My wife and I were talking about where we went for coffee before Starbucks, which didn’t come to Hawaii til 1996, at Kahala Mall on Oahu.
Back in the day 7-Eleven stores were the place get a cup-o-joe, it was good (enough). There was also a place called Coffee Works in Ward Warehouse that opened in 1975 for “special occasion” coffee. It was a regular weekend stop, a place to sit and read the Sunday paper.
Moved to Hawaii Island in 1991, there was Bear’s Coffee in Downtown Hilo, it was also considered special occasion coffee (it’s still there with different owners), they had great waffles too. 7-Eleven was still the every day coffee stop.
Kona has always had a number of places to get coffee in support of the Kona Coffee industry, but not many formal coffee shops, more like places in support of a specific farm.
Currently we have 4 Starbucks in Kona (1 in Target). 1 is closed due to staffing issues, 1 is closed for renovation and the other 2 always have a long lines, so the hand-full of other smaller coffee places have come back into prominence. COVID may just break the Starbucks habit.