Gail Stringer, the owner of the Hawaii General Store in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood announced earlier this month that she would permanently close the shop. But instead of closing, she is now trying to find someone to take over the business that has been an extension of home for Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders in the Northwest for nearly three decades.
After announcing the closure, Stringer said she heard from many supporters who told her the shop had become important to them. It offers hard-to-find traditional Hawaiian snacks like crack seed and fresh lei, a necklace made of flowers.
"That's when I realized, like, who am I to shut this down?” Stringer said. “I have employees who poured their heart and soul into this place, and, you know, there's got to be a way to keep it going for everybody."
Stringer grew up on Oʻahu. She moved away for college but later returned and said she felt like she had outgrown her home. That is when she moved to Seattle.
“Seattle seemed the most Hawai'i with the mountains and ocean, so I just jumped,” Stringer said.
She opened the store in 1998. At the time, it was one of a few places in Seattle that carried the newspaper Northwest Hawai'i Times, which served the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander population living in the northwest.
To Stringer, running the shop was always about more than just selling items.
“It wasn't about a retail space,” she said. “It was just about trying to create a space where people who were missing Hawaii could come and connect.”
Over the years, she has built a customer base that has become friends and family.
"We’ve had people come in who, for generations, the lei we have brought in, have celebrated births in their family, deaths in their family, weddings. All those things, and it's so sweetly tied to this place,” Stringer said.
Looking around the store, she said many people came together to help make it what it is now.
"There's 30 years of memories and people's energy in this place,” Stringer said. “My late father — he was an artist and an architect — and so he painted the Koʻolau Mountains on the back wall."
But rising costs and shopping behaviors that favor buying items online have made it difficult for Stringer to keep the shop afloat. She turned 60 this year and started to look at how much she would earn during retirement.
“Anyone who's owned a small business knows you really don't pay yourself very much, and I haven't over the years,” Stringer said. “I skipped paychecks and I was raising my kids and running the store. I know that setting aside money is something we all need to do, but it just wasn't a thing that I was able to do. So now I need to go get a real job and make something so I don't have to work till I'm 85.”
Stringer will miss coming to work at the shop everyday, but she said it is more important to find someone who is willing to keep it going for the community she has helped build.
