Whenever I got to Hawaii, I have to visit Longs. My husband looks at me strangely, but if you are from the Islands, you know that the Longs on the West Coast are not the Longs of Hawaii. More better stuffs, as we would say. Even besides all the crack seed, the Hello Kitty paraphenalia, the Heritage Hawaii Post-Its. I always find something in the kitchen section that I need. Longs has some of the soul of Hawaii. Not something you would find the Hawaii Visitors Bureau saying, but true nonetheless. “Folks you meet at Longs” (a set of short stories about disparate people)  is absolutely true.

And now, Longs has had a ‘friendly buyout’ with CVS. They’ll keep the name, at least for a couple of years, and then it’ll revert — like Liberty House/Macys — to a bland drugstore just like Rite Aid or Walgreens.

I don’t think this is of any interest to anyone, and certainly doesn’t have anything to do with children’s literature, but it struck me today.