C.S. Wo & Sons to open first mainland store

Hawaii furniture and home accessories retailer C.S. Wo & Sons' first store on the U.S. mainland opens later this month in Costa Mesa, Calif., at the South Coast Home Furnishings Centre. General Manager Brad Harris said the Southern California location was chosen for its proximity to the affluent areas of Newport Beach, Laguna Niguel and Costa Mesa. "South Coast is a new furniture complex and we feel that the synergy will be good for our introduction to the mainland."

C.S. Wo's new showroom will have three main entrances, one of which will serve as a dedicated entry to the store's "Home Accent Gallery" of fountains, artificial floral, portable lighting, pottery, surface accessories, sculpture, art, candles, potpourri and design books.

"We have a similar setup in our Honolulu store and it has done very well," Harris said. "Accessory and portable lighting sales represent about 20% of our total sales in Honolulu."

Harris said the new store will use C.S. Wo's established domestic and import vendors but will be tweaking style categories to fit the Costa Mesa market. "Our new accent gallery will have antiques from China and accessories from all over the world. We will be including several style categories that we would not ordinarily sell in Honolulu."

Plans call for a soft opening at the end of June to be followed by a grand opening in August, when many of the other stores at the new 300,000-sq.-ft. South Coast Home Furnishings Centre will also open. The store will hold a holiday event in November to highlight its selection of holiday decor.