Times opens dual-concept store

The Mililani location will be a pharmacy and wine market

Times Super Market has entered Mililani Shopping Center with a dual-concept wine shop and pharmacy operation.

The pharmacy side is also a neighborhood drugstore that customers had been requesting, said Sue-Ann Yasuoka, director of pharmacy operations.

The Fujioka's Wine Times, the company's fourth, sells wines from under $20 up to $500, as well as sprits, beer, gourmet food items and party supplies, according to beverage director Tim Gerrard.

The two-stores-in one concept opened Wednesday in a 2,000 square-foot space formerly occupied by a credit union.

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Times Super Market has moved in to Mililani with a dual-concept pharmacy and wine shop, each with its own entrance, from the parking lot and Kipapa Drive, respectively.

The 2,000 square-foot, two-in-one store in Mililani Shopping Center is not a grocery operation -- the center already has a Foodland Super Market.

However, Times' wine shop, its fourth Fujioka's Wine Times, does carry gourmet foods and cheeses and "fairly complete party supply products, things you'd need to put on a party," said Tim Gerrard, beverage director. That includes glassware, paper and plastic goods and toothpicks for pupu and cocktails.

It has more than 250 wine selections under $20 "and they're all top-rated wines by Wine Spectator (magazine)," he said.

The store also carries a complete line of spirits, and numerous brands of domestic and imported beers and micro-brews, "and we can special-order anything you want," Gerrard said.

The fine wine room bears bottles that go for more than $20. "Some are $300 to $500 a bottle," Gerrard said. It also houses a selection of single-malt scotches, top-shelf tequilas and cognacs, including some Remy Martin for about $1,800.

Times has 11 pharmacies within its grocery stores, but No. 12, the new Times Pharmacy Mililani, is a prototype concept, said Sue-Ann Yasuoka, director of pharmacy operations.

It was in the planning stages well before Walgreen Co. announced its intention to enter the Hawaii market, she said.

"We were looking for a pharmacy site for quite some time in central Oahu," Yasuoka said.

Customers for years have been requesting more neighborhood services heading out toward the North shore "and we knew they preferred Times' pharmacy so we wanted to provide that service," she said.

Unlike some competitors, Yasuoka said, the Times pharmacy can fill prescriptions for injectable medications and works with "all the insurance plans."

Times started work on the former credit union space in February and opened the doors on Wednesday, said Randy Slentz, director of marketing and merchandising.

Each side has dedicated cash registers, but the company did not put a barrier in between to allow customers to "walk freely between the two distinct stores," he said.

Of the eight employees staffing the dual-concept store, those on the wine side have been trained by wine experts in order to answer customer questions.