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April 24, 2026 by Peter T Young 13 Comments

William Hardy Hill

He reportedly came to Hawaiʻi and jumped a whaling ship, and stayed. (Maui Council)

“Doc Hill (William Hardy Hill) was kind of the maverick businessman in Hilo … (he) eventually, became probably the most influential businessman on this island.” (Henderson)

“Doc” acquired his moniker for selling eyeglasses, after he came to the Big Island in 1913; he opened the Hill Optical Co in the Young Kwong Hoy building in 1917 (between what is now the Kress bldg. & Basically Books.)

License No. 1 under the 1917 legislation to Regulate the Practice of Optometry was granted to Hill; he was a charter member of the Optometry Board of Examiners.

“He had some experience in optics from a job in a jewelry store back on the Mainland, so when he noticed a display of 40-cent eyeglasses in a Chinese store he persuaded the proprietor to let him have four dozen pair on credit. These he peddled to aging Orientals in the plantation camps for $4, on easy payments.” (Star Bulletin, June 6, 1970; Schmitt)

Although the published biographical sketches of Hill mention only a grammar school or high school education, he reportedly possessed a Doctor of Optics degree from Northern Illinois College of Ophthalmology and Otology. (Schmitt)

Doc added his jewelry business in 1919, and both his optical and jewelry businesses were among the largest in the Territory. When he was elected to our Territorial House of Representatives in 1928, Doc sold his optical and jewelry businesses to his bookkeeper, Freiderich Wilheim “Fritz” Koehnen. (Narimatsu)

“(O)nce you become associated with Doc Hill, you get very much involved with politics.” (Henderson) Hill was a member of Hawaiʻi territorial house and senate (he was senate president 1932-1959;) delegate to Republican National Convention from Hawaii Territory, 1944; member of Hawaii state senate, 1959-67.

Sometimes irascible, oft times flamboyant, but always keenly analytical and astute in his approach to the problems of the day. Senator Hill contributed greatly to the work of the legislature and to the development of the 50th State. (Congressman Matsunaga)

After President Dwight D Eisenhower signed the proclamation welcoming Hawai‘i as the 50th state of the union on August 21, 1959, the First Legislature of the State of Hawai‘i convened on August 31, 1959, in accordance with the Hawai‘i State Constitution.

During this 45-day First Special Session of 1959, the Senate elected Senator William H. Hill of the first senatorial district as Senate President. Senator Hill stated in his Opening Day remarks:

“This session of the Legislature is the most important that Hawai‘i has ever had and without a doubt will be the most important that will ever be known in Hawai‘i because in this session the die will be cast for future sessions.”

“Doc could go on telling you stories forever. (He’d say, ‘You gotta do things when you can, not when you can’t.’ In other words, if there’s a deal to be made or something that you want done, you do it when you can, and that means right now”. (Henderson)

‘Little Doc,’ his talking mynah bird joined him “(e)very year until the bird died In 1965, ‘Little Doc’ was brought from Hilo by his master to alt caged outside of the Senator’s ʻIolani Palace office – whistling at the wahines and saying ‘Vote for Doc Hill’ in true campaign style.”

Perhaps the ceremonial highlight of Doc’s Senate career came in 1967, when he appeared during one of the extended days of the session dressed in a kimono.

“Mr. President,” he said. “I have been humiliated, insulted and shunned the past few days and it’s all your fault. Last Thursday, Mr. President, I arose on this floor to tell you of rumors that the Senate might not adjourn as scheduled the next day.”

“I told you that my wife was going back home to Hilo In a few hours and wanted to know how many shirts she should leave for me In Honolulu. And you told me – before this body – that she should leave only one shirt.”

“Along about Saturday, I began to notice that when I would approach a group of senators I thought were my friends, they would scatter or else get upwind of me. I wondered what was wrong. Had I voted wrong on one of their pet measures?”

If ever the term Elder Statesman fit a man. It fit Doc. After many years in the inner circle of power In Hawaii government, age and the Democratic ascendancy In the Senate moved him back into the ranks during the late 1960s.

But really, Doc Hill never took a back seat to anyone in speaking his piece on the Senate floor. And age which slowed his step hasn’t yet worked its way up to the quick mind beneath that Caesar-like haircut. (Congressman Matsunaga)

It’s well known that Senator WH ‘Doc’ Hill of Hilo is a capitalist, period. (Honolulu Record, December 6, 1956)

“(Doc Hill) eventually got control of, at that time, the Hilo Electric Light Company (later known as Hawai’i Electric Light Co, (and the) General Motors dealership. … (He also had) Wailoa Motors, which operated a major tire-recapping facility that dealt mainly with the sugar plantations cane haul trucking tire needs”.

We had nine theaters around the island … (Hilo Theatres, Ltd) … I might say the theater business was a very good business before television arrived.” (Henderson)

He organized ‘Realty,’ a holding company in 1926; it was parent company to several of his holdings. (Realty was later renamed Realty Investment Co, Ltd.)

He also had “Hilo Thrift and Loan (Hilo Finance and Thrift Co., Ltd,) that eventually became what is known as Realty Finance. Doc was involved in “all kinds” of real estate ventures (land; built and bought businesses; developments, etc.)

From 1954 to 1973, Big Island developers, including Realty Investment Co Ltd, won permission to chop up thousands of acres in Lower Puna and sell them off into thousands of individual lots. (Dayton) Most of the subdivisions were created prior to the adoption of the Zoning Code in 1967. (Puna CDP)

Mainland marketing pieces for Puna subdivisions noted, “Your Future Is Here! If you’ve ever wanted to own property in Hawaii, it pays you to act now. Combine investment with pleasure in the 50th State of the Union.”

“William H Hill, says in his (Hilo Electric Report) that ‘the vast water supply, temperate climate and other natural resources, many still untapped, make the Big Island the Territory’s most valuable land area for economic development and location of new industry’.” (Salt Lake Tribune, April 10, 1960)

Hill and his wife Ouida had large homes in Hilo and Kona, and had hosted notable visitors for decades: John Wayne and Pilar Palette were married on the grounds of his Keauhou Bay estate on November 1, 1954. ‘Doc’ Hill died in 1970.

© 2026 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Prominent People Tagged With: Hilo, Doc Hill, William Hardy Hill, Hawaii, Hawaii Island

April 23, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honolulu Oil

William Matson was born in 1849 in a Swedish seacoast town and ran off to sea at the age of twelve. According to his daughter, he had not a single day’s schooling in his life.

At 18, Matson “came round the Horn” to California and soon worked his way up to the captaincy of a scow schooner (barge) in San Francisco Bay.

At age 33 he became one-quarter owner—for $5,000—of the new three-masted schooner, Emma Claudia, and brought her to Hilo on her first voyage. Matson saw opportunity on the Big Island and began to focus his service there.

“My father used to do everything. He bought the horses, he bought needles, thread, mules, dress materials… a floating store.” (daughter Lurline Matson)

Every voyage was a partnership—with different partners holding shares, generally in eighths—and then splitting the profits. Matson expanded in this way, buying more ships and chartering others.

Matson became well established in the Hawaiian trade. His small fleet of sailing vessels shuttled back and forth between Hilo and San Francisco.

Westbound to Hawai‘i, he would bring goods of all descriptions. Eastbound to California, he would take sugar, molasses, fruits, vegetables and hides.

His fleet was still all wind-driven sailing ships, though in 1889 he was quoted: “I was wondering whether I’d ever be able to run a steamship between the islands and San Francisco.”

In 1901, Matson acquired his first steamship, the Enterprise. At that time, most steamers burned coal to fire the boilers. Matson immediately converted the Enterprise to the first oil burner in the Pacific, because oil was cheaper.

It cost $2.10 in oil for the same energy provided by $7.00 worth of coal. Oil was also cleaner, more space efficient, and demanded less manpower.

Matson recognized the potential of oil. He convinced Hawai‘i’s plantation and sugar mill owners to switch from coal and bagasse (sugar cane waste) to oil. Then he converted some of his sailing flee into tankers to carry the oil to the Islands.

Matson said, “If you use fuel in large quantities, you must control the source.” To insure a supply of oil for his ships, Captain Matson bought some wells in California and built a “couldn’t be done” 112-mile pipeline from the Coalinga oil fields to Monterey.

In 1903, he formed the Monarch Oil Company and five years later bought the Buena Vista Hills property (Matson later renamed the area Honolulu Hills) and a year later (1910) created Honolulu Oil Company.

Matson told investors: “You’ll either go broke or get rich.” (Castle and Cooke invested $140,000. Fifty years later, the company was receiving $400,000 in annual dividends, and finally liquidated its shares (at government behest) for over $23-million.)

Honolulu Oil Corporation was engaged in exploration for, and extraction and sale of oil and gas in 15 states and the Dominion of Canada. The actual drilling was done by independent contractors, with Honolulu’s engineers acting in an advisory capacity.

Honolulu’s operations were divided into five geographical divisions: California (California, Nevada and Utah,) Mid-Continent (Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska and Oklahoma,) Canadian, Rocky Mountain (Montana and Wyoming,) Southeastern (Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and Tennessee.) Reports note Honolulu Oil was later acquired by a larger oil company.

In 1911, Matson developed compressors to convert his oil product into gasoline and a year later built a pipeline to Los Angeles. That led to the modernization of the US Navy and their conversion to oil. (David Whitley; Taft Midway Driller)

Captain Matson brought the Falls of Clyde into the Hawaiian sugar trade, specifically servicing the plantations of the Big Island, bringing needed goods and machinery from the West Coast to Hilo, and returning with burlap sacks full of raw sugar on its way to the California refineries and then to the markets of the US.

He modified the Falls of Clyde sail plan, added a deck house and chart house, and rearrange the after-quarter for passengers. From 1899 to 1907, the Falls made over sixty voyages between these ports. Sailing time averaged seventeen days.

To help move oil, the Falls of Clyde was converted to a sailing oil tanker (1907;) her insides were gutted and ten large tanks were constructed along both sides and the bottom, giving her a capacity of 756,000 gallons of oil.

Heavy-duty pumps and a second steam boiler to operate them were installed. She sailed between Gaviota and Honolulu Harbor; molasses was often loaded into her tanks for the run back to California.

She continued to carry a few passengers and small amounts of cargo “tweendecks.” (Simpson) (Lots of information here is from Simpson, Stanford, Castle & Cooke and Taft Midway Driller.)

© 2026 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Prominent People, Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks, Economy Tagged With: Honolulu Oil, Honolulu Hills, Hawaii, Matson, Falls of Clyde

April 22, 2026 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Likelike

She was the sister of a King and Queen – and the daughter of High Chief Kapaʻakea and Chiefess Analeʻa Keohokālole – her sister became Queen Liliʻuokalani and her brothers were King Kalākaua and William Pitt Leleiōhoku.

Miriam Kapili Kekāuluohi Likelike was born on January 13, 1851. Unlike her brothers and sister, Princess Likelike’s early years were spent on the Island of Hawaiʻi.

On returning to Honolulu, “Her first course of instruction was at the school of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, and she finished her education at Kawaiahaʻo Seminary.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 4, 1887)

Then her musical endeavors began in earnest; encouraged by her siblings she wrote music. With her sister, she led one of the three royal music clubs that held regular friendly competitions to outdo each other in song and poetry.

Like her sister, Princess Likelike sponsored many concerts and musical pageants in and around Honolulu, and played an important role in the development and perpetuation of Hawaiian music by the encouragement and patronage she gave to young musicians and composers. (HMHOF)

On September 22, 1870, Princess Likelike was married to Honolulu businessman Archibald Scott Cleghorn. The wedding was held at Washington Place, the residence of Governor Dominis and Princess Liliʻuokalani.

Cleghorn, born November 15th 1835 in Edinburgh, Scotland, was brought to Hawaii by his parents, Mr and Mrs Thomas Cleghorn by way of New Zealand.

After arriving to Honolulu in 1851, Thomas set up a dry goods store in Chinatown, but within the year, at the age of 54, Thomas suffered a fatal heart attack while on his way home from church. Archibald took over his father’s business and turned it into one of the most successful mercantile chains in the islands. (Kaʻiulani Project)

“Princess Likelike visited New Zealand and Australia with her husband, Hon AS (Archibald Scott) Cleghorn, soon after her marriage and was very favorably impressed with what she saw, more especially the city of Melbourne.”

“She also twice visited San Francisco. Her mind, expanded by travel and intercourse with the world, was bent upon the moral and physical elevation of her own race, and she therefore lent herself heartily to every educational scheme looking to that end.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 3, 1887)

When her brother David Kalākaua became King in 1874, Miriam was given the title ‘Princess Likelike’ and she was appointed governess of Oʻahu.

The Cleghorns had one child Kaʻiulani (born on October 16, 1875) – “the only member of the Royal Family having issue.” (Daily Herald, February 3, 1887)

ʻĀinahau, Princess Likelike’s Waikiki home was said to have been the most beautiful private estate in the Hawaiian Islands. A driveway between rows of stately palms led to the gracious pillared mansion set in a grove of 500 coco palms. Artificial lakes dotted with pink water lilies, and statues found here and there, added to the charming grounds.

Mango trees were plentiful, and everywhere one could catch the scent of sweet smelling pīkake and gardenias. Proud peacocks strutted through the grounds displaying their beautiful feathers. Thousands of trees, shrubs and vines grew in this huge garden estate.

Today, ʻĀinahau is no more. The Governor Cleghorn Condominium stands at the entrance to the driveway which led to the house. (Likelike ES)

‘ʻĀinahau,’ the most famous of Likelike’s compositions, was written about the Cleghorn residence in Waikiki, the gathering place for Sunday afternoon musical gettogethers. She wrote most of her compositions there, and supported the musical education of her daughter, Princess Kaʻiulani. (HMHOF)

Click here, then the link, to hear a performance of ʻĀinahau (1914, LOC)

Not in very good health, Princess Likelike died at the early age of 36 on February 2, 1887. She will be long be remembered for her kindness to children, her pleasing manners, her many charities, her never failing hospitality, and her beautiful songs. (Likelike ES)

“Princess Likelike was generally beloved for her amiable and kindly disposition her cordial and gracious manners. Her late Royal Highness will long be remembered for the deep interest she took in the welfare of her race and in many worthy objects of a religious and benevolent nature.”

“Although a leading member of St Andrews Cathedral she held a lively concern for the prosperity of native churches outside of the Anglican communion. This was strikingly manifested in her attendance on last Saturday week although in a weak physical condition at a festival in aid of the Kaumakapili Church building fund.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 4, 1887)

© 2026 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance Tagged With: Cleghorn, Miriam Likelike Cleghorn, Hawaii, Liliuokalani, Kalakaua, Leleiohoku, Likelike, Kaiulani

April 21, 2026 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Possibly the Last Human Sacrifice

“In 1804 when Kamehameha was on his way from Hawaiʻi to invade Kauai he halted at Oahu with an army of eight thousand men at Oʻahu.”

“The yellow fever broke out among the troops, and in the course of a few days swept away more than two thirds of them. During the plague, the king repaired to the great marae (heiau) at Wytiti, to conciliate the god, whom he supposed to be angry.”

“The priests recommended a ten days’ tabu, the sacrifice of three human victims, four hundred hogs, as many cocoa-nuts, and an equal number of branches of plantains.”

“Three men, who had been guilty of the enormous turpitude of eating cocoanuts with the old queen, were accordingly seized and led to the marae.”

“But there being yet three days before the offerings could be duly presented, the eyes of the victims were scooped out, the bones of their arms and legs were broken, and they were then deposited in a house, to await the coup de grace on the day of sacrifice.”

“While these maimed and miserable creatures were in the height of their suffering, some persons, moved by curiosity, visited them in prison, and found them neither raving nor desponding, but sullenly singing the national huru (anthem) – dull as the drone of a bagpipe, and hardly more variable – as though they were insensible of the past, and indifferent to the future.”

“When the slaughtering time arrived, one of them was placed under the legs of the idol, and the other two were laid, with the hogs and fruit, upon the altar-frame. They were then beaten with clubs upon the shoulders till they died of the blows.”

“This was told us by an eye-witness of the murderous spectacle. And thus men kill one another, and think that they do God service.” (Journal of Tyerman And Bennet, 1832)

But that wasn’t the last …

“Kaʻahumanu was a woman of the chiefly stature and of celebrated beauty … her husband (Kamehameha) cherished her exceedingly. He had the indelicacy to frame and publish an especial law declaring death against the man who should approach her, and yet no penalty against herself.”

“And in 1809, after thirty-four years of marriage, and when she must have been nearing fifty … Kanihonui, was found to be her lover, and paid the penalty of life”. (Stevenson)

Kanihonui was a handsome 19-year old. Reportedly, Kaʻahumanu had seduced the boy while she was intoxicated; in addition, the boy was the son of Kamehameha’s half-sister – and, Kamehameha and Kaʻahumanu raised him.

Kanihonui was put to death at Papaʻenaʻena Heiau on Leʻahi (Diamond Head) for committing adultery with Kaʻahumanu.

“After the death of Kanihonui the mind of Kaʻahumanu dwelt thereon; she could not readily dismiss the thought. This event was preceded by the death of Keʻeaumoku, the father of this chiefess, by the plague; therefore she was sent to a disconcerting place, but to no purpose.” (Thrum)

“She sought to recover from her anger but was unable to do so; and she considered … taking the kingdom from the king by force and giving it to the young chief, Liholiho.”

“Before she laid her plans for the war, a holiday for the purpose of surfing at Kapua in Waikiki was proclaimed, because the surf was rolling fine then.”

“It was where one could look up directly to the heiau on Leʻahi, where the remains of Kanihonui were, all prepared in the customary manner of that time.”

“It was said that only Kaleiheana, who was a Luluka, watched over the corpse from the time of death until it was decomposed.”

“The chiefess had heard something about her lover’s remains being there, and perhaps that was why the proclamation was made.”

“On the appointed day, chiefs, chiefesses, prominent people, and the young chief Liholiho went to Kapua. When all had assembled there, the king gathered his men together in readiness for trouble.”

“He sent a messenger, Kinopu, after Kaahumanu’s followers to find out what they were planning. It is said that three things were done at Kapua: surfing, lamenting, and more surfing; and it is said that they had intoxicants with them.”

“Thus they whiled away the time until evening.” (John Papa Ii)

“And thus it was the young prince was before them and the chiefs at the time when Kalanimōku asked him, whilst the chiefs were assembled together: ‘What think you? Let us take the government from your father, and you be the king, and your father be put to death?’”

“When the child heard these words he bent forward and thought deeply of the question’s meaning. Straightening himself up and looking at the assembly, he replied: ‘I do not want my father put to death.’”

“By this answer all the chiefs who were gathered together at that time were greatly gratified.” (Kuokoa, August 4, 1869; Thrum)

George W. Bates, in 1854, describes a heiau at the foot of Leʻahi (believed to be Papaʻenaʻena) as: “Just beyond Waikiki stand the remains of an ancient heiau, or pagan temple. It is a huge structure, nearly quadrangular, and is composed merely of a heavy wall of loose lava stones, resembling the sort of inclosure commonly called a ‘cattlepen.’”

“This heiau was placed at the very foot of Diamond crater, and can be seen at some distance from the sea. Its dimensions externally are 130 by 70 feet. The walls I found to be from six to eight feet high, eight feet thick at the base, and four at the top.”

“On climbing the broken wall near the ocean, and by carefully looking over the interior, I discovered the remains of three altars located at the western extremity, and closely resembling parallelograms. I searched for the remains of human victims once immolated on these altars, but found none; for they had returned to their primitive dust, or been carried away by curious visitors.”

Later (at about 1856,) Queen Emma ordered her workers to take rocks from Papaʻenaʻena heiau to build a stone wall around her property at Waikīkī.

“After the death of Kanihonui at Waikiki … Kamehameha … moved to Honolulu from Waikiki.” (Laʻanui, Kumu Hawaiʻi, 1839; Thrum)

© 2026 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance, Prominent People Tagged With: Diamond Head, Kaahumanu, Papaenaena Heiau, Kamehameha, Kanihonui, Hawaii, Leahi

April 20, 2026 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Piggly Wiggly

On February 4, 1928, the Star Bulletin noted that three men arrived from the mainland to open Hawai‘i’s first chain grocery store; it was situated on Beretania Street at Keʻeaumoku, a “large crowd attends the Piggly Wiggly opening.”

Andrew Williams, president and general manager of Piggly Wiggly Pacific made the decision to enter the Hawai‘i market and promised 7 stores by the end of the year. (Krauss)

The entry of Piggly Wiggly initiated the first national chain grocery store into the Islands; with it came a new way of food shopping.

Today, we take for granted the convenience of comparing and choosing from a wide range of prepackaged products, placing them in our shopping carts and going through a checkout.

The late-19th and early-20th centuries were the age of the independent mom-and-pop store. Grocery stores of that era tended to be small (generally less than a thousand square feet) and also focused on only limited aspects of food retailing.

Grocers sold what is known as “dry grocery” items, or canned goods and other non-perishable staples. Butchers and greengrocers (produce vendors) were completely separate entities, although they tended to cluster together for convenience’s sake.

These were counter-service stores; owners/workers were hands on with each customer, pulling individual needs out of bulk jars or bins and packaging each for each customer on the other side of the counter.

Piggly Wiggly stores (established by Clarence Saunders in Memphis in 1916) are widely credited with introducing America to self-service shopping, revolutionizing the grocery industry.

Self-service stores came to be known as “groceterias” due to the fact that they were reminiscent of the cafeteria-style eateries that were gaining popularity at the time. (groceteria)

Instead of a clerk to assist individual customer needs behind a counter, there were open aisles, open shelves with individually-packaged products to select from, shopping baskets and check-out stands.

The largest order for receipt printing National Cash Registers ever received has just been placed with The NCR Company by the Piggly Wiggly Stores. This order called for 1,030 receipt printing registers of the Class 800 type. One hundred of the registers were to be delivered at once and the remainder from time to time as new stores are opened up. (Hotel Monthly, Vol 26)

In the cafeteria style or “Piggly Wiggly” groceries, the storerooms were all planned alike, and every shelf had a designated and uniform place for the particular kind of groceries allotted to that particular space; and the grocery shelves were arranged to conform to the storeroom shelves.

Rather than pull and package for individual needs from bulk jars and bins, items such as sugar, rice, coffee, etc, were automatically weighed into uniform packages by a machine. The correct weight was stamped on the bottom of the package and it is then sealed by adhesive tape and put on display on a shelf in the aisle.

In the Piggly Wiggly stores customers become their own clerks and select their own purchases without interfering with any of the other customers who are on similar missions. By this method, the customer is made part of the machinery of distribution.

All goods are placed on the shelves with careful consideration as to display, convenience, and classification (several kinds of the same article are always grouped together.) Thus in one part of the store the soap will be found, in another the cereals and in another the canned goods.

The overhead of the store is reduced and the individual purchaser is directly benefited by the reduced price. (Hotel Monthly, Vol 26)

Piggly Wiggly was the first to:
• Provide checkout stands
• Price mark every item in the store
• High volume/low profit margin retailing
• Feature a full line of nationally advertised brands
• Use refrigerated cases to keep produce fresher longer
• Put employees in uniforms for cleaner, more sanitary food handling
• Design and use patented fixtures and equipment throughout the store
• Franchise independent grocers to operate under the self-service method of food merchandising

Shoppers and store owner loved it. Likewise, the Piggly Wiggle brand issued franchises to hundreds of people across the country – the company slogan was “Piggly Wiggly All Over the World.”

The number of Island Piggly Wigglys grew; however, “because of the inconvenience of proper supervision”, on January 2, 1935, Theo H Davies (then, a Hawai‘i Big 5 company) bought out the Piggly Wiggly brand in Hawai‘i. They expanded and grew into the 1950s.

While supermarkets increased in number throughout the mainland during the 1930s, it was not until after World War II that supermarkets developed on a large scale basis in Hawai‘i.

Foodland opened in May 1948, and Albert and Wallace Teruya started Times in 1949. Star Market opened its Mōʻiliʻili store in 1954. Chun Hoon in Nuʻuanu built a new store along supermarket lines, which opened in December 1954.

By 1957 supermarkets accounted for close to fifty percent of all retail food business in America. In 1963 the national chain Safeway made its appearance in the islands.

With lower payroll and handling costs, coupled with volume purchasing and high turnover in sales, the supermarket was able to cut prices and take over the retail grocery business. (HHF)

Supermarkets typically served as anchors for community shopping centers, providing economic stability and even encouraging further commercial and residential development in surrounding areas.

In addition, government-supported services such as libraries and post offices were often constructed within or immediately nearby these new commercial hubs. The clustering of such amenities provided individuals and families with the mainland style a “one-stop” shopping center. (docomomo) Davies sold Piggly Wiggly in the mid-1950s.

Saunders’ reason for choosing the intriguing name “Piggly Wiggly” remains a mystery; he was curiously reluctant to explain its origin. One story says that, while riding a train, he looked out his window and saw several little pigs struggling to get under a fence, which prompted him to think of the rhyme.

Another suggests that someone once asked him why he had chosen such an unusual name for his organization, to which he replied, “So people will ask that very question.” Regardless of his inspiration, he succeeded in finding a name that would be talked about and remembered. (Lots of information here is from Piggly Wiggly.)

© 2026 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Economy Tagged With: Hawaii, Piggly Wiggly, Andrew Williams, Groceteria

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