Many small businesses in Hawaiʻi are facing a fresh round of challenges as they enter the new year. There’s an increase in the state minimum wage, stubborn inflation, and the ongoing uncertainty around President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The Conversation checked with Joell Edwards, the owner of Wainiha Country Market on the North Shore of Kauaʻi. The store has been in the community for over 125 years — the previous owner ran it for nearly five decades.
Edwards spoke just outside the store, among the resident chickens, and took stock of the business she and her children have been running for the past seven years.
Her family’s goal was to bring more food to the market, making dairy, meat, pantry items, and locally-sourced products more accessible to the community, about 4 miles up the road from Hanalei.
Edwards told HPR that her priorities were to offer EBT-support and provide nutritious food.
In addition, the market has served as a depository for food support and relief by partnering with the Hawaiʻi Foodbank.
“What grocery store brings a food pantry in, which takes your sales away? But it really speaks to our mission, providing food to folks that don't have it,” Edwards said. “There's a food distribution that happens in Hanalei on Thursdays, and I was watching most of my community drive past my store on Thursdays, and I was like, ‘We should just do it here.’”
The market's location happens to be the community’s school bus stop, so Edwards said she wanted to ensure some items cost $1.
“Every kid knows that they go to their corner shop, right? And they just have $1, and you don't always want to buy candy, so we're like, the small cans of Pringles, that's $1, Aloha Maid, it should be $1, a can of soda, we wanted it to be $1,” she explained.
“When we first went into business five years ago, the wholesale cost of a can of Pepsi was about 41 cents. And we're like, ‘Hey, that's perfect, that's almost 100% markup. We can justify that.’ The cost of that same can is now 84 cents,” she said. “Everything has gone up in the hundreds. It's not these small increments.”
Edwards added that vendors, farmers, makers, and food producers are all facing higher costs due to fuel, shipping prices, and tariffs. As a result, the market is paying higher costs for products.
“I know that when I talk to other small businesses, it's almost like an ethical decision, because you're constantly trying to make a decision on what you can absorb so our community isn't taking the hit,” Edwards said.
"It is hard. And specifically in this community, it can be incredibly hard. Do you pass it on to visitors? How does that look? And we really reclaim this space for the local community and a local market."
This story aired on The Conversation on Jan. 7, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this story for the web.
