Maui County officials are baffled by a significant influx of yoga instructors on-island, which has caused a serious shortage of sage that has merchants from Paia to Haiku worried.
“All of a sudden it seems we have a yoga instructor for every two residents in Maui,” said JoAnne “Peace” O’Connell, owner of a small Paia spirituality shop. “For the life of me I can’t find any sage, and some of our customers are unhappy.”
County demographics-watchers at first believed the yoga-instructor influx was linked with the pandemic, as out of work Mauians turned to special talents to make money and ride the emergency out.
However, it doesn’t explain why almost every single person looking for a place to rent in Maui is a yoga instructor, county officials said.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in over 20 years monitoring data about Maui residents’ occupations,” said Joseph Lau of the Maui County Office of Economic Development. “We’ve been watching yoga instructors for a while, along with massage therapists, but … there must be a yoga explosion going on.”
In response, county officials are considering new licensing requirements for all yoga instructors, without a grandfathering exemption for current yoga instructors, along with a tax so the county can monitor the situation.
“Hey, we have a tough budget situation going on here,” Mayor Michael P. Victorino said. “All these yoga instructors can pitch in and help. I mean, people drive on county roads to get to yoga sessions, and we need funds for upkeep and maintenance.
“We have all these yoga gurus. It’s a win-win for everyone.”
Some longtime yoga instructors are distressed because the supply of teachers has forced them to drop hourly rates to compete. “I’m lucky if I can get $10 per session now,” said Irene Mea’ai of Haiku. That, coupled with the lack of sage, has negatively impacted business, she said.
Others hope the county regulations will reduce the number of minor appendage burns in the emergency room linked with poor yoga instruction.
Open weeping could be heard outside Whole Foods in Kahului on Friday. County officials are concerned about lost sales tax revenues, as sage accounts for about 20% of all sales in Paia according to county data.
The price of organic kale, man-sized sarongs, and patchouli oil also mysteriously surged the past few months, officials said.
Sunny, with a high of 75 and low of 70 degrees. Sunny in the morning, partly cloudy in the afternoon and evening, clear overnight.
Thank goodness Alanui is on the job! I heard even Bezos is in on it
“Maui is our number one safety cone account!” They helped
me buy my house by buying 1 million safety cones at $100 each “
Haha! Long Beach does not have the beauty of Maui but she is trying.
Whales breaching or sunset any day would have been a better choice.
The LBC (Snooop Dog calls it this and you can too) loves Maui!
Yes! The LBC. Snoop's old record store on Anaheim St. is now a 7-11.
71° and Partly Cloudy