On Saturday, Debbie Ah Chick-Hopkins will turn off the lights and close the doors for the last time to the beloved boutique she, her sister and her mother have run for more than 20 years in Kailua.

Global Village, a small boutique offering apparel, handcrafted jewelry and accessories from around the world, is closing its bricks-and-mortar shop for good and transitioning to an online business full time.

The move was spurred, in part, by the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic along with the lease rent and increasing operating expenses that come with running a physical store, according to Ah Chick-Hopkins.

“We’re really going to miss the face-to-face contact,” she said, citing it as a bittersweet moment. “We’ve had so many customers come in throughout the month just to say goodbye and support us. That’s been really nice, seeing people come in to talk about the history.”

But, she said, it’s expensive to staff a business seven days a week for over 10 hours a day. That, along with the unpredictability of the economic climate ahead, factored into the family’s decision to close the physical store.

Consumer habits are also shifting, she said, and the move is an effort to adapt with changing times.

Global Village is just one of numerous small businesses continuing to struggle with mounting expenses as the pandemic wears on, according to Tina Yamaki, president of Retail Merchants of Hawaii.

Some are still struggling to pay back rent incurred during pandemic-related closures, she said, including two that occurred on Oahu in 2020. During those closures, businesses still had to foot rent and utilities, along with taxes.

Those who are renego­tiating or renewing their leases are looking at how much debt has been incurred, she said, and whether they can afford to keep their doors open.

In addition, visitors have not really returned at pre- pandemic levels, and the ones who are coming are not spending as much, based on what she’s hearing from members.

She knows a few other retailers considering whether to give up their leases and transition to online as well, but who have not pulled the trigger yet.

Ryan Tanaka, president of financial consulting firm Island Business Management, said the economic climate for small businesses in Hawaii is still challenging. Tanaka conducted several surveys of businesses during the pandemic that found many could not pay rent in full.

Small businesses now also have to contend with inflation, supply chain disruptions and the impacts of the omicron variant, he said. Additionally, all eyes are also on Amazon moving into Honolulu and how that will affect the market here. The online retail giant has plans in the works for a $120 million “delivery station” in Kalihi Kai.

Meanwhile, for some small businesses, “there’s still back rent, and we’re still in these pre-COVID lease agreements,” Tanaka said. “And landlords are up against their own shareholders, whether they’re private or publicly held, so they also have a fiduciary duty to do what they can to get things back on track to pre-COVID levels.”

For Global Village the transition to online will allow the business to start anew, and improve its cash flow, while still doing some pop-ups, which they have already planned for at the next “Aloha Home Market.”

Revenues had dropped as much as 70% during the height of the pandemic, said Ah Chick-Hopkins, but in recent times remained down 25% to 30%.

She and sister Dawn Ra­velo and mother Sharrie Ah Chick will work from home, with just the three of them running the online business. They will, fortunately, be able to make the transition without debt. And they were able to help place Global Village’s part-time employees at other small retail shops in the area.

“It’s a new chapter, a new road,” said Ah Chick- Hopkins.

The boutique first opened in 1995 on Kuulei Road before moving, four years later, to its current location at 539 Kailua Road, closer to the town’s main commerce center. The store doubled its size in 2004 due to growth, with its best years between 2014 to 2016.

In 2017 the rent doubled under landlord Alexander &Baldwin, and in 2018 the boutique downsized to half its size again.

Then, in 2020, when the pandemic hit, the economic fallout was a challenge but also a blessing, Ah Chick- Hopkins said, because the business revamped its website and shifted some of its focus to online sales. Previously, the business dabbled with online sales but had always been focused primarily on the store.

Over the years, the business has tried to give back to the community it is part of and established a local following, she said. Custo­mers can check its website at globalvillagekailua.com or follow it on Instagram @globalvillagekailua for updates.

Empty retail spaces have become a more common sight during the pandemic, with papered-up spaces that sometimes get new tenants but sometimes remain empty for months islandwide.

In Kailua town the story is no different.

Next door to Global Village, a retail space formerly occupied by Kailua Moon Boutique remains empty after closing in late 2021. Kailua Moon posted on its Facebook page that “due to unforeseen circumstances” it would close by Dec. 31.

On Hekili Street a block over, several empty spaces remain after the departure of other retailers, including another clothing boutique and an ice cream shop.

A&B has announced online that a few new shops will fill some of those spaces this spring.

Colliers International, in its retail market outlook for the fourth quarter of 2021 for Hawaii, reported a slight improvement in vacancy rates to 7.08%, compared with 7.25% during the third quarter, which was a five-year high.

During the first nine months of 2021, some 152,000 square feet of store closures was reported.

Oahu’s economy “mirrored the ebb and flow of COVID-19 infection and hospitalization rates” during 2020-2021, the report said, and the retail market’s recovery remains dampened by omicron’s uncertainty.

At the end of January, Tanna Dang, owner of Eden in Love, also took her business online after closing a bricks-and-mortar store selling apparel, accessories and gifts at South Shore Market in Kakaako.

Dang had also decided to make the transition online during the pandemic after owning several shops for years. She calls herself a “shopkeeper at heart” but does not regret the move.

Now she and her husband and employees are working out of warehouse space. The business will see savings without an expensive retail lease — and has much more flexibility in regard to when work is done, without having to keep a store open during certain hours.

“It’s been really incredible,” Dang said. “There’s a whole new way of doing business we never dreamt of, but because of the pandemic we really started to think outside of the box. … It’s not Eden in Love is going away; it’s just online and in a different version.”