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The Business End
A look at the week's economic winners and losers...
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November 20, 2008 October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It's one thing to put up pink ribbons or offer a bit of good-sounding lip service, which many did, but the Hard Rock Cafe in Lahaina took the next step, raising over $12,000 for Maui cancer patients through a series of benefit events. Any time a company, even a big one that some may see as a sign of cultural homogenization, puts its money where its PR is, that's worth a nod.
Belt tightening abounds: Mayor Tavares told county departments they'll have to make due with less, ordering them to slash spending by 16 percent for the fiscal year, The Maui News reports. The move—which will surely lead to layoffs and shelve various public projects—will save an estimated $55 million at a time when Maui, and the state, is staring at a ballooning deficit and deflating revenue with little relief in sight.
File this under, "duh": It's official. The United States is in an economic recession, according to a survey conducted by the National Association for Business Economics. Of the 50 economists polled, 48 said the dreaded "r" word is an undeniable reality. The question: who were those other two, and under what gargantuan hunk of metamorphic matter have they been living?
Here's an interesting thing: You'd think with hotel occupancy continuing to decline, room rates would follow in kind. Not so. Pacific Business News reports that even as occupancy on Maui fell to 58.3 percent--a 22 percent drop over the same time last year--room rates inched down a mere 1 percent, to an average of $222 a night. It seems like if rates were lowered a bit more, some of those empty rooms might have people in them, people who would order room service or go buy $14 cocktails at the swim-up bar. Just a thought.
Love quality organic food but wish you could give your dollars to a hulking multinational corporation instead of Down to Earth? You're in luck—ground was broken this week on the new Whole Foods Market at the Maui Mall. The 26,000-square-foot, yuppified oasis of green cleaning products and expensive deli items is set to open its doors in early 2010, according to a company press release. The Maui location is the second of four stores the Texas-based grocery giant plans to open in Hawaii over the next few years. MTW
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| Entertainment and lifestyle news for Maui, Hawaii and the surrounding Islands. Maui Time Weekly is Mauis only independent and locally owned newspaper.
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