 to International Hawaii. I'm your host Cindy Matsuki. International Hawaii showcases local import and export businesses to help others new to the industry. Today, my guest is Jerry Tamamoto, Vice President of Ship to Hawaii, and they're a local shipping service company. So I'm excited. I haven't talked to a shipping service company before. So it's exciting. Thanks for joining me, Jerry. Oh, you're welcome. My pleasure. So maybe briefly explain what Ship to Hawaii is. Ship to Hawaii. We are a freight boarding company that provides air and ocean freight shipping, ocean freight services. It's a niche market. Our services work best is the vendor that people purchase from if they offer free shipping. If they offer free shipping, take it because you can have it sent to our warehouse in California free. And all you have to do is worry about how much it's going to cost in California to Hawaii. So it's a smart concept. And it works. Yeah. Yeah, that's a lot of problem when you say you want something really badly and it's oh, this is Ship to Hawaii. That's the workers. What is the difference between just a regular shipping company versus a freight forwarder? Oh, sorry. That's a good question. It's not on the list here, but so that's a good question. And I think I wouldn't think the big difference for us is our customer service. Really important. You know, you don't like to be waiting on the phone hanging and or not even getting a response. So we have really good customer service people. And so maybe that's the big difference. Freight forwarding a regular freight company. Sorry, they just increased interested in bogging. And we want to make sure that our customers are happy. You know, because if they come and pick up their shipments here in Honolulu, they get mad if there's a problem and they would come and see me. I don't like mad people. Sounds good. And then we have a brief kind of video to show another version of what Ship to Hawaii does. This is Charlie. Charlie was shopping online and just found the perfect chair. The chair Charlie bought is there and they can deliver the chair for free there, there or even there. But Charlie lives here. That's where we come in. We're shipped to Hawaii and we can get the items you want shipped from there to here. Large or small, you find it, you buy it, we ship it. Ship to Hawaii.com. I love that. That's so cool. And the logo is so cute. The whale with the plane wings. What's the story behind the logo? So the story, it's the humback whale. And the humback whale migrates between Alaska and Hawaii. And that represents our two companies. We have Ship to Hawaii. We ship to Hawaii. And we have another company called Ship to Alaska. And the people in Alaska complain about the same problem that we have. They, you know, vendors offer free shipping but not to Hawaii or Alaska. So it's another, it's a smart niche market. Anywhere. But you guys are headquartered in Hawaii? I'm in Honolulu. Very good. When was the company founded and how did it get started? Yeah, so I believe the company was started in 2004. This guy named Andrew. He, from what I hear, he wanted to buy, he was living in Kaniohe and he wanted to buy a lamp. And the same thing, the vendor offers free shipping but not to Hawaii. Okay, so he also had another port to bring it in and was like, I don't know, $150. And, you know, compared to his lamp, maybe, I don't know, maybe $20 for his lamp. So you know, and so for him, he's a computer programmer and he figured it out. Oh, you know, there's a need. Okay, let's go and figure out. So they developed this program and this company. And it's a simple concept. And again, it's this, so that's how it started. We got involved in the company in 2010. We learned about it. We heard it. And the same thing, you know, it's a good concept, smart, simple. And you just got to really focus on your customer service. So that's what we try to make sure. Okay, customers there, take care of your customers. Wow. And then how do you, like, so when the company started for ship to Hawaii, did it already have its own assets? Like, do you use other vendors for the planes and the shipping? Or do you actually own? Yeah, yeah. Okay, no, we don't own airplanes or we don't own, we own the warehouses. But we do, we work with other warehouses in California and even Washington. And for Alaska, is we work with warehouses in Anchorage. Nice people. So we communicate every time in Honolulu and in Hawaii, all the major islands, the same thing, we work with the other companies on the other islands. And all they're doing is just giving shipments or taking care of the customers when you come and pick up the shipment. So office here is the one that handles all the calls and handles all the emails and make sure that the shipments are kept on track. Got it. So it's more like ship to Hawaii handles all the logistics and communication for getting something from a warehouse on mainland to here. And we also collect the money too. So that's important. We make sure we take care of that. Yeah, because I mean just shipping itself is so there's so much involved with the transport. The transport is one thing and again, it's a simple concept. But then the problem, the big problem is when you get damages that are lost shipments, you know, that really makes customers frustrated. I don't blame them. So we try to go in, keep the customer updated of the status of the shipment, especially if there's a damage, for example, we make sure we take photos and that that in itself is a time consuming, but the customers would ask for photos and we give it to them and they decide what they want to do next, whether they want to turn it to the vendor and get a new one or they might think, oh, the damage is minor, so just keep on going forward. Wow, that's a really great service. That really helps. Yeah, versus just shipping it and it just comes and you have no idea where it got down. Yeah, and early everybody's going to blame the next time. And, you know, the bottom line is the poor customer. He can be he can be what he will do next. Yeah, and then you got to pay two times for shipping, right? If you got to ship it back. And you integrate, it's very frustrating. That's good. That's a really great service. What are most of your customers shipping? And what are your customers? Are they businesses or just regular people? So we have businesses. Most of them are regular people like me. And we find something on the internet and, okay, especially, I buy from Amazon, you know, nowadays, especially with the pandemic, there's a lot of home gym equipment wrapped. Oh, like really large items. Yes, yes. And even small kinds. But, for example, I mean, buy equipment wrapped so I can do some sit-ups and some pull-ups like that. I'm kind of scared to go to the gyms nowadays. So I say, okay, home gym, that's better than getting flabby. I try to buy dumbbells. And that's something for me, for my home gym, but they're out of stock. So that's the problem. And you know, finally, we see a lot of above ground pools. I don't know. Yeah, it's like, oh, okay. Okay. A lot of media. There's a lot of car parts, people fixing their own cars. Interesting. Yeah. And especially the car people, the car parts people, they don't ship to the way. Yeah, I don't know. Go figure. Pet supplies, I have a little here. Pet supplies, furniture, like, like you said, IKEA. There's a lot of way there, West Elm and gaming chairs. Even that, I don't know. It's anyway, it's a company called Secret Lab. They sell these gaming chairs. And people bringing in, yeah. And same thing. And Amazon product. I'm a prime member. Yeah, I'm a prime member, but they don't ship to the way. Okay. So plan two. Well, you should bring it in. And I think we just saw a lot of people are asking about safe for guns. And I think about, oh, that's pretty sad. You know, people want to fortify their house. Okay, good for you. But anyway, on the other side, that has been because people got to protect them. This is Hawaii people. Wow. That's too bad. All the products that you bring in are all domestic, right? No. For now, they're all domestic. And so for me, that's part of our business development. Let's see, can we go and do the same concept for vendors in China, in Japan? And there's a lot of businesses that want to ship, want to sell to customers here in Hawaii, small market. But if they're, you know, why not? We're in Hawaii. And they sign up as members and they ship it. And they just change the people, change the name of who's going to pick it up. So it's going to be their customer. They just send it. And they say, okay, this person is going to pick it up. And that's what happens. So that's how the process works. Oh, that's great. That's really good. Why do you have a membership versus just a regular service? So the membership, there's different levels of membership. And for us, that is important because it keeps track of shipping. Yeah, so there's a free member. Sorry, there's a free membership. And for me, maybe I buy something online one in five years. Okay, so I don't need no sense to file a membership. So I just file it. I get a free membership. I sign up as a free membership. There's a difference between a free membership and a gold level. The gold level is $20. And the difference is handling fee. So there's other charges that are associated with our warehouse. And that's the handling. So unfortunately, we passed it on to our free membership. Gold membership, gold membership people, they paid $20. And we don't charge them any handling fees. So that's a difference. It seems like a good deal, $20. Yeah, it's not. If it makes sense, it has to, yeah, ship to Hawaii has to make sense. So part of our process is, okay, so you want to know how much it's going to cost from California to Hawaii. So that's the first step. And if it's reasonable, okay, then you can keep on buying. So you're not buying just the product. You buy the product plus the shipping to Hawaii, especially. And so before you buy, before you click buy, you want to know, okay, the next step is I got a paper shipping from Hawaii. So that's the whole cost fee instead of just the product. And because we're out here, sometimes it's really expensive. Yeah, it is. Do you guys ship the other way too? We do. Let's see here. Here we go. We have a flat rainbow. And it's a lot of things are helpful goods. But there's restrictions on what we allow sending back. Definitely, we don't do hazmat shipping sending back. You know, clothes and maybe little small pieces of furniture. My suggestion though, leave it here because shipping is expensive. Leave it here, sell it. Yeah, sell it. And okay, when you go to the mainland, relocate. Okay, you buy something over there. Buy more. Yeah. Anyway. That's true. Do small businesses or large businesses use ship to Hawaii to? Mostly. Mostly, there's a lot of small businesses. And let's see here. Yeah. So small businesses, they use ship to Hawaii because maybe they, their volume is not enough to go and fill up a whole 20 foot container or 40 foot container. Yeah. So they just take a small portion. Maybe one pallet or one couple boxes. And it makes sense. Then they can associate it to their cost compared to buying a whole bunch of inventory. And you get. Or paying for mostly empty air in a container. What are the biggest challenges for a ship to Hawaii? Getting to the point. Like business challenges of being in Hawaii. Getting to the point. Right now, and even for our other businesses, it's forecasting sales. Especially now, you can forecast your sales. Okay, you know, you do your business plan, but then what really happens, what really hits is you got to just focus on your expenses. And if you can control your expenses or manage your expenses currently, then you'll be okay. You can write out this situation we're in. And the question I think is, COVID is going to be here for a long time. It's not only, it's not the disease. Hopefully, the vaccine will take care of that part. But the ripple effect from the economy, I think it's going to be a long time. Summertime maybe next year. And you know, that's scary. Have you seen like what has been the changes in shipment since the pandemic and before the pandemic? Okay, so I hate to say it, but shipping is happy. People are staying home. People are staying home and they're buying things online. And you know, same thing, you stay home. Oh, I'm not going to pick my garden. Okay, so if I want, you know, something from the guy, I buy plant seeds. Yeah, I do. I use Chippewa to bring in little plant seeds, you know, flowers. Interesting. I even started a bee keeping project for hobby. I brought my bee behind, my bee unit, my tooth using Chippewa. Anywhere. Pretty fun. Got it. So there must be a lot of people like you to keep the shipping busy. Yeah, it's a lot. And it's happy even for Alaska. Alaska people are staying home. We're going to take a quick break. My guest today is Jerry Tamamono from Chippewa and this is International Hawaii on Think Tech and we'll be right back to International Hawaii. My guest today is Jerry Tamamono with Chippewa Hawaii. I wanted to ask, I know that Chippewa is also related to A'ala shipping and I know I've heard that name around a lot. What is the relationship between the two? So A'ala shipping is part of our holding company. Chippewa, we, from their sisters like, but the shipment coming out of A'ala shipping shipment started out, well part of it was shipment for Chippewa and that's how we started Chippewa, you know, so that's how this, oh wow, why not? Good idea. So anyway, it's related in more ways than one, but basically they're just sister companies. Got it. And they do shipping as well? Shipping services? Yep, they do shipping services. More of the logistic delivery delivery delivery to customers here in Hawaii. Would it make sense for Hawaii companies, like small companies, to Hawaii together to ship or it doesn't make a difference? It gets complicated. You know, timing is different. I've seen forest shipping. Consolidate purchases and they ship one time and they break it apart. But maybe the vendor needs to participate in that compared to just having individual small businesses get together and say, okay, we want to buy this. I think it goes the other way around. The vendor participates and finds more forest, for example, and if I all invoke and it does make sense that time. Got it. So if the companies were all ordering from the same vendor? Yeah, but again, the timing might be off. So I would think that the vendor would participate first. Interesting. Okay. Do you have any advice for businesses that are just starting out? Like, I know there's some Hawaii businesses that are growing and as they're growing, they need to start shipping in more supplies and raw materials. Do you have any advice for them to help them grow? So for me, it's just a matter of watching your expenses. You know, you can go and anticipate sales, forecast sales, but you know, who would expect in March that this pandemic was going to hit? And I mean, for me, it's how long it's going to take? Okay, maybe a couple months only. You know, if you can just watch, focus on your sales, you can last and get through this. As far as expansion, same thing, you know, be careful. You have to sign that, for example, you're going to lease the property. Oh, you have to sign that lease. That's a commitment. So make sure, you know, build up your build up an essay and just in case another COVID happens, and you know, make a business plan stick to your plan. I think that's really important. Yeah, it's been really tough for small businesses. I mean, nobody could have foreseen this, like you said. It's crazy. Where can people find more information about ship to Hawaii? So yeah, we have a website. It's a really nice website. We have this brand developers. They made it. They did a great job, ship to Hawaii.com. And they made it meet where I can control some of the content. Instead of having the developer coming in again, and I need to do it, I can go and control some of the words like featured announcements or even announcements. Nice. Yeah, so I do my best. I do the hard stuff, you know, like attaching pictures or attaching videos. That's a little bit over my head, but I can change the words in that work. That's good. Ship to Hawaii and even ship to Alaska.com for people in Alaska. Yeah, it's an interesting process. I just started. I became a member and I'm, the customer service has been really great so far. I haven't gotten my shipping yet. I'm waiting and it's been reset. So I will follow with our customer service people. Make sure you take care of Cindy now. It's fine. Okay. And I have one last question for my, I have a random question for my guest. What is your favorite restaurant? What have you been busy? Me? From March, I haven't gone out. So, okay. But before, I like MW. My son-in-law, my daughter took me there one day. I took us there and the service is excellent. The food is excellent, but more the customer service, the waiters and the waitresses. Oh, very good. That's good. And they're doing take-out? They do. But I don't know. It's not the same, I think. So, and for now, a little bit scared to eat outside yet. So, okay. That's okay. It'll come. Maybe when they go to a different tier level, okay. And we start going out. We're okay. Sounds good. Thank you so much for joining me on International Hawaii. My guest has been Jerry Tamamoro, Vice President of Ship to Hawaii. Thank you for all your advice and learning about shipping. It's been really good. And we'll see you next time on International Hawaii on Think Tech. Thank you.