Whole Foods Hits Hawaii

After a long nine month delay from the targeted opening date, Whole Foods has finally arrived in Hawaii. The grand opening week was a mad house. I could barely walk around the market; it was packed shoulder to shoulder as if the entire island had planned to do a shopping run on the same day!

It’s on the small side, but it has the basics and the only in-market kitchen for Asian food and Pizzas. On my first visit, I ordered two scoops of gelato—it shocked my wallet at $8.00! The sign for gelato prices weren't up yet, so after I mentioned this the cashier she sold it to me for $2.99. What a rip off that would have been! (Or perhaps she charged me wrong—I’m sure everyone was learning on the first day on the job).

I returned to Whole Foods today. It was empty and I felt so happy walking down the aisles. It’s like I was back at home, in my element of having the option for healthy living again. Organic produce, eco friendly products, fresh cooked meals, organic body products, vegetarian microwavable foods, and healthy life style magazines made me smile inside. Today I came home with: Terra vegetable chips (miss these!—though I don’t recommend the Terra "Kettles" line), Soy crisps, organic milk (miss this), Wallaby (Australian) yogurt, and hot food to go—lemon chicken (not too tangy, just right) and orange chicken (like Panda Express) on a bed of brown rice. Ah, my refrigerator is happy too.

The biggest disappointment for me was the limited yogurt section. I miss my Five Grain Mediterranean yogurt and was most looking forward to this as I anticipated Whole Foods' opening. Perhaps the Whole Foods at Ward Center will be bigger and have a bigger selection!? Otherwise I’ll have to fly to Irvine just to see the entire wall of neatly lined yogurt and find the one I miss the most.

Where to Go
Whole Foods Market is located at Kahala Mall on the bottom floor next to Starbuck, Jamba Juice.