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It’s not really off topic, but that being said "an attitude of wonder and living for today" would soon have me sleeping rough in Ft. Fort DeRussy Beach Park. I'd much rather enjoy at the park from the lanai of my condo.
As for an "attitude of sharing" educate Gov. Neil Abercrombie and Mayor Kirk Caldwell. They should share some services with the street people in Waikiki and Kakaaco.
In closing I'm not going to "chase the jones" but I'm also not going to bend over.
It’s not really off topic, but that being said "an attitude of wonder and living for today" would soon have me sleeping rough in Ft. Fort DeRussy Beach Park. I'd much rather enjoy at the park from the lanai of my condo.
As for an "attitude of sharing" educate Gov. Neil Abercrombie and Mayor Kirk Caldwell. They should share some services with the street people in Waikiki and Kakaaco.
In closing I'm not going to "chase the jones" but I'm also not going to bend over.
Now why would you say "an attitude of wonder and living for today" would soon have me sleeping rough in Ft. Fort DeRussy Beach Park. I'd much rather enjoy at the park from the lanai of my condo?"
I never said "don't go to work or pay the bills". Living for today says "we have rent and food bills". Living for today is focused on the moment. Not trying to compete with others etc. Most locals do live in the moment.
Politics and tourism doesn't reflect locals or kama'aina thinking or life.
If you're stocking up for personal use, then make a list of what you use every day or like to eat and pack a few extra cases of that. If there's any regional brands you really like, you may want to bring those. Vernor's ginger ale type soda isn't available in Hawaii that I know of, although that's more of a North-Eastern sort of soda than an Eastern one, I think. I'm not sure what Watertown, Massachusetts has for regional delicacies.
It does take awhile to figure out where the best shopping is once you move to a new area so having your usual daily goods will allow you more time to locate the best shopping and you won't find yourself at the expensive shopping places picking up whatever it is just because you need it at the moment.
Honolulu is a big city, though, so you'll be able to find probably most of the things you're used to or at least if not the exact same item, then a reasonable facsimile thereof. There's Costco, Sam's Club, Safeway, WalMart, K-Mart, Sears, etc., although if you shop a lot at a specific chain store, check to see if they have an outlet on Oahu. Not all chain stores and chain restaurants have outlets here.
As for clothing and such, natural fabrics are much nicer to wear than most synthetics. Acrylic is especially miserable in a warm humid climate. Folks don't dress up as much, either, so a whole closet full of three piece suits and ties isn't likely to get as much use as it would on the mainland.
I guess I'm wondering why stock up at all? Since we can buy pretty much the same stuff here, all you are really buying is time before you have to buy local anyway.
I wouldn't stock up on any of the items you listed, seems like a waste of money and time.
Poland Spring Water? No, Hawai'i does not need any more throwaway plastic bottles. Get a Brita filter and reusable water bottle if you need "bottled" water.
Pasta? Although it supposedly keeps forever, fresh dried pasta tastes better than old dried pasta. Besides, it can get bugs in it.
Canned goods? Not unless there is some specialty food from the northeast you can't live without. For some reason B&M Brown Bread comes to mind. Oh, and Marshmallow Fluff. I don't know if you can buy those in Hawai'i or not because I've never looked for them, but I know they're Boston favorites that aren't sold just everywhere.
Liquor? Well, within the previously mentioned limits, if you happened to be going anywhere near the New Hampshire border and wanted to load up there on your favorite brand, it will definitely save you a lot of money over Hawai'i prices.
Paper goods? Well, since you say you'll have extra space, a case each of toilet paper and paper towels couldn't hurt. Since container shipping is priced by volume, not weight, it seems that some light but bulky items, like boxes of cornflakes, cost proportionally more for the stores to ship in than, say, canned goods, so they get marked up more. And since that stuff doesn't go bad, and everybody forgets to buy it at the store, you'll just have it on hand and not have to worry about it for a long time.
Location: Southernmost tip of the southernmost island in the southernmost state
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Something to think about.
Though I only shipped my vehicles and a single pallet (plus luggage during flights) for the formal move; I am now back in California finalizing the sale of my house before I join my wife and daughter on the BI.
In going through all my garage items, I still had several dozen boxes of screws, nails and assorted hardware that I had picked up remodeling my houses over the years. I had contemplated putting them on the curb with a free sign, but then I got to thinking that I will likely need many of them for projects I'm sure will come in Hawaii (already have a chicken coop and planter boxes on the honey-do list). Looking at all these screws and nails I realized it would likely cost hundreds of dollars to replace them once there. So I used two 12" X 12" X 6" flat rate USPS boxes to pack them in. I put a lot of time into maximizing the packing of the boxes which resulted in almost zero wasted space. Each box weighed 35lbs and cost only $17.45 to ship. So depending on what you currently have to ship (or buy).
I did the same thing with all the spices we had accumulated. i first though of tossing them, but then realized that at four or five dollars per jar (and we had several dozen jars), it really made good financial sense to pack them in a $12 flat rate shipper.
I hear you about the temperature. I wasn't going to bring any wine or beer. I plan on drinking only local brew when I get there.
Mmmmm Long Board.
You ready for this? Long Board (and all the other "Kona" beers) are made on the mainland and shipped here.
The small brewery they operate in Kona is a demonstration brewery that pretty much only makes the draft served in their restaurant. They don't operate a bottling facility, so if it comes in a bottle, it came from the mainland. If it's on draft, there is a 75% chance it was made on the mainland "in Portland, Oregon, Woodinville, Washington, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as part of its partnership with Craft Brew Alliance Inc" (quotes from their web site). Craft Brew Alliance is 32.5% owned by Anheuser Busch, hence Kona Brewing has been disqualified as a craft brewery, so you won't see it winning any real craft brewing awards.
Maui Brewing beers are 100% island. I'm not sure about Mehana anymore, maybe somebody else here does?
One of the reasons Kona Brewing gave for trying to disguise their mainland production was the high cost of importing glass bottles to Hawaii. Maui Brewing solved that problem by having the aluminum cans for their beer manufactured on Oahu by recycling HI5 returns.
Last edited by terracore; 08-02-2014 at 10:02 PM..
You ready for this? Long Board (and all the other "Kona" beers) are made on the mainland and shipped here.
The small brewery they operate in Kona is a demonstration brewery that pretty much only makes the draft served in their restaurant. They don't operate a bottling facility, so if it comes in a bottle, it came from the mainland. If it's on draft, there is a 75% chance it was made on the mainland "in Portland, Oregon, Woodinville, Washington, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as part of its partnership with Craft Brew Alliance Inc" (quotes from their web site).
Redhook is the brewer in Woodinville and Portsmouth, NH, so that's not bad at all. Can't remember what Portland is. In any case, I don't worry about where a beer is made if I like the beer. Big Island favorites Steinlager and Heineken are brewed in New Zealand and Holland respectively. And an ungodly amount of Bud, Millers, and the other usual mass market suspects are downed with gusto all over the state even though nobody knows where they come from. You can even grab a suitcase of PBR or Keystone to wash down your Spam musubi! Personally, I've long since developed a preference for quality over quantity.
Quote:
Maui Brewing beers are 100% island. I'm not sure about Mehana anymore, maybe somebody else here does?
I discovered Mehana Brewery several years ago when I was talking classes at the Hilo Community College across the street on Kawili, and found that Mehana was a handy place to grab a nice beer and a tasty bite to eat. Then a couple of years later I think Hawaii Nui Brewing partnered with them to do some bottling ?? and then the next thing I heard they were overextended and had gone into bankruptcy.
OK, looking now I see that Yelp shows they've reopened, a few months ago, and then I dug and found this news item... they were bought at auction and restarted, and they are planning to revive both Mehana and Hawaii Nui brands in cans and bottles and growlers.
One excellent brewery you haven't mentioned, although I thinks it's mostly just a local treasure so far, is Big Island Brewhaus in Waimea. They operate a popular pub and Mexican restaurant called Tako Taco Tacqueria... ahhh, fresh craft beer and fish tacos with housemade habanero sauce, what could be better?
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