One island industry booming during pandemic

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    HONOLULU (KITV) — Many businesses have been hurt financially from the pandemic.

As some stores and shops struggle to survive, one industry has thrived.

Honolulu resident Bob Peters picked up the final items needed to complete his lanai expansion.

“I need more room. It is a good time to do this, I am retired and locked in because of COVID,” said Peters.

He was one of the thousands in the islands who contracted COVID 19. Then his infection sent him to the hospital, where he was in the ICU for 12 days.
Now home improvement is part of his recovery.

“I wanted to rebound. COVID was very debilitating, my resistance was down. The way to come up was to start a project and so I started my building,” added Peters.

During the start of the pandemic, many other island residents built or renovated their lanai, according to Cosentino General Manager Matt Klein. Now many of his customers are focusing their attention on remodeling inside the home.

“We’re seeing a lot more kitchens and more bathrooms,” stated Klein.

While granite and marble remain choices for counter tops, Klein has seen more interest in new manufactured stone slabs for floors, walls and counter tops.
Products people have been buying throughout the pandemic.

“Currently we’re doing as much business as we have in the past 4-5 years,” said Klein.

Sales also surged at City Mill, and stayed up throughout the pandemic.

“We had a lot of demand for things like paint, items for the garden and furniture for people to set up their office. People noticed they needed to renovate and fix up what they had, so there have been a lot of repairs and maintenance while people were at home,” said City Mill President & CEO Steven Ai.

Higher demand and shipping disruptions led to some shortages of supplies, and still do.
But Ai said Hawaii residents have not been forced to pay more during the pandemic for hot commodities, ranging from paint brushes to potting soil.

“Some of our vendors were trying to increase prices, because of increased costs for safety equipment or shipping. We pushed back against many of them and said ‘We are not going to give Hawaii residents that increase’,” added Ai.

While pandemic lingers on, so has the interest in home improvement and remodeling.
As island residents, including Peters, look to make their homes a more enjoyable place.

“I’m a musician and my appreciation of music comes from listening. But in an instant, you hear it and it is gone. It is nice to build something and look back and say ‘I did that!’,” added Peters.

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