It's not as critical as a rice or toilet paper shortage, but Hawai'i's supply of national magazines on newsstands has been disrupted by the suspension of operations at the nation's second-largest magazine distributor.

Knoxville, Tenn.-based Anderson News LLC abruptly halted normal business Saturday, leaving retailers from bookstores to supermarkets scrambling for an alternative supply of national magazines.

Anderson News said it has historically handled most wholesale magazine distribution in Hawai'i.

Brian Melzack, owner of the five Bestsellers Books & Music stores in Hawai'i, warned local consumers that they may not find their favorite magazines on store shelves the next time they visit a retailer.

"They had a monopoly," he said of Anderson News. "The readers in Hawai'i will be hurt. Magazines are still a vital part of our entertainment and news sources."

Melzack said he has begun flying his own shipments of non-weekly magazines to his stores, but he can't do the same economically for weekly titles such as People, BusinessWeek, Time and Sports Illustrated. A shipment of weekly magazines from Anderson News was supposed to arrive today at Bestsellers.

Blind Vendors Ohana Inc., operator of nine newsstands at Hawai'i airports, said daily deliveries ceased on Saturday.

"The magazines that we have are getting older by the day," said Filo Tu, company president and CEO. "We are concerned about the tourists, our customers. We feel very bad because when people walk in, they want to have something to read on the plane. Whenever we don't have what they want, it's a big problem for us."

Tu said magazines were one of the company's three main selling items along with books and newspapers, and the delivery loss is taking a bite out of sales during a time when tourism is already dramatically down.

"We're hurting, no question about it," he said. "It's a mess."

Longs Drug Stores said it's working with other distributors to ensure magazine deliveries continue, but company spokes-man Michael DeAngelis said he was unsure how availability of titles will be affected by the supply cutoff from Anderson News.

"We are working through that now," he said. "Our goal is to prevent any disruption in service."

Borders Books & Music said it uses another magazine distributor in Hawai'i, but that its supply of titles from publisher Time Inc. has been delayed for other reasons.

Hawai'i's largest supermarket chain, Foodland Super Market, said as of yesterday its magazine inventory was unaffected, but the future supply situation was unclear.

"We are waiting for an update from Anderson News and don't yet know if and how our supply will be affected," said Foodland spokeswoman Sheryl Toda.

Anderson News said it had been struggling with financial losses for several years and was trying to find a solution to restore its operating profit. Last year, the company reported a net loss of about $20 million on sales of $760 million.

Recently, the company told magazine publishers it needed to add a surcharge of 7 cents per copy for distribution if business was to continue after Feb. 1. Major publishers refused and stopped shipping magazines to the distributor, Anderson News said in a statement.

The Saturday statement announcing the shutdown said Anderson News continues to work toward an amicable solution. Yesterday, company spokesman Patrick Bowman had no new information to report.

The company had a substantial local operation, but the number of employees affected was not available.

A rival wholesale magazine distributor, Source Interlink Co Inc., failed at implementing a similar surcharge, but continues operating. Source Interlink has reported some missed magazine shipments related to the ordeal, and filed an antitrust lawsuit on Monday against other companies including publisher Time Inc.

According to media trade publication Mediaweek, Time Inc. planned to find alternative distribution sources to replace Source Interlink and Anderson News. The two companies combined handle an estimated 50 percent of all wholesale magazine distribution in the United States.