The specialty olive oil, balsamic vinegar and more store that opened at Ward Centre in October Opens in a new tab will soon expand in to Waikiki with a shop at the Royal Hawaiian Center.
The new Island Olive Oil Co. shop will be “on the ground floor, right behind the Apple Store. We’re very excited about it,” said owner Dana Bergeman. He hopes to open by the end of September. “Tens of thousands of people walk through Royal Hawaiian Center,” he said, factoring into his excitement.
The new Waikiki shop will be about 700 square feet, smaller than the roughly 1,000-square-foot shop at Ward Centre, however, the retail floor space is about the same in each, Bergeman explained.
Just as with the Ward Centre store, “we’ll have the fusti,” which are large, stainless steel containers with spouts whence the imported goodness can be dispensed for sampling, either straight up from a wee cup, as is traditional, or with a small chunk of bread.
Given the different nature of the space, however, bottles for sale will be prepared fresh daily from the Ward Centre store and delivered to the Waikiki shop, Bergeman said.
The fresher the olive oil, the better, Bergeman said, adding that he is looking forward to the arrival of product from the Southern Hemisphere. It will include two medal-winning olive oils from Chile, one of which won “across-the-board” “Best” awards last month in the Los Angeles International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition Opens in a new tab.
“The only place in Hawaii you will find it is in my store,” he said, and he hopes it arrives in time for the Waikiki opening.
He’ll hire about eight employees for the new shop “so we have a rotation,” because the shopping center is open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
To say that Island Olive Oil is an olive oil store would not do it justice. The shop offers unique imported and infused olive oils, specialty oils and balsamic vinegars from around the world, according to seasonal harvest. The shop also sells gourmet sauces and jams and has begun offering a line of Hawaiian salts from Kauai, as well as kitchenware especially for the olive oils and vinegars, and it has begun offering a line of olive oil-based skin-care products.
Customer traffic started out primarily coming into the bricks-and-mortar store, the old-fashioned way, but online traffic from Hawaii and the mainland also has grown “organically,” he said, with help from the store’s presence on Twitter and Facebook.
Customers will find, in time for the holidays, new, customizable gift packs available with 60-milliliter bottles and the 200 milliliter size, which has been the most popular size for gift-giving. “They’re really great for omiyage,” so those also will be offered at the Waikiki shop, he said.
Not many people would think to seek to do a private party at a retail store, but “we’re happy to do a private event in-store. We’ve done a number of them,” and they’re great fun, he said, mentioning a recent function for about 40 members of the Italian Club of Hawaii. Members “brought in their own pupus, and we served bread and oil and vinegar to go alongside,” Bergeman said. “And anybody that bought anything, we gave them a good discount,” he said.
The expansion is self-funded, Bergeman said, which will surprise naysayers who could not imagine the store being sustainable.
“People do say that they’re surprised, and what I say is, ‘Come and try the product and you will taste the difference,’” he said. “People are so accustomed to the lower-quality stuff that is more common and more readily available, but once people try it, and the same goes for the vinegars … they are blown away,” he said.
People generally equate quality with exorbitant prices, but “our product is competitively priced and in some cases cheaper,” he said. The purchase of certain sizes of bottles entitle the buyer to bring them back for refills.
Retail business, both in-store and online, are the main drivers of his revenue stream, “but as a derivative of that, we’re getting more attention from local chefs and the food service industry,” he said. The percentage is small but growing, he said.
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Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.
