Over a year ago, the lights were turned off, the shelves were empty and Kokua Market was on the brink of shutting down after nearly 50 years in Moiliili.

Today, despite the challenges the coronavirus pandemic has forced on small businesses, the natural foods market is making a comeback. Ironically, the current demand for fresh food and other supplies has helped in a struggle to stay afloat that began nearly two years ago.

Organizers made a desperate appeal in late 2018 to some 4,000 members of the market cooperative to buy more shares, and launched a public online fundraiser to keep the market alive.

General manager Laurie Carlson, a co-op organizer since the market’s founding in 1971, said 400 “hardcore members” bought extras shares and raised $171,000 in November 2018. “That got us relaunched and kept us going for quite a while.”

The store started breaking even in August 2019, averaging $25,000 to $27,000 a week. Then in January and February, signs were hung outside the building encouraging customers to spend just a little more, with messages like: “We need to have X number of people spend $5 more or we’re going to close,” Carlson said.

“That really seemed to get their attention.”

Sales jumped to $35,000 a week, enabling the co-op to pay its bills and make small improvements.

“It was like one of those ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ never-going-to-happen (things),” Donna Ching, director of food, said. “If Kokua wasn’t what it was and there weren’t so many people committed to it, there’s no way that an ordinary business could have pulled this off.”

Carlson said the coronavirus crisis gave Kokua Market the same surge in sales it did other grocery stores, resulting in a $50,000 boost in March over the previous two months. But sales dropped toward the month’s end, mainly because stock ran low, especially of bulk items like beans and rice. As items were restocked, Carlson said, sales evened out. “People were coming less often, but buying more when they came.”

She hopes to keep the market’s revival going through an emailed newsletter, updating customers on what stock has been replenished and newly arrived specials.

Carlson also has reassured shoppers that the local supply chain has been uninterrupted. Even when mainland suppliers were hit with shortages, local deliveries of produce, dairy items and meat continued, Carlson added. “Local suppliers were wonderful.”

Kokua Market has always supported farmers by giving them a place to sell their produce when they don’t have enough to supply the grocery chains, she said. As more of the farmers’ regular customers, such as restaurants, have shuttered, she is reminding them that the store will still take their fresh goods.

Carlson, who published the Honolulu Weekly from 1991 to 2013, and Ching are working on a business plan that will secure grants from investors and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The store already has received critical assistance from the Ulupono Iniatiative, which gave them two $20,000 grants, and will bestow two larger allotments once quarterly performance goals are reached, Ching said.

Although many changes may have to wait until more funds are raised, the co-op’s goals are spelled out in the Kokua 2020 Initiative: Installing a bar to serve coffee, juice, smoothies, beer and wine; more grab- and-go chilled and hot items; and a hyper-local focus on sustainable sources of seafood, grass-fed beef, free-range eggs, produce and more such items.

Carlson is proud to carry products unique to Hawaii, from food containers and wrappers, T-shirts and ulu flour, to Molokai venison, Big Island lamb, antibiotic- free J. Ludovico Farm chicken raised on Oahu and Local I‘a fish.

Another goal is zero-waste shopping, providing more liquid bulk items like condiments, soap, oil and syrup, taken home in reusable glass jars or shoppers’ own bottles. The store provides paper bags instead of plastic for bulk items.

The market proposed allowing people to bring their own plates and containers to pick up food, but that is not allowed by state Department of Health rules, Carlson said.

The store wants to buy new refrigeration and other equipment to improve the dairy and cheese section, a salad bar and prepared foods sections.

Ching said the market’s volunteers have been key to its survival, providing 40% of the labor. Most of the paid staff are part-timers, and Ching and Carlson are working more than full time without pay, managing the co-op with the help of a third volunteer.

“We wouldn’t have gotten to this point without a lot of people just rolling up their sleeves and saying, ‘We’re not letting this 49-year-old institution go down,’” she added.

Ching is thankful for people who come in every day to shop or eat. She thinks they appreciate the quality and healthfulness of the food, but also, “people do not want the store to fail.”

Kokua carries meat, eggs and organic wines and local beers unavailable elsewhere, she said.

“And our food is fantastic. We have the best prepared healthy food on the island, anywhere.”

Both their regular chefs have garnered a following: Ryan Murakami makes Indian, Asian, local and Mexican foods; and Sjarif Wagdy specializes in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines. Outdoor picnic tables provide a convenient place to eat, though they aren’t available during the virus crisis.

“People like coming to Kokua Market; it has a little treasure-hunt aspect to it, that element of surprise,” Ching said.

The store receives items in small quantities, which sell out quickly, but customers can score a special product if they shop often.

“It’s like a seven-days-a-week farmers market, with free parking and air conditioning!”

KOKUA MARKET

2643 S King St.

New hours: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily; 941-1922

To contribute to a fund to help pay for larger renovations, go to gofundme.com/f/renovations-for-2020.