I wouldn't jump to conclusions quite so quickly when only knowing one side of the story. Ken has been a friend of mine for many years and in fact carried my ukes in the early days. He's always been fair to me. Like Hippie Guy, I've known the other party, Rick, for a shorter period of time but I don't know him to be the malicious sort. (He's a local uke performer.) I won't call him the new proprietor as I don't know what his role is. He wrote me the other day and told me he had 4 backers that enabled him to open the store. My guess is that's it's a hui, a partnership, that enabled the opening of a new store. Same location because, why not? In a tiny town like Hilo there's not much good available space. The choice of the new store name is unfortunate (at best) since it could easily be confused with the old store.
I was there during the closing of the store and people were in such shock and felt such a loss of it closing, I could imagine that some people got together after it closed and made the attempt to keep this valuable resource in Hilo. Or it could have all been orchestrated beforehand thereby denying Ken of the sale of his business. I just don't know and neither does anyone else I've spoken with. I'll know shortly though; it's a small island despite it's name.
I wish both parties only the best in the future. I wish Ken well on his move to Portland and hopes he can put this behind him so that he can focus on healing and getting the medical attention he needs. I wish Rick well with the new store as we sorely need it in Hilo and the Big Island. There's is no other uke store I would recommend to people. It's unfortunate there is such negativity surrounding this situation but as I've said, we've only heard half the story. Karma is a bitch so it'll work out the way it should in the end anyway.
