If you’ve shopped for food in Hawaii, you know it’s easy to blow the budget if you’re not careful. How do locals shop? Here are some Hawaii tips that can leave more green in your pocket for excursions and other Hawaii activities
- Browse the Internet for weekly deals. Have a shopping list before you leave home then search on-line for weekly specials at grocery stores in Hawaii. Try Safeway, Times Market, KTA and Foodland for starters. Don’t expect pricing comparable to the mainland. The food here just got off one or more boats spending over a week at sea.
- Hawaii big box stores -- pros and cons. Costco, Walmart, and Sam’s Club can easily double or triple your food bill with their selections. Sometimes just having a grocery list can help keep you on track. These stores are fine-tuned for visitors, who easily account for about 1/3 of their Hawaii sales.
- Grocery store loyalty cards. Save up to 50% when you have a Safeway card or Foodland Maika`i card (free for visitors).
- Farmers markets and roadside stands.Popular with locals and visitors. Many times these can offer better deals. I recently bought 25 pounds of rambutan off a truck parked along the road. Total cost was $20, or $.80 per pound. The same rambutan (probably from the same farm) were being sold at Costco for $5 per pound.
- Clearance items. Check for clearance items in the store. These are a bigger deal in Hawaii than on the mainland, since shipping and delays often result in damage of various kinds. Check the produce area for any markdowns. Many stores have specials at the end of aisles. If in doubt, just ask where to find.
- Don’t shop when you are hungry. This seems obvious. We all know that when we shop hungry, we end up buying things that we would never buy otherwise. It is funny, but so true, and on vacation, perhaps more so.
- Prepare for substitution. Here in Hawaii it is often essential simply due to lack of availability. Mainland shoppers are used to going to the store and finding exactly the product they have in mind. But when you find that leeks cost $5/lb, you might want to just consider onions at one-fifth the price. You can seriously control your grocery bill if you follow this tip in Hawaii.
- Avoid bottled water. What you get out of the tap in Hawaii is better than what’s in the plastic bottle. Check out our thoughts on this.
Great tips! Where possible, check out the discount grocers: Sack-N-Save (O’ahu), Big Save (Kauai), etc. They have the same selection as their counterparts, but at better prices. For cereals and snacks, Walmart and Target tend to be cheaper than the grocery stores, but almost everyone is cheaper than the mini-mart in your hotel. Historically, milk, eggs, and breads have the biggest price difference when compared to mainland prices. If you can avoid these items, you may not notice a big difference in your grocery bill. Expect to see $6 and $7 pricetags for a gallon of milk, here’s where Costco and Sam’s Club have the best deals! At the very least, don’t throw away any of your unused groceries or sundries… the Housekeeping staff LOVE to take these home at the end of YOUR stay…
Longs drugstore for wine, liquor, coffee and all those choc-mac goodies to take home to the office, Also good for cheap slippah, and generally lowest prices on sunscreens an stuffs li’ dat.
And no, am not affiliated in any way.
If you have a condo and a place to cook then I vouch for the Safeway Club Card or other grocery loyalty cards. It takes 5 minutes of your time – at the store or sign up online ahead of time. Saves a bundle.
We personally don’t care much for Wal Mart and the quantities are often too large at Costco or Sam’s Club f you are only staying a week and there are just two of you.
I also like to eat out some – and if we have a huge amount of food then we feel compelled to stay in and use it up and then I feel ‘neglected’ – as though I am not on vacation from my stove.
Here are my suggestions:
* Eat a plate lunch. Sometimes there is enough food for 2 people to share and certainly enough calories. And typically you take it to go and can enjoy eating outside. And you may just discover a new local food.
* If you are staying in a condo then pack a lunch for the day and don’t eat dinner out every night.
* I like to eat as much local food as possible; it may not be the cheapest but certainly the tastiest.
* It is hard to beat the Costco food court for fast and cheap food.