Pukalani Superette has been a mainstay for upcountry residents for nearly a century. At the corner of Makawao Avenue and Old Haleakala Highway, the bright green building is home to one of Maui’s dwindling mom-and-pop businesses still run by its founding family.
“I'm Megan. I'm a fourth-generation Nakashima. My dad is right over there,” laughs Megan Nakashima. “My great-grandparents started the store in like 1926ish.”
Fondly known as Puk Sup, the store carries popular ready-to-eat food, grocery staples, and a lot of locally grown and Maui-made favorites.
More than 75% of the produce in the store is supplied by local farmers.
Haleakala Creamery, like many small businesses in the area, got its start selling products at Puk Sup.
“I like coming to the Pukalani Superette because they have everything you need, whether it's for just a quick meal or for [gift-giving] — they got everything you need here,” said Dylan Rist of Haleakala Creamery.
Customer Noe Lecker has rave reviews.
“I love the meals and customer service,” she said of the store’s 60 employees. “They're wonderful people. And you get Anthony's coffee. I love it. I mean, it's a wonderful store.”
Nakashima says doing good in the community is part of their family philosophy.
“You help each other and then you move forward, right?” she said.
They donate school supplies to a local classroom every year, hoping other businesses will join the effort. They support a host of community fundraisers. In the wake of last year’s wildfires, they gave away food to local community hubs.
“It's a little kind of crazy, and I understand, when you think business-wise, giving that much of your time and your money and your effort doesn't make a lot of sense… but I'm kind of happy with it,” chuckles Nakashima.
Each holiday season, they randomly pick up customers’ grocery bills.
“During the pandemic, a customer just dropped off a wad of cash, and she said, ‘give this out to the customers to help them buy groceries,’ because everyone was hurting at the time. And so we've kind of held that in our hearts, and we do it every year,” Nakashima explained.
Pukalani Superette was founded as Tanizaki Store in 1926. Both Megan Nakashima and her dad, Aric, grew up in the aisles.
“We used to ride our tricycles in the store, you know, up and down the aisles, bothering customers,” recalled Aric.
The store used to sell a wide collection of comic books, and he and his brother, Myles, and their friend Michael, the son of an employee, would read them for hours.
Megan and her brother also spent a lot of time in the store when they were young.
“We would find little areas in the warehouse and hide and make a little fort or — you're not allowed to anymore, because it's probably very, like, unsafe — but we would ride our lift up and down, and that's probably why there's a sign there that now that says, ‘no humans on the lift,’” Megan laughed.
There’s no shortage of memorable stories over the years.
Back in the '80s, Aric Nakashima recalled the day police stopped a car across from the store. Customers and employees all gathered outside to see. The suspense grew as police asked the driver to open the car’s trunk.
“Some are carrying the groceries after they shopped, and they're just standing there watching,” said Aric.
The hushed crowd waited.
“All of a sudden, everybody went [sharp breath in], you know, like, ‘wow.’ So I kind of made my way through [to get a better view]. It's like, really? The whole trunk was one cow, a live cow.”
The store celebrates its 98th anniversary this month, and as the latest generation of store leadership, Megan Nakashima is determined to keep its legacy alive.
“I'm a very stubborn person, so it's not going to end on my watch,” she said. “That's how I feel, and that's how my brother feels.”
Their generosity keeps customers coming back.
“We’re just really grateful that we’re here,” she said. “We can try our hardest to stay alive and like, do business, but it's, without our customers and our community, we wouldn't be here, right?”
