“Our business has been completely shut down as of March 20.
“We have a small kiosk at Dole Plantation near Wahiawa. We have no income and are still trying to seek unemployment, but claims for sole proprietors are not being processed yet.
“While we do believe some local businesses should have the same chance to be open like the big stores (Home Depot, Walmart, etc.), we believe ours will have to be closed much longer.
“That’s because we sell wood carvings and tiki to mainly tourists. My husband carves all his art by hand and educates tourists on traditional Polynesian carvings, meaning native trees and wood. Because we mainly are supported by tourists, we believe our business should remain closed until the mainland, Asia and other countries have controlled their numbers of infections of COVID-19.
“But that said, we have a good chance of losing our business completely. Dole is continuing to change its vendors’ rents so we already are behind April and May. If this continues months more, we will have no chance to come back to our place and will be owing thousands before we can even start to make any income again.”
Rochelle Muamoholeva
Co-owner of Handcarvedtiki
Photo: Rochelle’s husband Tapa with one of their business’ creations
#LetHawaiiWork
