Thursday, January 19, 2006

The Case for Retail Expansion

This has been a great week for shopping here in Hawaii, hasn't it? First it's announced on Monday that L'Occitane is opening in Waikiki (at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center, which is already home to Lush and Cheesecake Factory) and now comes the news that Target is coming over. Oh happy day! As long as they bring more Method and less Choxie, we should be fine.

Meanwhile, Bath and Body Works is continuing to punk out on on opening a store here - which shouldn't be bad if you can order their stuff online (more Coco Cabana for you, my sweet), but if you like to have your nice-smelling bath products you can go ahead and check out Chemistry on King Street. I'm not saying that it's exactly the same quality or ingredients, but the concept of blending your own scented stuff is cool, kind of a throwback to what The Body Shop used to do before they became overrated. And if you think the range of scents are too girly for you, consider this: The last time I dropped in, they were also selling stuff from Thymes, so check 'em out while you can.

Seriously, though: I'm still waiting on Lane Bryant and Torrid to open out here. (Especially Torrid, who should give Jeans Warehouse II a run for their plus-size clubwear money.) Not to mention IKEA, Anthropologie... and, uh, H&M, at least so I don't have to endure their badly-designed Flash site any more.

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