Cost Plus drops Hawaii expansion plans

Cost Plus drops Hawaii expansion plans Cost Plus World Market, a large California-based national retailer offering imported goods, said Wednesday it has pulled out of an agreement to open its first store in Hawaii at the Lahaina Gateway shopping center on Maui.
   The 287-store Cost Plus, which recorded $1 billion in sales last year, also was negotiating to open a store at Kona Commons, a planned 630,000-square-foot retail center on the Big Island, but said it no longer is looking to expand to Hawaii.
   The company did not disclose the reasons why it has decided not to open the multiple stores it had planned throughout the islands.
   However, local brokers told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that the high costs of land and construction, higher shipping expenses and difficulties in hiring in Hawaii are giving pause to many expansion-minded national retailers.