08-20-2014, 10:40 AM
I didn't find the cost of mattresses to be ridiculously high on the big island. There are several mattress outlet stores on the island and they sell them at Costco. If you are on the west coast, a car is probably worth shipping unless you want to get a new one here. Getting a USED car here is complicated. And by car, I mean truck, because that is what you are going to want if you're going to be living in Puna.
If you are currently living in a house, take into consideration that a house in Hawaii is likely going to be smaller, probably won't have a garage, and your stuff won't be safe in a carport, and you won't have room for all your stuff.
Somebody had mentioned buying the container your stuff is shipped in. My warning on that is not all shipping companies will sell their containers (Matson told me that they would not) and the ones that do, may only sell containers at the end of their marine transport lifespan. The company that we used only had 2 containers in their entire fleet that were for sale and fortunately the logistics worked out that we could get one of them. 20 foot containers are nearly impossible to get on the Big Island (and many of them are 40' containers that were cut in half and had the doors retrofitted), therefore there is virtually no price difference in 20 or 40 foot containers purchased here. Different story on the mainland. Also, a lot of the discount containers you can buy on the mainland don't have a current marine engineer's certificate, and are only good for land transport. So don't buy one of those.
If you are currently living in a house, take into consideration that a house in Hawaii is likely going to be smaller, probably won't have a garage, and your stuff won't be safe in a carport, and you won't have room for all your stuff.
Somebody had mentioned buying the container your stuff is shipped in. My warning on that is not all shipping companies will sell their containers (Matson told me that they would not) and the ones that do, may only sell containers at the end of their marine transport lifespan. The company that we used only had 2 containers in their entire fleet that were for sale and fortunately the logistics worked out that we could get one of them. 20 foot containers are nearly impossible to get on the Big Island (and many of them are 40' containers that were cut in half and had the doors retrofitted), therefore there is virtually no price difference in 20 or 40 foot containers purchased here. Different story on the mainland. Also, a lot of the discount containers you can buy on the mainland don't have a current marine engineer's certificate, and are only good for land transport. So don't buy one of those.