![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Meenas-pix-1-c-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>Aside from clothes, Meena\u2019s also sells spices and ingredients for Indian dishes.<\/p>\n
Manabat, who worked for Meena\u2019s for six years, said at its height the store had as much as 10 employees. After the COVID-19 pandemic hit Saipan, she said sales turned from bad to worse.<\/p>\n
She also thanked Hemlani for being a good and trusting owner as he helped all his employees not only financially but also emotionally.<\/p>\n
Juliana Nekaifes, who has been with Meena\u2019s for about 18 years, said Hemlani treated his staff like family and that\u2019s the reason why she didn\u2019t look for another job.<\/p>\n
She is sad that Meena\u2019s is closing because she considers the business one of the pioneers as far as RTW clothing is concerned on the island.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very popular before. It was very popular with locals because of its large size for shirts, pants, and formal and semi-formal wear for all occasions,\u201d she said, adding that the pandemic truly was the death knell for the store as more than 50% of their sales went down.<\/p>\n
Lisa Galang said in her short two years\u2019 stay at Meena\u2019s she enjoyed everyone\u2019s company and admired how Hemlani treated everyone as family.<\/p>\n
After a generation of clothing the people on Saipan, the local community was understandably sad to see Meena\u2019s bid farewell.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy family and I would go to Meena\u2019s to find and purchase much needed clothing for special occasions, like holy communion, confirmation, graduations, birthdays, etc. My family and I want to extend our gratitude to Meena\u2019s for their services and products to our CNMI community for many many years. It was our go-to shop for items we couldn\u2019t find elsewhere! We will miss them and wish them well,\u201d said Frances Sablan.<\/p>\n
Erlinda Naputi, meanwhile, said one of her fondest memories of Meena\u2019s was when she was in fifth grade.<\/p>\n
\u201cI needed a black skirt for a school program. Not only did they have it, but it was within our price range. Meena\u2019s has provided many families with affordable clothing needs for many decades. Un dungkulu na Si yu\u2019us ma\u2019ase Meena\u2019s for providing Saipan with their clothing needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Patrick Fieldad, Meena\u2019s brings fond memories of Saipan not too long ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeena\u2019s was a very nice place back in my younger days. I remember before all the other clothing stores started coming out, Meena\u2019s was one of our go-to-places. Before Moonlight Clothing there was Meena\u2019s. Though I have not bought clothes there as I remember, it was one of the many places my parents and I visited.\u201d<\/p>\n Floyd Masga said Meena\u2019s was the only place back then to find his size\u2014husky.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s where big Saipan boys shop for shirts and pants,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Cherry Lumbana said Meena\u2019s was very convenient because they used to provide free cutting for pants you purchase there.<\/p>\n \u201cI usually buy my husband\u2019s work pants there and have been shopping there since 2015. I especially love their buy-five-for-$20 deal. That\u2019s five shirts for $20!\u201d<\/p>\n Ray Angeles said while he didn\u2019t shop a lot at Meena\u2019s he understands its popularity in the community.<\/p>\n \u201cWent there once and I actually didn\u2019t shop for clothes. Usually my parents buy clothes from there or I\u2019ll get gifts from there. Not really my style but the briefs are pretty good quality.\u201d \u201cSadly, we\u2019re going to lose another good business. I bought clothes there, usually pants and T-shirts.\u201d<\/p>\n Luis John Castro, meanwhile, said at one point or another everyone on the island has shopped at Meena’s.<\/p>\n “The thing I remember most about Meena\u2019s is that if there was a certain article of clothing you needed quick, Meena\u2019s was one of the first places our parents and grandparents would take us back in the day. They were so popular they even had a store on Guam at one point. It truly is the end of an era with Meena\u2019s closing. It\u2019s sad. Meena\u2019s, thank you for outfitting all these decades!” he said.<\/p>\n Meena\u2019s is located in Chalan Kanoa in front of the Aquarius Beach Tower and is open from 10am to 7pm. For more information on its close-out sale, call (670) 234-3225.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The CNMI\u2019s local version of Walmart and Kohl\u2019s\u2014Meena\u2019s in Chalan Kanoa\u2014is closing after more than…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":396193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-396173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/a>
\nFeel Kalen said it sucks that the islands will lose another longtime store.<\/p>\n