[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 133 (Tuesday, September 24, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11195-S11196]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              THE TERUYAS

 Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I wish to share with my colleagues 
in the Senate, a very special story about an immigrant family. This 
article was written by Mr. Don Chapman, and appeared in the Wednesday, 
September 4, 1996, issue of the Midweek.
  This story is of three young men, whose parents traveled 4,800 miles 
to begin a new life in the Hawaiian Islands. The name of the sons were, 
Albert, Herman and Wallace. The Teruya brothers were extraordinary 
young men. Like most immigrants, they worked long hours with low wages, 
but they had great faith in our country. With their meager earnings, 
they first opened a small restaurant, Times Grill at 635 Kapiolani 
Boulevard, offering 24-hour service. I have had the privilege of 
knowing these brothers for over 50 years.
  After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Herman and Wallace volunteered to 
serve in the U.S. Army. They served with the most decorated infantry 
regiment of World War II--the 442d Regimental Combat Team. Sgt. Herman 
Teruya, while charging up an Italian hill occupied by crack German 
soldiers made the supreme sacrifice. His valor is legendary in our 
regiment. After the war, Wallace returned to Honolulu to resume his 
activities that began before the war.
  Together, the remaining brothers decided to take the big step and 
established a supermarket; it was called Times Supermarket. Today, 47 
years later, Times Supermarket is the largest supermarket chain in the 
State of Hawaii. It is a household name.
  We must keep in mind that we are all descendants of immigrants. This 
is the success story of the Teruya family, where the values of hard 
work and sacrifice have enabled them to live the American dream.
  Mr. President, I ask that this special story of the Teruya brothers 
be printed in the Record.
  The article follows:

                              The Teruyas

                            (By Don Chapman)

       This is why people have always come to America, and why a 
     teeming mass still strains to reach our shores. This is the 
     American Dream, equal parts sweat and sacrifice, and if 
     you're lucky a place in the sun and chickenskin on the Fourth 
     of July.
       It's about immigrant kids starting out dirt-poor on a 
     plantation, taking a chance in the big city, working long and 
     hard, living frugally and saving, serving their country in 
     war even as their peers are rounded up into concentration 
     camps, losing a brother in that war and then making his 
     dream come alive.
       It is timeless Americana. And it is the true story of the 
     Teruyas of Times Supermarkets, which today operates 13 stores 
     on Oahu and employs nearly 1,000 people.

[[Page S11196]]

       ``It's hard to imagine taking that risk, leaving your home 
     to go to a foreign country to look for opportunities,'' says 
     Wayne Teruya, who 2 years ago took over the company that his 
     father and uncle founded in 1949. ``But that's what my 
     grandparents did. They came from Okinawa to work on the 
     plantations.''
       The Teruyas have been trying bold, new things ever since. 
     The first Times, for instance, was the first retail store in 
     Hawaii to offer air-conditioning (1949). The Liliha store was 
     the first to be integrated into a condominium complex (1975). 
     The Waialae store was the first to use a bar-code scanner at 
     the checkout counter (1979). Today, Times is the leader in 
     supermarket pharmacies.
       The Times story really begins with Albert Teruya, Wayne's 
     uncle. Seeing no opportunity to improve his bleak life on the 
     Wailea plantation, he left Maui in 1929 at the age of 15 and 
     caught a steamer to Honolulu. Two years later, his brother 
     Wallace joined him.
       ``They started out working in restaurants,'' Wayne says.
       The Great Depression was on, and one benefit of restaurant 
     work was that it provided room and board plus wages. The 
     brothers worked 14 hours a day, but the enthusiasm of youth 
     fueled by a dream of something better kept them going. In 
     1936, they pooled their savings and bought the lunch counter 
     at a downtown drug store for $600 and named it the T&W 
     Lunchroom.
       Three years later, in partnership with their cousin, Kame 
     Uehara, with whom Albert had first lived in Honolulu, they 
     opened Times Grill at 635 Kapiolani Boulevard, offering 24-
     hour service.
       Albert says the name Times, which they took with them to 
     the grocery business, expresses the company's progressive 
     attitude: ``Keeping up with the times.''
       Two other reasons they chose that name 57 years ago: Times 
     was easily pronounced by non-English speaking immigrants and 
     it fit easily on a small sign.
       Two years later, Pearl Harbor was attacked. Wallace and 
     another brother, Herman, put their dreams on hold and 
     enlisted in the 442nd. In Italy, Sgt. Herman Teruya gave the 
     ultimate sacrifice. While charging an enemy position, the 
     young infantryman was killed.
       Wallace returned from the war with Herman's dream still 
     alive.
       ``My uncle Herman had been interested in opening up a 
     grocery store,'' says Wayne Teruya, son of Wallace. ``My 
     father and uncle decided to pursue that route. They thought 
     there was more opportunity in the grocery business. The 
     restaurant business is long hours, even after-hours, and 
     there's bars and drinking involved. So they decided to try 
     the supermarket business. They got involved in different 
     aspects of the business, working for suppliers, working for 
     another supermarket, learning all the aspects of the grocery 
     business so when they opened their own business, they had a 
     broad perspective of all the different departments.''
       Selling groceries is far different today than it was when 
     Albert and Wallace first opened the doors in 1949.
       ``In those days you didn't have too many choices, but in 
     today's marketplace you have too many choices,'' Teruya says 
     with a laugh, then turns serious. ``It's not only the other 
     supermarkets, but Longs, Walmart, K-Mart, as well as the 
     Costcos and convenience stores. We know you have your choice 
     of going anyplace. We know you don't have to come to Times 
     Supermarket to do your shopping. It's not just that you have 
     to eat so you come to our store. We have to deserve your 
     business.
       ``We're still struggling with the Costcos and Sam's Clubs. 
     The impact of them is that many of our customers go [to 
     discount markets] for their big bulk buys. If they're having 
     a big party, they may decide to go there. So our effort is 
     still to give good customer service and give them good 
     reasons to come into our store.''
       One innovation that sets Times apart is its pharmacies. 
     ``We have the opportunity in the supermarket industry in the 
     state of Hawaii to be the front-runners,'' Teruya says. ``All 
     but two of our 13 stores have pharmacies. Safeway only has 
     three. Star has two.
       ``Pharmacy is one of the departments that makes us 
     different among the supermarkets, and one where we're not 
     really challenged. Longs, a regular drug store, is our major 
     competition. With Payless out of the market now, as far as 
     chain pharmacies in Hawaii, it's Longs and Times 
     Supermarkets.''
       Teruya adds that with the Baby Boomer generation turning 
     50--as he will next year--and becoming senior citizens, a 
     period in human lives that often requires more medical 
     attention and more medicines, Times' pharmacies are in a 
     position to both take advantage of that demographic situation 
     and to help customers: ``If they have diabetes, for example, 
     you can suggest to them food products that will help them in 
     their diet to control the diabetes. We're working on programs 
     where we can give advice on diet needs which crosses over to 
     our foods. Drug cost is a small component of a person's 
     overall health care cost, so if we can do a better job in the 
     pharmacy, the overall medical cost can come down.''
       Teruya says Times is working on the other innovations in 
     the tradition of Albert and Wallace, but doesn't want to tip 
     his hand just yet.
       As he looks forward, Teruya glances in the rearview mirror 
     of life. He considers the risks taken by his immigrant 
     grandparents and the hard work of his industrious father and 
     uncle: ``Yes, it does make you feel good to come from people 
     like that. And I feel a responsibility to continue it.''
       Sometimes when you look in that rearview mirror, some 
     objects appear larger than life. It must be that way for the 
     Teruyas.
       In 1947, Wallace, Albert and Kame sold Times Grill--to a 
     former employer at the Kewalo Inn who had just returned from 
     a California internment camp--and began methodically learning 
     the grocery business. Wallace worked in Amfac's grocery 
     warehouse and at Tom, Dick and Harry's market on Kapahulu. 
     Albert worked at Sears, where he learned how a big company 
     operates and about customer service.
       On April 29, 1949, with the help of friends and family who 
     helped stock shelves, they opened the first Times 
     Supermarket, the McCully store at 1772 South King Street.
       That first store was small by today's standards, but it was 
     modern, well-stocked and air-conditioned. And, says Teruya, 
     it featured Albert and Wallace's basic philosophies that 
     continue to guide the company: ``High-quality merchandise, 
     competitive prices, excellent service. And the customer is 
     always right.''
       ``My father was more customer relations, my uncle was more 
     administration, looking at the overall operation,'' says 
     Wayne Teruya. ``They were a good balance.''
       They still are, even in their 80's.
       ``They've never really retired,'' Teruya says. They still 
     come into the office every day, still visit the stores. 
     You'll never get the business out of their blood.''
       Their tradition of innovation remains a part of the 
     company.
       ``We always try to do that, we're always looking for new 
     ways of doing things,'' says Teruya. ``But we're not afraid 
     to copy a good idea, either. If we see something that our 
     competitors are doing and it's working, then yeah, we'll 
     follow.''
       He recalls that when his father took his wife, Ethel, and 
     their four children on vacation to the Mainland, part of the 
     itinerary was always checking out supermarkets.
       ``My father would drive and no matter where we were going, 
     if we passed a market, he'd pull into the parking lot. 
     Sometimes we all went in, sometimes we stayed in the car, and 
     he'd go in to see if he could get any new ideas. He's still 
     curious to see what things are working.''
       Wayne, 49, was 2 when the first Times opened. He has no 
     recollection of that big day in family history, but has 
     plenty of other memories of growing up around groceries:
       ``I remember running around in our McCully store as a 
     little kid, going upstairs, visiting the offices. The store 
     was closed on Sundays, but a lot of times my father would go 
     to the store on Sunday and take us along and we'd work, 
     either stocking shelves or pulling out merchandise.''
       He is the second of four children--older brother Raymond is 
     chairman of the Times board. Wayne's first real job was a bag 
     boy at Times:
       ``I must have been 14-15. I had fun bagging groceries. Then 
     after a few summers, I trained to be a cashier, which I 
     really enjoyed--that's where you get the direct contact with 
     the customers. We always tried to see who could pull in the 
     biggest loads (ring up the most sales). And those were not 
     the automatic scanning days like now. We punched those big 
     NCR (National Cash Register) machines with rows and rows of 
     keys.''
       Was it tougher being the son and nephew of the bosses?
       ``I don't think so,'' Teruya says. ``The problem is I was 
     never sure of how good of a job I was doing because maybe 
     people didn't want to tell me I was doing something wrong 
     because of who I was. But hopefully I never did anything 
     wrong.''
       He graduated from Mid-Pacific Institute and the University 
     of Hawaii, where he majored in accounting.
       ``I worked for a CPA firm just for a little while at the 
     end of my college years and right after I graduated,'' he 
     says. ``But then I had the opportunity to get into the Times 
     accounting department.''
       He rose to vice president of sales and executive vice 
     president before being named president and CEO two years ago.
       It was during his UH years that he met his wife, Sharon. 
     They are the parents of three sons: Weston, 19, a sophomore 
     at Pomona University in California; Wade, a high school 
     senior and Wyatt, a high school sophomore.
       So far, Wade is the only third-generation son who has 
     expressed any interest in the grocery biz.
       ``If they ever get interested, fine,'' Teruya says. ``I 
     don't want to push them into the business. My father didn't 
     push us into the business. I worked part-time and after a 
     while I decided it was fun.''
       He met Sharon, he says, ``at a beach party at Ala Moana. 
     Nowadays, it's kind of spooky down there at night; I'd never 
     want my kids doing that. But it was love at first sight--for 
     me, not for her. I had to chase her for a while. But we just 
     had our 25th anniversary.''
       His advice for staying together long enough to celebrate a 
     silver anniversary: ``Don't get upset when you have fights. 
     You have to expect to have disagreements. And you have to 
     discuss each other's point of views, so you understand where 
     you're both coming from. And just stick in there because 
     you'll have your ups and downs.''
       That sounds a lot like his business philosophy, 
     too.
     
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