Grocery stores on Big Island (Hilo, Waipio: for sale, house, live)

[JoDan]

I know there are Safeway stores in Hilo and Kona. When I was in Alaska you could get a Safeway card that would allow you to get discounted prices on sale items. Is it the same in Hawaii? Or, maybe, they don't have sales!

Do the WalMart stores sale groceries?


Getting close to departure time.......1 June!

[carmel123]

There are a couple of places that advertise the weekly sales for the Big Island.

KTA Superstores : Weekly Ads

Safeway

[KonaKat]

Yes you can join the safeway discount club thing, and get significant discounts. Sak-N-Save also has a "makai card" for the same thing. KTA often has better prices on many items but I don't care for their produce. Costco is very popular as well. Walmart, Kmart and Target also carry groceries.

[hotzcatz]

There are also a lot of farmer's markets around which have great produce.

Hmm, how odd, KonaKat! I like KTA because of their produce. It does seem the different KTAs have different produce managers, though. We usually go to the one up in Waimea although lately we've been getting a lot of our produce at either the farmer's markets or the Filipino stores.

For getting spices, many of the natural food stores have bulk sections where you can put some in a small baggie with a twist tie for not a lot of money. I'll replace my entire spice rack each year since it isn't that expensive and fresh spices are better than stale ones. It helps to already have a rack with the little jars on it but you can also just keep the spices in the plastic bags.

We also have a Community Supported Agriculture weekly box of vegetables which is delivered to our house in Honokaa. For $5 a week, we get a box of whatever is growing. This week it was three kinds of lettuce, green onions and a dozen eggs. There are also farmers who sell beef and lamb. They raise the animals and then they are processed at the USDA approved facility along the coast here.

[AlohaHuey]

The Keauhou Farmer's Market has the aforementioned locally-produced beef, pork and lamb for sale, along with fish (usually Ahi and Ono). Various cuts, good prices. Definitely get the produce from the local markets and farmers...grocers are purely middlemen.

The best prices are at Costco, but the quality and availability can vary.

I found Safeway to be a bit more expensive generally than KTA or Sack N Save. The Foodland in Waimea has a great selection of groceries.

[JoDan]

Originally Posted by carmel123

There are a couple of places that advertise the weekly sales for the Big Island.

KTA Superstores : Weekly Ads

Safeway

Where are KTA stores located?

[carmel123]

Sure. If you google KTA Superstores, you can find all the addresses. I have copied the Hilo and Kona store addresses for you below. See other big island locations at the bottom.

KTA Center
50 East Puainako Street
Hilo, Hawaii 96720
808-959-9111

KTA Center
50 East Puainako Street
Hilo, Hawaii 96720
808-959-9111


KTA - Keawe Street
KTA - Kailua Kona
KTA - Puainako
KTA - Keauhou
KTA - Waimea
Waikoloa Village Market

[hotzcatz]

There's two in Hilo, as the addresses show above. One is in downtown Hilo a short block back from the bayfront next to the Farmer's Market. The parking lot can be entered from Mamo street. It is the original KTA and is smaller than the others but we like it because it is next to the farmer's market and Garden Exchange.

The larger KTA in Hilo is out along the main highway into Hilo town from the Volcano side. It is the same strip mall that Burger King, Pizza Hut and McDonald's are in so it's pretty easy to find. It is larger than the downtown one and not as nice as the Waimea one. I think it's called Puainako Shopping Center but just look for Pizza Hut's red roof, KTA is directly behind that.

There is a nice KTA in Waimea in the shopping area across the street from Parker Ranch Shopping center. Again, it's in the shopping center which has a McDonald's stand alone building in the middle of the parking lot. There are also a lot of little restaurants along the same mall.

Parker Ranch Shopping Center has Foodland grocery store which has nice produce but seems a bit pricier than KTA. Parker Ranch Shopping Center has a huge statue of Ikua Purdy roping a steer. He won the 1908 World's Roping Contest on the mainland and has been a paniolo hero in Hawaii ever since. It's a great statue and there is another one of him in the shopping center across the way although that one is merely lifesized and most folks don't realize it's Ikua.

There is a smaller KTA in the small Waikoloa shopping center halfway down the mountain between the upper road and the lower road that go between Waimea and Kailua.

There is a KTA in Kailua over in the shopping mall across the street from Wendy's. It's kinda just below one of the major intersections between the belt highway and an access road to Kailua, I forget the name of the road right now. If you drive through Kailua town along their main tourist drag and then come out on the Kohala side of town (I think that would be North for folks who use such directions) then just keep going forward on that road on the right before you get to the belt highway (I'm not sure what name it goes by at that location) will be KTA. It's next to the post office.

If you are in Honokaa, there is a nice grocery called Malama Market over by the post office. And half a block past Malama Market going towards Waipio valley is Andrade's butcher shop although now they are half convience store, too. I'm not sure what their exact name is, but they are an orange building on the mauka (mountain) side of the road. Which would be on the left side if one is heading towards Waimea. They have grass fed beef for about a dollar a pound less than the groceries. You can see their store as you exit the Malama Market parking lot in Honokaa.

[Kiiskeentum]

This has been a very informative and useful thread. Thank you to all who contributed.

We will be arriving the second week of June and look forward to seeing, learning and experiencing.

We plan on spending a couple days on Oahu and then about two weeks on the Big Island.

[JoDan]

Originally Posted by Kiiskeentum

This has been a very informative and useful thread. Thank you to all who contributed.

We will be arriving the second week of June and look forward to seeing, learning and experiencing.

We plan on spending a couple days on Oahu and then about two weeks on the Big Island.

These guys have helped me with many questions!