Ghost Town

The Walmart® store in town will be closing permanently on April 21st, with management citing “underperformance” as the reason. While that may be true, theft and other crimes committed in the store are most likely the main cause. That goes for the closure of both Longs® locations in town as well.

That bit of news, of course, really ruined what would have been a nice day. Personally, there has been heavy reliance on that Walmart® store to purchase necessary food products including the daily fruit for lunch. There’s no other comparable retail store in the area. There was much “gnashing of teeth” while attempting to determine a contingency.

So, the only possible option is to venture out several times per week in the late afternoon or evening to either Ala Moana Center or Kahala Mall. Or, food shopping could be accommodated by patronizing the new and overpriced Waikiki Market. Needless to say, those dim prospects brought on severe mental fatigue. There was not enough energy to even complete an on-line order for an airchair.

The Ross® store in town is only large retail establishment remaining. However, the bottom floor now has an extreme amount of empty space. There would be no surprise if an announcement about its closure is forthcoming. Once the store closes, downtown will be officially dead, a ghost town.

Well, that’s not exactly true. There are still a lot of people who work in town. And, the downtown gym has no intention of closing. There are myriad eateries and fast food joints in town, too. Only time will tell if the latter can survive.

The homeless, the halfway house derelicts, and the clinically insane who roam the streets and loiter everywhere … they have essentially won. They “own” the downtown area now. And, it’s going to get worse.

On a side note, there are a few more gym members who are MIA. There’s no purpose in keeping track of them. They are all fully “vaccinated” and must take responsibility for their foolishness. If they “keeled over” … oh well. Too bad.

With just three days remaining before the one-year mark of the rescinding of the face mask mandate, there are still about 30% of the local population who are wearing the ridiculous prophylactic full-time. There are another 10% or so who will put on a face mask before entering enclosed or crowded venue. These people are borderline clinically insane. They cannot be helped.

Miscellany: “Orange Bad Man” has yet to be arrested and incarcerated. WTF?