House to close, Aloha lives on: What's next for Uncle Clay
AINA HAINA, Hawaii (KHON2) — Many local businesses are still feeling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and even beloved local shops are not immune.
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KHON2 took a closer look at the challenges Uncle Clay's House of Pure Aloha faced in their last week of business and what is ahead.
Uncle Clay's House of Pure Aloha served its first shaved ice in Aina Haina back in 2011. Uncle Clay and his nephew Bronson Chang found enough success to open a second store in Ala Moana in 2018.
'And then once the pandemic hit, it was, you know, ghost town,' Chang said. 'So that was the sign for us to close that house and that chapter of the story.'
Beloved ʻĀina Haina shaved ice spot closing at end February
The business model pivoted several times to deal with losses from Ala Moana along with rising inflation and increasing minimum wage. Federal, State and County grants could only help so much.
'We looked at ways that we could sell other items and not rely so much on our staff to generate revenue,' Chang said. 'We paid minimum wage as the starting, and that's the best we could do.'
Uncle Clay said he is grateful to have made it as far as he did and added that he has always been a David in a world of Goliaths.
'If you really truly believe in what you're doing, those Goliaths can be taken down,' he said. 'But we owe it to every single person that has entered our home, which becomes their home away from home, no matter one time or a thousand times.'
The latest data from the Small Business Administration shows almost 4,000 establishments closed in Hawaii between March 2022 and March 2023 compared to over 5,500 that opened. Uncle Clay said House of Pure Aloha will serve its last shaved ice on Monday, Feb. 24 but there is always hope for another venture in the future.
'I see it as the stepping stone, the springboard,' he said. 'Will be followed by a chapter that's in the making right now, we don't know exactly how that's going to happen, when it's going to happen, but we have every confidence in the world that it will happen.'
Check out more news from around Hawaii
Uncle Clay's will be open daily until their last day of business, for more information and ways to support Uncle Clay and Bronson as they finish off this chapter.
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