Hanzawa’s is one of the oldest surviving mom and pop plantation-era stores on Maui — along with Morihara’s in Kula and Hasegawa’s in Hāna. These dusty old stores with fading paint and vintage signs are so much more than convenience stores. Their creaking walls tell stories of Hawaiʻi’s past — stories that can help us understand Hawaiʻi’s present.

In this essay for HPR, Carrie Ching muses about Maui's relationship with tourism against the backdrop, literally and figuratively, of a towering cruise ship in Kahului — the tallest building in town while in port.