Mark and Diane Kobayashi pose with a few of the last bags of their family’s iconic Maui Kitch’n Cook’d potato chips Friday afternoon in Kahului. The familiar clear plastic bags with distinctive red-and-yellow print are soon to be things of the past as the longtime family business closes down Dec. 15. — The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
For the past 66 years, customers have known that you can’t stop after just one of Maui Potato Chip Factory’s signature “Kitch’n Cook’d” chips.
As the family-owned and operated Kahului business closes on Dec. 15, the next generation may not get to experience this iconic salty snack, but the local company’s legacy is steadfast.
Third-generation owner, operator and potato chip maker Mark Kobayashi said the Maui Potato Chip Factory would not have stayed in business as long as it has without its regular customers and support from its employees, family, friends and neighbors.
“For us to have survived 66 years is more a triumph of community to take care of the local people here, the local companies,” Kobayashi said Wednesday afternoon. “A lot of times we were lucky because we were a small business and all these people that really didn’t have to step up, they stepped up and helped us out to survive and keep our name in the limelight.”
The original Maui Potato Chip Factory was established in January 1956 when Kobayashi’s late grandfather, Yoshio Kobayashi, took over the business for just $500. Yoshio was already familiar with the art of cooking potatoes, having worked at the factory, and also from his time as a chef at military camps located in “potato country,” like Montana, during World War II.
Founder Yoshio Kobayashi poses with sons Dewey Kobayashi (left) and Takayuki “Joe” Kobayashi in a family photo on display in the sales room of Maui Potato Chip Factory. — The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
He would ride with the sergeant and distribute meals to the workers in the field, Mark said.
His grandfather tweaked the recipe and produced handmade potato chips with no preservatives. As the business grew, Mark’s father, Dewey Kobayashi, and Uncle Takayuki “Joe” Kobayashi stepped in to help. After school in the evenings, Mark and his brother, Edwin Kobayashi, would also assist with backstage operations, like cleaning and bagging potatoes, in between homework assignments.
“My early memories were of my grandfather, grandmother, mother and my father, they would sit around in a circle and hand-peel bags of potatoes,” Mark said.
Then, while his parents were at work at Maui Pineapple Company, his grandparents would stay back to make the chips, bag them and wheelbarrow the goods across the street to the once-buzzing Kahului Shopping Center to sell their product to the different markets.
Their original idea was to make potato chips for when residents would go to the movie theater in the shopping complex, so that they would have salty snacks to bring in, he recalled.
Under the headline, “Business is Too Good — No More Orders Please,” Dewey Kobayashi graces the cover of Parade Magazine in 1976, which is on display in the sales room of Maui Potato Chip Factory. — The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
Edwin was eventually supposed to take over the family business, but sadly passed away at 21 years old from cancer, a shock to the family. Mark was going to drop out of the University of Hawaii at Manoa to help with operations, but friends Michael Sueda and Claro Capili Jr. stepped in for one year to allow him to finish his degree in electrical engineering.
“It just blew all of our minds when he passed away and my two friends just stepped up to the plate,” he said. “My father folks really appreciated it.”
The building is currently in its third and final location at 295 Lalo St., where it has stood for 50 years. The original building located near the old Kahului Shopping Center was destroyed by a tidal wave.
Shortly after the second move to Happy Valley, The Wall Street Journal put his dad and his Kitch’n Cook’d Potato Chips on its front page in October 1975. From that point on, business boomed. Customers started to learn the exact day and time that potato chip deliveries would take place so that they could get in line first.
His father quickly became the face and voice of the company, Mark said.
“Basically we were just the little guy, just trying to survive,” he said. “Then, it got crazy.”
Over the years, the see-through bags with red-and-yellow labels have become a nostalgic childhood memory for the Maui community and nationally recognized.
At the company’s peak, there were 40 employees, Mark said, but lately he’s been the sole potato chip maker using the long-standing family recipe while his wife, Diane Kobayashi, serves as the company accountant and runs customer service.
Last month, the longtime Central Maui entrepreneurs were given the notice that the property owner would be selling the factory and that they would have 30 days to vacate, just before the usual Christmas rush.
Instead of making holiday sales, they will be selling large factory equipment and clearing out inventory until closing Dec. 15. Mark said there are no hard feelings for when doors officially close because of all the great memories and connections made.
As of Wednesday, there were no more chips left for retail after news circulated on social media earlier this week that the Maui Potato Chip Factory would be closing up shop. A line of about 70 community members were at the storefront beginning at 6 a.m. Tuesday to get their last share of “Kitch’n Cook’d” chips.
Customers were taking photos outside the factory and posing with the last of the inventory, which was “completely wiped out,” he said. More T-shirts with their logo are on the way, but the chips will not be restocked.
“The phone was ringing off the hook all day,” he said with a laugh. “My wife was going crazy.”
Through the ebb and flows of the company’s 66 years, including a shipping strike in the late 1990s that halted business for six months, the Great Recession, natural disasters, relocations and the COVID-19 pandemic, Mark said folks were always there to support the business.
Whether it was offering welding or plumbing skills to fix equipment, dropping off groceries, working a 17-hour shift, buying chips even amid a financial crisis or giving the Maui Potato Chip Factory a shoutout during an episode of “Hawaii Five-0,” he feels extremely “lucky and grateful” for all the acts of kindness and hard work.
“It’s kind of amazing we made it through all this time and we had these people come in, even if just for a few hours,” he said. “Those are the things we started thinking about, that we were really, really lucky.”
* Dakota Grossman can be reached at dgrossman@mauinews.com.
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