For a California couple with two grown boys, Hawaii had always served as an escape. “We visited the islands dozens of times when our kids were growing up, and loved the warmth of the people, the nurturing, healing air, and the peace and tranquility,” says the wife. “We reached a point where we felt we wanted to grow roots here.” There was nothing exceptional about the site they ultimately chose: The landscape was barren but for a grove of kiawe trees and the faint underpinnings of a bygone building. But to the couple, it felt like a sign to stay.

The land had a storied past. It had once served as a pathway for the natural flow of lava from mauka (mountain) to makai (ocean), and it had glorious kiawe trees—some thousands of years old—dotting its outer edges. Keen to echo this environment into the built form, the couple tapped architects Greg Warner and Sharon Okada of San Francisco–based Walker Warner, landscape architect David Tamura, and interior designers Marion Philpotts-Miller and Anne Tanaka of Honolulu studio Philpotts Interiors.

Warner and Okada paid close attention to the landscape, their simple lines and geometries at once coalescing and contrasting with the undulating terrain. Fallen kiawe trees, salvaged by project manager Reed Fitz-Gerald of Metzler Contracting Co., were used to create the exterior steps and the firepit seats and center. The house appears to lightly float on molten rock, a sleight of hand symbolic of the long-gone lava. The homeowners named the home Hale Kiawe—hale, meaning house in Hawaiian, and kiawe after the prolific trees gracing the land.

The couple wanted the home to be a space far removed from excess. What followed was an exercise in restraint, which meant a limit on objects, furniture, and art. There would be no cluttered shelves, no unused spaces, no extra furniture, no distractions. “Minimalism became the hallmark of our design approach. For the interiors, there were often times we would suggest an idea or direction, and they would kindly say, ‘It’s nice, but we don’t need that,’” recalls Philpotts-Miller, who, together with Tanaka, held a mirror to the architecture with considered interior choices.

The pair brought in a mix of furniture from Bali, Mexico, and India, as well as Indian textiles in earthy, saturated tones that tipped their hat to the couple’s spiritual upbringing in India. Local treasures were given equal pride of place, as in the case of the desk and side tables in the primary bedroom, crafted from native kiawe wood. As Philpotts-Miller recalls, the challenge, given that the bedrooms were so large, was maximizing form without minimizing function. “The goal was to achieve a quiet elegance and spiritual existence that adapts to the environment with ease,” she avers.

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WASHINGTON (TND) — Retailers have lost billions, largely due to shoplifting and organized retail.

Some companies are redesigning their businesses to reduce crime and lower their profits.

According to CWB Chicago, Walgreens has only two aisles with physical goods, such as snacks. For everything else, customers need to schedule an order at a digital kiosk or in the app and pick it up at a counter.

It will not work. You’re going to lose a lot of customers,” said one customer in an interview with WBBM Newsradio.

The Washington Post reported Giant Food has hired security guards, limited self-checkout to 20 items, and is also securing certain items in its grocery stores.

In San Francisco, the city’s largest Whole Foods store, a Nordstrom store and the Old Navy flagship store have all closed.

Well, unfortunately, situations where stores either lock up the bulk of their merchandise or just abandon communities altogether are not uncommon,” said Zack Smith, attorney and manager of the Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy Program at the foundation’s Heritage Meese Center.”

Smith said laws critics call “soft-on crime” are to blame.

So if the people who physically go into the stores and steal the goods feel that there will be no consequences for their actions, or that the consequences for them will be relatively small, then at that point the reward, “It does it,” prevails much easier for these large retailers to attract employees to their organization.”

In 2021, retailers lost $94.5 billion to shoplifting. That’s $90.8 billion in 2020, according to the National Retail Federation’s 2022 National Retail Security Survey.

“No one is in favor of jailing every shoplifter, but we are definitely in favor of disbanding rings and making it clear that you will be prosecuted for participating in these rings,” Stephanie Martz, NRF executive director and general counsel , said, “When you get to a point where it’s literally unprofitable to have a store open, that’s all you can do to justify keeping the store open that long.”

From June 27, online markets must comply with the INFORM consumer law. The new law requires more transparency from high-volume online third-party providers. Retailers hope that this will help fight organized retail crime.

A new survey by the National Retail Federation shows that 51% of consumers say law enforcement and the courts are too lenient towards people who steal from stores. Nearly two-thirds are concerned about gang-run shoplifting in their community.

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Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. has announced that it will close five Walgreens stores in San Francisco in response to the rise in organized retail crime.

Walgreens says it will bring recipes and workers from the closed stores to nearby locations. Recipes are posted in shops within a mile of the hotel.

“Retail theft at our San Francisco stores has continued to increase five times our chain average in recent months,” the company said in a statement.

“To combat this problem, we have increased our investment in security measures in stores across the city over this period to 46 times our chain average to create a safe environment.”

Target Corp. TGT, +1.50%, cut hours at its five San Francisco locations this summer due to the increase in theft.

See: Target cuts opening hours in San Francisco due to “alarming increase” in shoplifting

Video of a man stealing from one of the San Francisco Walgreens WBA, -3.64% locations and then going out of business on a bike went viral earlier this year.

Rachel Michelin, president and chief executive officer of the California Retailers Association, told MarketWatch this summer that organized retail crime has been an issue in the state for years.

Walgreens says it will close its stores between November 8th and 17th. Patients do not need to take any action to postpone their prescriptions.

Walgreens stock is up 27.4% over the year to date, while the benchmark S&P 500 SPX is up + 0.75% over the period, up 18%.

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