and Kome Tanizaki must be smiling to know their dream is alive and thriving in today’s big box, bigger-is-better times.

Liz Janes-Brown, " The friendly aisles of Puk Sup", The Maui News, May 8, 2005.

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