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Well we will be getting a big freezer, but to tell you the truth the thought of a Coscto on the east side of the Island would be a blessing. Not just for food, but they do sell furniture, cleaning supplies, toiletries (and there's that "man" aisle)...just seems like from what I could see that it would be real useful in Hilo. I just dread Wal-Mart. I always fell a little guilty shopping there. But you gotta do what you gotta do.
I am set on having to go to Kona once every month or two, but that's a long way to haul meat, frozen goods, etc. We thought we would go the day before and play at Hapuna or something and then the next morning load up at Costco and head back. But the Hapuna thing is the lure here, without a doubt LOL!
Carrie
"The opportunities to reach into the lives of others in an inspiring way arise in countless ways every single day..." Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
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I've been in Costco Kona and seen many a line and many from Hilo side stocking up. They bring their coolers right into the store or load them up in their trunk. The clerks seem to know who is traveling as I heard two different clerks ask how much ice two separate customers needed for their trip back! One lady bought 3 large bags of ice, I saw her loading the cooler in her trunk with the perishables and then dump the 3 bags of ice in on top of the perishables. Well guess we must do the same for the time being.
mella l
mella l
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bytheSEA
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About every six weeks, we load up our beach gear,a picnic lunch, and coolers and head out over the Saddle Road about 8am. We get to Hapuna Beach a little after 10 and break for lunch at 12. After more beach fun, it's off to Costco around 3pm. They have really cheap pizza which we usually have for supper. We try not to leave until 6 to avoid the Kona traffic, and usually are home by 8. Just one caveat about Costco, which I am sure most of us know about. Watch the prices because not everything is a good deal.They throw in some ringers with all the cheap stuff!
Aloha,
Jerry
Edited by - JerryCarr on 07/18/2006 15:03:21
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Just read the article about the upcoming shopping center at the Keaau-Pahoa fork everyone's talking about. It surprises me that with they wouldn't give Puna instead of a KTA a large natural foods store. I've never seen one anywhere on the island. You know, supermarket size. It sounds like the only one in Keaau is the small one by the post office and Sure Save? From what I've been reading in the forum, it seems there are quite a few people in Puna interested in a more natural lifestyle so why Kmart and KTA :-( Oh well, there's a nice growers' market and community gardens it sounds like.
Costco in Hilo - that sounds good. I don't like shopping Walmart and rarely do for the same reasons Carrie mentioned.
Cindy
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Aloha Big Box Shoppers, probably a drift away from the subject but some of you speak of coolers top off with ice for the perishables. A penny wise thought would be to purchase a powered cooler, long cord plugs into cig/lighter 12v. keep in the trunk epoxied to the floor so it doesn't grow legs, lol
) They work excellantly and you can increase the useable space of the cooler by not having to use the ice . K-Mart sells them for @80.00
I'm sure someone here uses them....
Aloha HADave
Aloha HADave & Mz P
Hawaiian Acres
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Here's a remember when.... remember when there were no Big Box on this island and people flew over to Oahu and came back with Hawaiian luggage. (ice chest w/ duct tape)..
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KapohaCat, Thanks for the memory - I used
Hawaiian Luggage on my last camping trip there. Bring over mainland priced cereals, etc. and bring back lei and farmers market
goodies. We were the only ones at LAX of course with duct taped cooler "luggage," and of course my ex had to tape it up extra good
not knowing it had to be inspected LOL
Cindy
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HADave, if I understand correctly, those piezoelectric coolers function by cooling its contents to a fixed amount of degrees Farenheit below the ambient air temp. I think that amount is typically something like 20 degrees, which works to keep perishables viable in cooler temps, but may not be suitable for very long term cooling in Hawaii or where you need lower temps. It would certainly be better than nothing. We used one on a car trip in May in Arizona, and it did perform adequately. I don't know how the high temperature with low humidity compares to the medium-high temps with high humidity with regards to this kind of cooler.
We used to own a VW Eurovan MV which came with this type of cooler. It ran off the auxilliary battery which needs to be a deep cycle marine battery. Your regular car battery may not last very long running one of these once your car engine is turned off.
Les C
