WARN Act mass layoff and plant closure notices in Waipahu, Hawaii, updated daily.
Workers affected by industry sector
| Company | City | Employees | Notice Date | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Minute Pharmacy LLC | Waipahu | 81 | 2025-12-11 | |
| National Vision, Inc. (operating Walmart Vision Care) | Waipahu | 16 | 2023-12-15 | Closure |
| Paradise Beverages, Inc | Waipahu | 398 | 2022-10-14 | Closure |
# Economic Analysis of Layoffs in Waipahu, Hawaii
Waipahu has experienced 495 job losses across three WARN notices filed since 2022, representing a significant economic shock to this central Oahu community. While three notices may appear modest numerically, the concentration of these layoffs among a small number of major employers and the sheer scale of individual events—particularly the 398-worker reduction from a single company—underscores the vulnerability of Waipahu's employment base. For context, these 495 affected workers represent a substantial proportion of the working-age population in a town of approximately 10,000 residents, making even modest-seeming layoff figures locally consequential.
The clustering of these reductions across just three employers reveals a critical structural weakness: Waipahu's economy lacks sufficient diversification to absorb major workforce disruptions without significant community-wide ramifications. Unlike larger metropolitan areas where layoffs can be distributed across numerous sectors and absorbed through lateral job mobility, Waipahu's more concentrated employment base means that losses at any single major employer ripple through the local economy with amplified force.
Paradise Beverages, Inc. accounted for the majority of Waipahu's layoff impact, with a single WARN notice affecting 398 workers—representing 80.4 percent of all workers affected by layoffs in the city over the 2022-2025 period. This extraordinary concentration in a single event demonstrates how dependent Waipahu remains on a handful of major employers. The beverage distribution sector, which Paradise Beverages represents, operates under intense margin pressures as consolidation in wholesale and retail distribution continues across the Hawaiian market. National and regional consolidation trends have forced local distributors to either merge, downsize, or exit operations entirely.
The retail sector emerges as a second significant source of employment disruption, with two WARN notices affecting 97 workers combined. 5 Minute Pharmacy LLC filed notice of 81 layoffs, while National Vision, Inc. (operating as Walmart Vision Care) accounted for 16 additional job losses. The pharmacy and optical retail segments face mounting pressure from multiple directions: prescription fulfillment consolidation, mail-order pharmacy expansion, vertical integration by large retailers, and online competition in vision correction. 5 Minute Pharmacy LLC's substantial layoff suggests either a market exit, significant operational consolidation, or acquisition-related workforce rationalization—a common pattern as independent pharmacies face increasing difficulty competing with chain operations and mail-order competitors.
The retail sector's 97 affected workers, while smaller in absolute terms than the Paradise Beverages event, carries particular significance for Waipahu's lower-wage employment base. Retail positions typically provide entry-level employment pathways and represent a substantial share of jobs available to workers without college degrees or specialized credentials. Disruption in this sector disproportionately affects younger workers, immigrants, and individuals transitioning between employment.
The temporal distribution of Waipahu's WARN notices—one each in 2022, 2023, and 2025—suggests an irregular rather than consistently worsening layoff landscape. However, this appearance of stability masks the problem of sporadic but severe shocks. Rather than experiencing a steady, manageable stream of workforce adjustment, Waipahu has absorbed three distinct employment crises separated by intervals, making workforce recovery and reemployment planning more difficult than gradual attrition would be.
The three-year gap between 2023 and 2025 might suggest stabilization, yet the reappearance of layoffs in 2025 indicates that whatever employment challenges drove earlier disruptions remain unresolved. The beverage distribution and retail sectors continue facing structural pressures that show no sign of abating. If these sectors remain vulnerable to consolidation, automation, and market restructuring, future WARN notices should be anticipated rather than treated as surprising anomalies.
Beyond the two formally identified sectors in the WARN data, the substantive economic forces affecting Waipahu's largest employers reflect broader state and national trends. The beverage distribution sector has undergone continuous consolidation as large national and regional distributors expand market share and as retail consolidation reduces the number of purchasing entities. Paradise Beverages likely faced pressure from customers either consolidating their purchasing or integrating vertically to bypass distributors altogether.
The retail health services sector—pharmacy and optical care—confronts perhaps more fundamental disruption. Mail-order pharmacy services, though more prevalent on the mainland, are beginning to displace local fulfillment operations throughout Hawaii. Vision correction sales increasingly migrate online, where consumers purchase frames and lenses without visiting physical retail locations. These structural shifts affect not only independent operators but increasingly the specialized departments within larger retailers.
Notably absent from Waipahu's recent WARN notices are tech sector, professional services, or higher-wage manufacturing employers. This absence reflects the reality that Waipahu's economy remains concentrated in distribution, retail, and lower-wage service employment—sectors particularly vulnerable to consolidation and automation. The lack of higher-skill, higher-wage employment diversity limits the economic stability and income growth potential for the community.
The loss of 495 jobs in a town of approximately 10,000 residents represents roughly 5 percent of the total population, and a considerably higher percentage of the employed workforce. Assuming Waipahu's labor force participation aligns with statewide rates, these losses would constitute an estimated 7-8 percent of local employment. This impact severity exceeds typical business-cycle unemployment and approaches recession-level workforce disruption.
For workers displaced by the Paradise Beverages layoff, alternative employment in wholesale distribution exists but likely requires either relocation to other parts of Oahu or acceptance of employment at existing distributors at equivalent or lower wages. Displaced retail workers face similar constraints: retail positions throughout Oahu are available, but competition remains fierce, and wages remain depressed. The spillover effect of 495 job seekers flooding into adjacent labor markets creates downward wage pressure in distribution and retail sectors across central Oahu.
Community effects extend beyond direct employment losses. Reduced retail spending from laid-off workers decreases revenues at local businesses. Rental properties experience higher vacancy risk if displaced workers leave Waipahu. Tax revenues decline when major employers reduce payroll. School enrollment may decline if families relocate. These secondary effects typically amplify the primary employment loss by a factor of 1.5 to 2.0 in local economic modeling.
Waipahu's concentration of layoffs in distribution and retail sectors mirrors broader Hawaii employment challenges. Statewide, the state economy increasingly depends on tourism, military spending, real estate, and agriculture—with limited diversification into technology, advanced manufacturing, or knowledge-intensive services that characterize stronger regional economies. Waipahu, lacking the tourism infrastructure of resort areas and the government employment concentration of Honolulu, occupies a particularly vulnerable position within this constrained economy.
The absence of any major employer in advanced manufacturing, professional services, or technology sectors distinguishes Waipahu from more economically resilient communities. Where regions have successfully transitioned away from declining sectors, they have typically done so through deliberate economic development investment in emerging industries. No evidence in the WARN data suggests Waipahu has attracted such employers, indicating a continued vulnerability to the structural challenges affecting its traditional employment base.
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