Rebuilding Lin’s Hawaiian Snacks After Fire

Hi, my name is Rebecca Lin. My family and I have owned and worked at Lin’s Hawaiian Snacks in Honolulu, Hawaii for nearly 35 years. Our customers know our business by our Kaka'ako store and our swap meet presence at Aloha Stadium. Our employees (many of whom have been with us for decades) depend upon our business for their livelihoods.

On December 7, 2022, a fire broke out in the middle of the night in our warehouse on Queen Street. Over the course of the night, the fire grew rapidly. The firefighters battled to extinguish the flames for approximately five hours. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but we lost our entire warehouse space, the equipment inside and all of our inventory, which we had just bolstered heavily for the coming holiday season. This has been a sudden and devastating loss for our family, as the warehouse has been the center of our business for many years. The warehouse is critical for running both our store and swap meet fronts. This has been especially difficult because of the time of year, as the holiday season is by far our busiest.

Our GoFundMe goal is based on the following factors, which all revolve around getting our business up and running again while we try to rebuild the warehouse:

1. Wages to support our 18 employees (12 of which are full-time) for several months

2. Reacquiring lost inventory

3. Replacing lost equipment

4. Cost of rent for temporary warehouse space for several months

Many thanks to the community for your tremendous support in this challenging time for our family! We hope to overcome this tragedy as soon as possible so that we can rebuild our business and continue to serve our customers.

In the meantime, we will continue to have our store open in Kaka’ako for as long as possible with our very limited remaining inventory.

Mahalo to everyone for reaching out and checking in with us, especially during the holidays. Your support means so much to us!