Sack N Save

Holy Moly, all that Poke. That should only rhyme if you mispronounce poke. But you know…
Anyway, this is a typical grocery store. Some of the prices for certain items are ridiculous to a main lander (I mean… it’s an island…), but I suppose this is the cheap place on the island. But looking at this place from that perspective makes me see that this place is amazing.
Came here a few times for poke, Portuguese sausages for breakfast, rice, eggs, etc.
The reusable bags here are adorable! I bought two because they’re so cute (and cause I forgot a bag… so I went ahead and bought one).
Now on to the poke. Naturally, this place had it’s own selection of excellent poke. More choices than one is used to seeing at their local grocery store if you’re even that lucky. We usually had a few choices, all amazing with some Longboard and rice. The hot foods selection was also great for quick and easy meals, and who doesn’t love some Spam musubi?
It’s a great stop for both locals and tourists alike, just try not to let sticker shock get to you.

Staffs are super helpful when I visited. I was looking for their cute cooler bags and couldn’t find any on display. A staff member went to get one from their supply room with a smile on his face. Good prices on staples like coffee and poke and other island souvenirs.

Consistent. Food Land group.
Poke was killer as on Maui.
Poke at the shack 22 a pound
Costco 18. Pound. Both shack
And Costco are really good.
Good produce.

Average local supermarket. You can find most ingredients here. Veggies are not too fresh, limited selection, and high priced typical Hawai’i price. Not many seafood selection. Conveniently located near tourist area for quick purchase. Plenty of parking. Sign up with their Maika’i shopping care for discount by using your phone number. Free of charge to sign up.

Sorry, Foodland, it’s time to upgrade this store from a SacknSave if you want to compete in Kona!
I remember when this was a new store. It was an exciting upgrade from the tiny Foodland that was across from where Big Island Grill is now. However, that was almost 30 (!) years ago, and now it’s just depressing to go in when I’ve seen how nice your Foodland is in Waimea. Kona’s store is dated, and grungy, and you are always looking for new employees on Craigslist; not a good sign.
So what, Kona doesn’t deserve as nice a store as Waimea? Well, you still have a local following, but you are also losing customers to Safeway, a larger store with a better selection across the board. Close down the SacknSave, rehab the building, update to 2015 Foodland and you’ll see me more often. And while I would never suggest anyone go to Wal-​Mart, you’d best realize that you have lots of cheaper competition out there; train your staff to be more service oriented while you are at it– about impossible to find any help in the store on my last visit a couple weeks ago. Let’s not forget Target and K-Mart’s well staffed stores as long as we’re discussing the competitive supermarket world we now live in. Make us want to return!
If you are visiting the store and don’t have a customer loyalty #, plug in the # from Jenny’s song (I got your number) and the 808 area code to get the discount.
Mahalo.

Got the poke in the back, after eating at umeke’s, this grocery store can’t compare. It’s very good for the price though.

Sack n Save is in the same family as Foodland. There are actual Foodland stores on Big Island, so I’m not sure why they have two concepts, especially when Foodland is a way cuter name!
Sack n Save has everything a typical grocery store has. Produce, bakery, cookies, drinks, dairy, meat, seafood, etc. The best part of Sack n Save is the POKE BAR! It’s at the back of the store and they have several kinds of poke. I asked the lady working behind the bar what her favorite poke was, and she said it was the limu poke. (I think limu is like mini kelp.) She then proceeded to give me a sample of the limu poke on a toothpick. Yum! Next to the limu was the shoyu poke. The man working behind the bar said that the shoyu poke was their #1 selling poke. I got a sample of that one too and that was yummy too! What a dilemma! So I ended up getting one thingie (one of their shallow containers) of the limu poke and one thingie of the shoyu poke. The lady scooped the poke in and weighed each container. Each container ended up being about $ 8. Real good poke. They have a sign outside of the store that says they were voted best store for poke and I believe it!
In addition to the poke, my other favorite thing about Foodland/​Sack n Save is their reusable bags!!! They are the cutest reusable bags ever. One of them, which is a long-​time design of theirs, features the spam musubi and how to make it and the different variations of spam musubi. They have a newer design for their reusable bags which is the anatomy of a poke bowl. It’s this bag that taught me that I was saying poke wrong this whole time. It’s pronounced POK-​AY, not POK-​EE. Oops! So not only are these bags super cute, they are educational! And the bags are pretty good quality. Plus reusable bags are good for the environment! Mahalo for reusing and helping Planet Earth!
In the middle of the store, they sell all kinds of Hawaii products/​souvenirs, like Mauna Loa macadamia nuts and mac nut chocolates. They were selling kukui nut shell leis and accessories with (fake) plumerias on it. You need sunscreen — they’ve got it. Elsewhere in the store, they’ve got Hawaiian products that you don’t typically find at the grocery store in the Bay Area — like coconut syrup (so good on pancakes!), Aloha brand soy sauce, poi, POG (passionfruit/​orange/​guava) juice, guava jelly, and lilikoi (passionfruit) butter. Oh, and every brand of Kona coffee imaginable. In their deli section, they sell pre-​made handrolls (next to the pre-​made CA rolls). They had spicy crab, tuna, & shoyu tuna — it’s wrapped in plastic in a way that the nori doesn’t get soggy — smart!
If you’re craving to make some Asiany food — no problem! Head on over to aisle 2 where they had Korean bowl noodles (Shin ramen, kimchi ramen, and hot & spicy bowl ramen flavors were available) and Japanese instant ramen. There’s also sushi rice, nori, wasabi, furikake, dried shitake mushrooms, and more.
At checkout, the cashier asked us if we had a Maika’i card. When we said that we didn’t, she asked for our phone number, entered it in, and then said now we are members. It literally took seconds to do! No stupid forms to fill out with our names and addresses.
Remember: POKE and REUSABLE BAGS!

This review is written from the perspective of a tourist looking for affordable and edible souvenirs. Enjoy!
Come for the poke! There are multiple varieties of ahi tuna poke and some marlin and salmon ones, too. They also have Mauna Loa macadamia nut candies, but it’s only 50 cents cheaper than ABC. (If you’re willing to give money to Walmart, they sell the same thing for $ 2 less.) The organization of the store wasn’t apparent to me: I found the macadamia nut products separate from the candy and chips. They do have hurricane popcorn in four flavors, but if you’re okay with two, go to Walmart. (ABC doesn’t carry it.) One thing you won’t find here is furikake chips. Go to ABC for that.

Pretty good selection of organic grocery. I buy Stevia soda and found that this place has the best prices for many groceries.
Related to the Foodland Family of grocery stores this place is good value, they would get a full five stars but the service could be a bit friendlier.

I’m just rating the Poke bar — Don’t buy poke at Costco… just come here.
Bought overpriced poke @ Costco twice before coming in here. Dropped the kids off to buy shave ice and halo-​halo at Hawaiian Ice Cone in the same shopping center. Came in Sack n Save cause I needed to buy something… which I don’t remember anymore. I walked around and discovered the poke bar way in the back right hand corner of the market. Eventhough I still have the poke from Costco in the fridge, the prices for poke here is so good, I had to try some… NOT going back to Costco… for sure!
The assortment of poke that were bought were seasoned well, very tasty and flavorful. On the next to the last day on Kona, we went to get the last shave-​ice again, gave the kids $$ and dragged the hubby to take a look at the poke bar. Ended up talking to this man who was buying his lunch and he recommended the crab one. We were a bit hesitant, but heck at $ 7/lb…why not! We have immodium too, so who cares! Wow… the raw crab was delicious, just like the man told me… didn’t need to use immodium. Too bad we didn’t discover the poke bar here earlier. Will visit here often on our next trip!

Yeah it’s a pantry, no doubt about that. It’s just the staff that could use some help, especially the customer service lady’s that work up at the counter, I always wonder why I even come into this store when the staff treats you like your from another planet.

Poke bar. ‘Nuff said.
Step it up New York supermarkets! Just kidding, that will happen never.
Auwe!

Not the cleanest place, and very high prices. I like to support local companies, but they are not reasonably priced at all.

This place saved us on Thanksgiving Day. We wanted fish… they were open… We got three kinds and had an Aloha style feast back at our timeshare. :)
For a meal on the run, they also have some poke selections in the back by the fish and do sell steamed rice to go with it (although the rice offering was not so obvious).

This review is for their poke. Like the slogan says, its the best poke in Hawaii. I had the shoyu and the California roll poke. Really liked them both especially the California roll with crab. So delicious that we went their twice during our stay.

this store is in much better shape than the other local supermarket that shall remain nameless. although the girl who was helping us looked like she was half asleep and not in the mood to deal with customers, she was fast and friendly.
its cheap, you need stuff? go.

Like any other typical crappy chain supermarket that doesn’t serve many natural and organic foods, however the poke selection is out of this world yummy, and affordable.
I just wish they would stop using membership cards for lower prices. What’s up with that?

The best poke in town by comparison to other Sack N Save on the islands. Great marinated raw crabs too!

I just have to document my «Only in Kona» experience yesterday at Sack N Save. This was my experience with the hippie haole cashier (HHC) with a name that would remind you of a guy named Hans in Star Wars.
HHC finishes with the customer in front of us and proclaims «Time for a coffee break» and starts chuggin on the coffee he has next to the register. «Strange» I was thinking but just wanted to lay low, not make eye contact and get out of there. HHC proceeds to scan a few items then totally freezes for about 45 seconds. He’s not moving, just staring straight ahead. He suddenly shakes himself out of it and says «oh yeah, I’m working…» and finishes scanning. The total comes to $ 14.05 and I give him a twenty and start digging for some change to cover the five cents. By the time I find it HHC has rung up the $ 20.00. «Excuse me HHC can I give you five cents?» I ask. HHC «No man I can’t do that it will really screw me up. You know these things are also a calculator and it tells me the change right here $ 5.95.» Me «But if I give you five cents you could…» HHC «Man I just got to do what the machine tells me man…»

The grocery store is ordinary and similar to any other old grocery store. The prices are fair or slightly above. (The Punalu’u breads here are more expensive than those at WalMart.) What makes this grocery store special is that it has «Hawaiian» cakes, such as lilikoi chiffon cake, Island Princess chiffon cake (I think that was what it was called. It had guava, lilikoi, and coconut in it), and haupia cake (which you can also get at Safeway down the street.) The most cakes were $ 16.99, except ones like the red velvet cake, which was $ 25.99. If you’re looking for a pre-​made birthday cake, this one is the one to go to. The other grocery stores in Kailua-​Kona, except Safeway, did not have any at all. (Options that are farther away include Island Gourmet Waikoloa and Waikoloa Village Market.)