Sears Tower is now Willis Tower!

[Frankie's Market]

Re: Sears Tower is now Willis Tower?!?!!!!

at least times is a local business.

Times was founded by a local family (the Teruyas) many moons ago. But it is now owned by a mainland company (Quinn).

[sunriseshell]

Re: Sears Tower is now Willis Tower!

Why not just sell off the parts or names of the islands:

AT&T Atoll
Bank of America Bar
Chevron Cay
Citigroup Coral reef (lots of Cs)
Costco Crater
Dell Delta (kinda weak )
Exxon Mobile?
Ford?
GE Golf Course
Hewlett-Packard Hawai'i
IBM Island
J.P. Morgan Chase?
Kraft Kauai
K-Mart Kaluapapa
Lowe's Lahania
Microsoft Maui
Nike Ni'ihau
Oshkosh O'ahu
Procter & Gamble P'u 'Ō'ō
Quicktime?
Rite Aid?
Sears Sandbar
Target Turtle Bay
UPS Upolu Point
Viacom?
Wall Mart Waikīkī
Xerox?
Yum Brands?
Zildjian?

I was going for names that rolled of the tongue nice, but the trend boxed me into a corner.

[surlygirly]

Re: Sears Tower is now Willis Tower!

Exxon-Mobil Ewa
Ford Ford Island
J.P. Morgan Chase's Jimmy Buffett's at the Beachcomber (wow, that's a mouthful!)
Rite-Aid Royal Hawaiian
Viacom's Vactions (?)

That's all I could come up with. Most of those other letters you had trouble with aren't found in the Hawaiian alphabet.

So now we're at:

AT&T Atoll
Bank of America Bar
Chevron Cay
Citigroup Coral reef (lots of Cs)
Costco Crater
Dell Delta (kinda weak )
Exxon Mobile Ewa
Ford Ford Island
GE Golf Course
Hewlett-Packard Hawai'i
IBM Island
J.P. Morgan Chase's Jimmy Buffett's at the Beachcomber
Kraft Kauai
K-Mart Kaluapapa
Lowe's Lahania
Microsoft Maui
Nike Ni'ihau
Oshkosh O'ahu
Procter & Gamble P'u 'Ō'ō
Quicktime?
Rite Aid Royal Hawaiian
Sears Sandbar
Target Turtle Bay
UPS Upolu Point
Viacom Vacations (?)
Wall Mart Waikīkī
Xerox?
Yum Brands?
Zildjian?

[cynsaligia]

Re: Sears Tower is now Willis Tower?!?!!!!

Times was founded by a local family (the Teruyas) many moons ago. But it is now owned by a mainland company (Quinn).

thx for the correction, gramps.

to go back to oceanpacific's question, and given FM's enlightenment, i will add the following to my post above:

(3) nothing. unless you want to go banging on the fujiekis' doors and berating them for selling their business to a mainland company or you have the money yourself to buy it from the new owners.

[Frankie's Market]

Re: Sears Tower is now Willis Tower!

thx for the correction, gramps.

Ha! It's usually senior citizens that are not on top of ownership/management changeovers. Even now, I still see some elderly customers expressing surprise when told by a Star employee that John Fujieki Sr. passed away.... nearly a decade after the fact! "Oh no, he died?!? When?"

I'm surprised that Star lasted as long on as it did, being practically on life support for the last few years. Their cash flow situation was tight and they couldn't afford to keep their shelves adequately stocked with inventory. But it's a psychological turn-off for customers. If you're going to buy canned goods, it feels better to buy from a well-stocked shelf than a nearly bare one.

(3) nothing. unless you want to go banging on the fujiekis' doors and berating them for selling their business to a mainland company or you have the money yourself to buy it from the new owners.

Foodland is still locally owned (the Sullivans). But you can't blame Star for selling out to Quinn if they offered a higher bid.

Getting back on topic,...

It's interesting to note the attitudes that people have about title sponsorship of buildings/facilities. At a time when tax revenues are down and local businesses are struggling, I foresee both the public and private sector being willing to sell naming rights to bring in needed funds. For instance, we all know about how state budget shortfalls are decimating public school funding. If for example, if a corporate sponsor is willing to pay "X" amount to have their name attached to a high school football field for 2 years, would schools be in a position to turn it down simply because oldtime "traditionalists" think it sounds wierd?

[cynsaligia]

Re: Sears Tower is now Willis Tower!

Ha! It's usually senior citizens that are not on top of ownership/management changeovers. Even now, I still see some elderly customers expressing surprise when told by a Star employee that John Fujieki Sr. passed away.... nearly a decade after the fact! "Oh no, he died?!? When?"

usually, when eric and i shop, it's too crowded or too late for many elderly, so i appreciate your sharing that revelatory anecdote.

I foresee both the public and private sector being willing to sell naming rights to bring in needed funds.

your foresight is quite prescient in that it's already happening!

i'll add to the list that mel started about a dozen posts ago: pacific tower at 1001 bishop street is now the american savings bank tower. 1000 bishop street, which, as far as i remember, never had a name other than its address, changed its name sometime in 1999-2003 to the cades building, after its 12th floor inhabitants. (rumor indicates a number of smaller law firms/solo practitioners did not renew their leases there bcs of the name change, but i am in no position to know if it's true.)

one organization whose buildings will never change names, no matter what happens in terms of ownership, is the harry and jeanette weinberg foundation, at least based on what i've heard. the foundation, in exchange for providing funding, requires the building forever hold the weinberg name.

[Kalihiboy]

Re: Sears Tower is now Willis Tower!

The Sears Tower was well under construction when I was born in the Windy City in June of 1972. I spent the first dozen years of my life there and have been in the observation deck many times, still have some family back there. I will ALWAYS fondly call it the SEARS TOWER, I don't care if they change the name a million times, at least in my lifetime, it's what I will always call it.

I have a pet peeve about corporate names being affixed to stadiums and arenas, especially when the names get changed more often than not.

Aj

[Surfingfarmboy]

Re: Sears Tower is now Willis Tower!

I just returned from a visit to Chicago this past Labor Day weekend, travelling there via United Airlines. I read in an article published in United's onboard magazine Hemispheres that United Airlines will be moving their corporate operations from the northwest suburbs of Chicago to the Sears...ahem..(what you talking about) Willis Tower. Evidently United is going to be one of the major tenents housed within the tower.

Like Kalihiboy, I've been up on the observation deck numerous times in what I too will always refer to as the Sears Tower. Spectacular views to be had up there, though I prefer the view from the John Hancock Center, if that's what that building is still called. (Or is it too in line for a name change?) I'd like to visit the observation deck at Sears again to experience that new add-on to it, which is a "sky walk" in which one can step out onto a retractable glass platform similar to the one recently erected in Arizona's Grand Canyon. That would be some kind of rush!

[AlohaKine]

Re: Sears Tower is now Willis Tower!

Could be worse. How about calling it the Sheikh Abdullah Mohammed Tower, owned by some fundalmentalist in Saudi Arabia that loathes America and is only looking to cash in.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Sears Tower is now Willis Tower!

How about calling it the Sheikh Abdullah Mohammed Tower

But then you could abbreviate it and call it the S.A.M. Tower!