Kaya’s Store at 80: How a Punaluʻu Country Store Went From Hardware to Plate Lunches

If you’ve driven the Windward coast toward the North Shore, you’ve probably passed it: a low, open-front country store on Kamehameha Highway in Punaluʻu, with picnic tables outside and a steady line of trucks pulling in for ice, musubi and lunch. This year Kaya’s Store turned 80. Hawaii News Now called it one of the few family-owned general stores left on the island.

The store is back in the news this month. A Nov. 4 Honolulu Star-Advertiser column by Marisa Yamane looks at Kaya’s Kitchen, the takeout counter inside, and the cook who now runs it. Here’s the longer story, pieced together from that column, a July Hawaii News Now feature, earlier Star-Advertiser coverage and the store’s own history page.

Built in 1946 so the family would never go hungry

Kaya’s Store was built in October 1946, according to the store’s website and Hawaii News Now. Accounts of who did what differ a little. The store’s history page says Bev Hashimoto’s father, Bill Kaya, and her uncle Robert built the store and the family house together. The Star-Advertiser says Robert Kaya built the store and Bill ran it after his military service. Hashimoto told Hawaii News Now that her grandparents and oldest uncle planned for her father to run the business once he got out of the Army, and that her father’s oldest brother, a contractor, built the store and the home behind it.

Bill Kaya served in World War II. Both the Star-Advertiser and HNN say he served with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team; his 2011 Star-Advertiser obituary lists him as an Army staff sergeant with the 100th Battalion. He was born in Punaluʻu, and he and his wife, Ethel, married in 1951 and ran the store while raising their family, the store’s site says.

Why a store? Hashimoto has told the story to both outlets. She once asked her grandmother, who explained that the family had been so poor she caught small fish in the river to make musubi for school lunches. As Hashimoto recalled it to HNN, her grandmother’s answer was simple: if we have a store, we will never starve.

Lumber, cement and a butcher shop

Early Kaya’s was a working country store. Hashimoto told the Star-Advertiser in 2017 that her father sold lumber, pipes, cement, animal feed and groceries, and that he sold and repaired lawnmowers. “He even taught me to cut glass,” she said. The 2026 column adds a gas station, a tire repair area and a butcher shop, in the spot where the kitchen is now.

The building was never fully enclosed, so salt air rusted the canned goods. Hashimoto told HNN that as a kid she was handed fine sandpaper to scrub the rust off cans so they could still be sold. Her father later started spraying clear lacquer on new cases of cans, a trick she says she still uses.

A new generation, a new business

Hashimoto didn’t plan to come home. After studying at the University of Hawaiʻi, she worked as a fashion designer for Alfred Shaheen and moved to the mainland, the Star-Advertiser reports. Her father kept asking her to come back. Then she met Vern Hashimoto at a sansei singles event. He wanted to return to Hawaiʻi, and after they married in 1993 he convinced her to come home. (The paper’s 2017 story puts their return in 1994.)

In the 1990s, larger hardware businesses opened between Lāʻie and Kahuku, and the family closed the hardware side, according to HNN and the store’s site. Bev and Vern took over and turned Kaya’s into more of a convenience store. They ran a Subway franchise for several years, and in 2015 they added Kaya’s Kitchen.

“We had to diversify,” Vern told the Star-Advertiser. “And you know, you can’t go wrong with food, right?”

Kaya’s Kitchen today

The couple ran the kitchen themselves, leased it to other operators and then took it back, the Star-Advertiser reports. When the work became too much, they encouraged Traci Kaupe to take over. Kaupe was already a tenant on the property and had helped in the store and kitchen. She grew up in nearby Kaʻaʻawa, graduated from Kahuku High School and worked as a certified nursing assistant for 22 years, with no formal cooking background.

She took over Kaya’s Kitchen on Oct. 1, 2022, and works every day, the paper says. “I love the people. I love the community. I love working for myself,” Kaupe told the Star-Advertiser.

What to order

• Guava-smoked pork. Kaupe serves her dad’s recipe, and it’s the base of her “local surf and turf,” paired with garlic shrimp.
• Ahi stir-fry and the “ropoco moco.” Both are Kaupe’s own additions, according to the Star-Advertiser. The ropoco moco tops a loco moco with roast pork.
• Breakfast bentos. Commuters stop in early for these and for musubi.
• Butter mochi. Bev still makes her popular brownies and butter mochi for the store. In 2017 the Star-Advertiser said the mochi was made twice a day, two pans at a time, and it printed her recipe.

Know before you go

• Where: 53-534 Kamehameha Highway, Punaluʻu (mailing address Hauʻula)
• Hours: The store’s website lists the store as open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and the kitchen from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Star-Advertiser reports the kitchen opens at 7 a.m., so call ahead if timing matters.
• Phone and takeout orders: (808) 293-9095
• Seating: Shaded picnic benches outside, per the store’s site, which also mentions food trucks on the property.

After 80 years, Kaya’s Store has gone from hardware and cement to plate lunches and butter mochi. As Hashimoto told Hawaii News Now, “every day I walk to work, I’m thanking my parents for what we have here.”

Sources

• Honolulu Star-Advertiser, “Punaluu: a tasty legacy” by Marisa Yamane (Nov. 4, 2026): https://www.staradvertiser.com/2026/11/04/food/island-eats/punaluu-a-tasty-legacy/
• Hawaii News Now, “Kaya Store marks 80 years as a North Shore landmark” (July 2, 2026): https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2026/07/02/kaya-store-marks-80-years-north-shore-landmark/
• Honolulu Star-Advertiser, “Butter mochi tops local comforts at Hauula store” (May 2, 2017): https://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/05/02/food/crave-by-request/butter-mochi-tops-local-comforts-at-hauula-store/
• Honolulu Star-Advertiser obituary, William Hideo Kaya (2011): https://obits.staradvertiser.com/2011/04/01/william-hideo-kaya-2/
• Kaya’s Store, homepage and “Kaya’s Story” (hours checked Nov. 9, 2026): https://kayastorehawaii.com/ ; https://kayastorehawaii.com/about/