Beyond Auntie Nalani’s Cookies
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Nalani Holliday is surrounded with some of her
favorite things at her Ward Centre boutique,
Red Pineapple
What’s a woman who already has a wholesale cookie manufacturing company, Auntie Nalani’s Cookies, for eight years to do next?
Open a retail store offering all her favorite items.
Red Pineapple owner Nalani Holliday’s spontaneous, fun-loving nature is reflected in her 500-square-foot store at Ward Centre.
“I’ve always torn pages from magazines (of things I want),” says Holliday. “And when I go to the Mainland, I hunt for it. I figured I can’t be the only one who’s doing this. Why not bring those things here to Hawaii? The store is really all the things I like.”
Since the Ala Moana resident has been selling Auntie Nalani’s Cookies in gift baskets, people would always ask what else can be put in the baskets. So the store carries the cookies plus all kinds of items that may be included in the custom-made, brightly colored woven-grass baskets.
The boutique also stocks lots of containers, boxes and functional things.
“If it smells good,” says Holliday, “and looks great, that’s what I want in the store.”
The mainstay of the store are her Auntie Nalani’s Cookies, and more than 100 Dean and Deluca products, including coffee, tea and pasta. The shop also carries about 10 products featured in Oprah’s O Magazine. The Sigg water bottle, which is aluminum and non-porous so juice flavors don’t stick to the bottle and comes in smaller sizes for children, is currently popular. Other hot sellers are colorful coffee cup sleeves, which help distinguish the all-too-common generic paper coffee cup from other cups.
She credits her husband, Christopher, who designs security systems, for being her “biggest cheerleader and keeping me balanced.” Holliday also appreciates her four part-timers and their great knowledge about the products in the boutique.
“One of my challenges is trying to keep things fresh,” explains the owner. “To do that, I’m researching, shopping and listening to customers. I’m always looking for something new; there’s something coming in new every week. Sometimes customers even try to help me bring in the boxes because they’re so excited they want to see what’s new too.”
Red Pineapple is located at Ward Centre. The hours of operation are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays. For more information, call 593-2733 or log onto www.redpineapple.net
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