Post #700943 by Beachbumz on Mon, Dec 2, 2013 12:22 AM

On 2013-12-01 16:27, AceExplorer wrote:
Yesterday I received some information about the IMP from a friend who visited for a convention a few weeks ago. While I do believe him, I don't fully believe the story he was told. I'll go into some details as to why I am a bit skeptical about the story later, at the end of this post.

What he told me:
He spoke for a few minutes with a local resident who also gives tours of Waikiki. This person claimed that the issues with the IMP began when businesses of "lesser quality" began to take over and eventually dominate the IMP. Rental income and sales revenue declined. Then, eventually, the property management company began to have "problems" with many of the vendors who were increasingly "difficult to work with" and who "didn't maintain standards" imposed by the management company for cleanliness and appearance of their businesses. Booth sizes shrank but also increased in number. This created opportunities for lessees to bring in more relatives as booth tenants, and then the booth tenants complicated things by generally not performing maintenance and clean-up of their booths and spaces. They also sold very much the same stuff all over the place and created, and then also encouraged, a low-end flea-market appearance and atmosphere. This drove out other merchants, and caused a lot of visitors to turn up their noses at what had now become a low-end flea market. Businesses deeper in the core of the IMP suffered across the board and had a hard time maintaining inventory and paying higher rent in the face of making fewer sales. This widened the gap between what IMP offered and what other higher-end dining, fast food, and shopping venues offered next door to, and around, the IMP. Finally everyone running the place decided to throw in the towel and started looking at other ways to use the land and put an end to what they considered unrecoverable. The tour guide finished by saying that all is not lost, that somewhere a similar concept to the IMP was going to spring up, and that it would not be downtown in the middle of Waikiki.

Why I'm skeptical:
The management company, if they were competent, could have taken steps to prevent and address many of the things cited as causes in the story. Even if they were to terminate lease agreements with a large number of the supposedly "bad" tenants, then I imagine that they would have had both the power and the control necessary to handle these issues and to make a turnaround happen. I do, however, believe that an opportunity exists for something else to pop up elsewhere and make money using some of the old things that made the IMP successful.

Why I may not know what the hell I'm talking about:
My friend's story is purely word-of-mouth. And my reasons for being skeptical are purely my own speculation. None of these have any connection to any facts that I have heard from anyone else. Yes, we will all miss the IMP of long ago, but relatively few will miss the IMP of today. The fact remains that I have no idea what the landowners and management company were experiencing or what they were thinking. I also have no idea if they were simply approached by a big developer with a very attractive option which would make the "bad tenants" story just a bunch of baloney.

So let me leave it at that. We're now into the final month of the existence of the IMP and all we can do is wish everyone well. Things change and not always for the better. But we can at least hope that something good will rise up in the future to help balance out some of the mainland glitz and glamour with badly-needed local culture and history. It may take a few years of living with a cultural and historical void downtown in Waikiki for the citizens of Honolulu to come to recognize that. Let's hope they do.

I've had a feeling for awhile that this is EXACTLY one of the main reasons...
I'm coming up on my 25th year here on Maui and have been working at the same Outdoor Marketplace here in Kihei for that entire time.. It was once called Maui's International Marketplace, similar to the IMP on a way smaller scale, even had a few large 10' tiki's out front to greet the tourists.. Unfortunately our market is in the same situation that the IMP has been going through for many years now.. Vendors getting the same products as everyone else, Tourists are being treated like crap and the market itself is not being kept up.. All this negative stuff cripples the market, tourists do not want to stay and shop here like they use too and hotels don't refer there guests to us like they use to.. There are roughly 30% in vacancies and it gets worst every year.. Why?? Terrible management of the property! It's very sad...
I remember going to the IMP when I moved here back in '89 and thinking what a great place to shop... A few years back I went and was in shock at how terrible it was... Everyone had the exact same thing, same price, same attitude, etc.. If it wasn't for the history, the Tiki's around the market and maybe that little shop upstairs that sells the cool vintage aloha shirts, I don't think I'll miss it (especially those awful mai tai's they sold at Tiki Town.. j/k that goes to Swizzle if your reading this.. :wink: I wish I could have experienced it in it's prime way back when, that would have been cool.. Aloha IMP..