Hawaii Food Prices

Are you hearing horror stories about Hawaii food prices? Well, you have good reason to be concerned. It really is more expensive to eat in Hawaii than almost anywhere in the U.S. mainland.

At places like Mcdonald’s and Subway your prices will normally be the same, and you can get inexpensive breakfasts and lunches at plate lunch places for $3 (two eggs, toast, slice of spam) to $8 (scoop rice, potato salad, meat).

However, if you go to the grocery store this is where you will run into sticker shock. I recently moved to Idaho after 14 years in Hawaii and I got sticker shock but in a good way. I was actually taking pictures of the prices in the stores here and sending them to my friends in Hawaii in amazement.

Here’s some examples of the best prices you will find in Hawaii at an ordinary grocery store. 

gallon of milk: $4.00
loaf of bread:  $5.00
apples: $3 a pound
blueberries: $6 for the tiny package
whole watermelon: 90 cents a pound
ground beef: $3.79 a pound
bag of macadamia nuts: $7.89
bananas: $1.29 a pound
lunch meat: 15 oz for $4.89
digiorno pizza: $8
brand name cereal: $4-$6 (or $7.49 if it’s the big box of Kix)

If you go to a farmer’s market, you’ll do a bit better on some stuff that’s locally grown. Try papayas and bananas and daikon and pineapples.

Even bottle water is priced a bit more in Hawaii. Definitely get this in the grocery store and not the ABC store.

You’ve gotta eat, and this can really get expensive. We recently stayed in Waikiki for a week at a hotel with a kitchenette. As soon as we got there we dropped $180 or so at a grocery store. I was a little blown away by this much money for a weeks food, especially since we were still going to eat out a few times. All in all we probably ended up spending about $250 on meals for two adults and a two year old.

Hawaii Vacation Cost from Flights to Food