BUSINESS BRIEFS
Longs same-store sales rise 1%
Advertiser Staff
Longs Drug Stores Corp. said that early results indicate that its January same-store sales rose 1 percent, helped by increases in both pharmacy and nonpharmacy sales.
Same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, is a key indicator of retailer performance because it measures growth at existing stores rather than newly opened ones.
Same-store pharmacy sales rose 1.2 percent, while same-store front-end sales rose 0.7 percent.
Longs, which operates Hawai'i's largest chain of drugstores, said its total retail sales from continuing operations rose 29 percent to $452 million.
The company is closing 23 stores in Colorado, Oregon and Washington that are classified as discontinued operations.
Shares closed up $1.88 at $47 yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange.
5 UH UNITS GET COMPUTER GRANTS
Five University of Hawai'i departments have been awarded grants for the current academic year totaling more than $127,000 to support UH students engaged in research using the Maui High Performance Computing Center.
It is the fourth round of awards in the program designed to "advance UH research through greater student involvement in increased use of modern high-performance computing technologies," according to a university news release.
"This program leverages the UH's role as contractor for MHPCC to help the university embrace the kinds of modern research outlined by the National Science Foundation's Cyperinfrastructure movement and the National Institutes of Health Roadmap," said David Lassner, UH vice president for information technology and chief information officer.
MAUI WORKSHOP ON MARKETING SET
The Maui Economic Development Board is holding a workshop March 12 for small businesses interested in selling their goods or services to the federal government.
The event will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the MEDB Center, 1305 North Holopono St., Kihei. Cost is $30. Register online at https://www505.ssldomain.com/hightechmaui/fedgov08/fedgov08.html. For more information, call 875-2300.
MANOA VALLEY INN BACK ON MARKET
The historic Manoa Valley Inn is back on the market at a reduced price.
The licensed bed & breakfast, which was listed as high as $4.2 million last year, is now listed at $3.7 million. Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties is representing the seller, Theresa Wery.
The 4,424-square-foot house, which was built in 1912 and is on the National Register of Historic Places, sits on about a half-acre at the corner of Vancouver and Hunnewell drives.
Wery paid $1.34 million for the inn when she bought it in 1998 from a Japanese corporation, Nakamitsu Hawaii Corp. Nakamitsu had purchased the property in 1990 for $1.8 million.
The inn, restored in the late 1980s, has seven bedrooms. It also has a cottage with an eighth bedroom.
HRPT TO HOLD CONFERENCE CALL
HRPT Properties Trust, a real estate investment trust that is a major O'ahu industrial landowner, has scheduled a conference call next Thursday to discuss its quarterly financial results.
The conference call phone number is 888-599-4883. A live audio webcast of the conference call will also be available on the company's Web site, www.hrpreit.com. The conference call is set for 9 a.m. local time, but replays will be available.
