Originally Posted by
mtofell
Living here on Maui (Kihei/South Maui) the setup of the big stores has always intrigued me. There one each of the big stores on the island - Home Depot, Lowes, Target, Walmart, Costco and they are all right next to the airport +/- 20 mins from Kihei/Wailea but more like 40 mins from West Maui. And that 40 mins can turn into well over an hour when traffic is bad or when you get far north of Lahaina (Napili, etc.). Basically, for all the activity up in West Maui I'm surprised there aren't any big box stores. I'm no corporate bean counter and I suppose there just aren't enough people up there to support a store. Especially not now. Anyway, yeah, rebuilding Lahaina is going to take some time and construction will be slow going to say the least. First, just getting product on the island is difficult. Then, once it's here, getting it up to Lahaina is a challenge.
Of the 164k people living in Maui County prior to August 8, only 12k lived in Lahaina, 1.1k lived in Ka'anapali. While tourists frequent big box stores, they are intended primarily for the other 150k residents that live outside of West Maui.