Hilo Hattie

If you’re looking for Hawaiian souvenirs, this is the place, but expect to pay higher prices.

Cute place! They give you a lei when you come in. A lot of the stuff seems over priced but maybe it’s because it’s Hawaii. They have some cute souvenirs. I ended up buying a couple of bunches of keychains for cheap!
The place is nice and clean. Employees are nice.

High pressure sales aren’t really my thing. I appreciate sales associates that are available when I need them, but I couldn’t go two feet without someone trying to talk me into jewelry or some other souvenir item.
For the most part, they carry all the regular souvenir items and prices were pretty good.

not a fan — watch out when you walk in the front door — they ask you to pick a piece of paper (which are all the same) then want you to pick a pearl from a oyster shell… You feel obligated to buy after you open it. I was able to say no, my husband not so much. Large store, but depressed. too big with high prices. not a fan.

Save yourself! What scam artists!!! When you walk in the door these hovering ladies with big smiles and too much makeup approach you with a coupon for a «discount» on selecting a pearl from an oyster. It would usually cost $ 15, but you always get a discount of 40, 50 or 60 percent. You pick an oyster out of a bowl, («they uglier the oyster, they more beautiful the pearl») they pull it out, tap on it three times, scream ALOHA!, ring a really loud bell, and pry the poor thing open. They ooh and ah over your pearl and tell you how lucky you are. At one point one even outright LIED and told this little girl her pearl would be worth $ 70 or $ 80 in a store! It was NOT a $ 10 pearl, much less an $ 80 pearl. Once you get your very special pearl, the hard sell starts, and they start showing you all these WAY overpriced settings. My 9 year old daughter watched the girl before her get a necklace, so it was impossible to stop the runaway train. The least expensive setting I could get was $ 75. My husband was in the corner shaking his head. I told my daughter how lucky she was, I always wanted earrings, so the lady pulled out an oyster from a very special bowl and had me open it (tap tap tap, scream, bell) and lo and behold, two black pearls were there! Miracle. The lady before me opened two oysters from the same special bowl, both doubles and her husband bought TWO pairs of earrings for her. They must operate on commission.
We had gone in there specifically to get matching clothing for the family that was made in Hawaii, but the selection wasn’t terrific and most everything there we saw in other stores, exact same brand and everything. We couldn’t find anything, except the damn pearl which my daughter couldn’t even wear because it DIDN’T EVEN COME WITH A CHAIN! The rest of the merchandise was not inspiring. We really wanted to make sure our money did as much as possible to support Hawaiians and Hawaiian made merchandise, so we went to the swap meet in Kahului. If you want post cards and such, Whaler’s Village is waaaaay better than Hilo Hattie. The only thing we got out of it was a family joke: any time something is a rip off, we scream, «Ding, ding, ding, ALOHA!» Sad.

This Hilo Hattie’s offered superb customer service. Thanks! Employees here seemed much happier than the lahaina store where customers walked in and the greeter and another employee didn’t even acknowledged customers coming through the door so, kihei store thanks for awesome customer service! Naty the employee in kihei was very helpful and helped us with all questions asked. Thank you. I will defiantly recommend this store to others. Keep up the good work guys!

This Hilo Hattie store is not as large as the one in Oahu. It’s A-​OK and my visit was mainly to browse.
My husband and I received a free shell necklace from one of the employees greeting and welcoming us to the store. That was fine and dandy. The store has plenty of merchandise, souvenirs, an assortment of candies, etc., for tourists to buy to take home. No matter where I am, impulsive buying is not my thing.
Purchase: 1 red medium sized t-​shirt and two 2015 wall calendars. Total spent: $ 18.72 (tax included).
Enough spent here… I’m out the door… they ain’t gonna break me to the point of being broke as a joke… lol.

I came on a recommendation from somebody when I said I’m buying tacky tourist junk. (I guess this is a compliment, however you want to look at it).
Upon arrival, they gave me a natural shell lei. Cool! Don’t need to buy one now. *check!*. There is a very large clothing department, taking up nearly half the space. The other sections are divided up into jewelry, foods/​goods, gifts & souvenirs, etc.
I did find a few items here, although not unique to Hilo Hattie, I was unable to obtain in the ABC store due to not being stocked. Grabbed those. And they had some different bags of dried fruits I did not see elsewhere. Strawberry flavored pineapple rings! They are amazing. Bags of dried fruits were competitively priced. Definitely a good buy.

Total tourist trap but if you want the box of chocolate covered macadamias in all different types they have them here. They also have all the other knick knacks and you are greeted with a shell lei upon entry to the store. Then… you are encouraged to come and get a coupon and wouldn’t you know it it’s the largest coupon they have and now pick an oyster out and they will shuck it for you… then what do you know? It’s two pearls in the oyster!!! Now lets make those into earrings… and wham bam $ 80 later they have you diving again for another oyster… it’s only upon opening the second oyster and it also having two pearls in it that I realized SOMETHING was up.
But I got some great pearl earrings that are guaranteed for life out of it and a ton of chocolate for everyone back home…
All in all a good trip in.

While not the biggest location, this may be the nicest and cleanest of the Hilo Hatties stores that we visited.
Great place to pick up some Aloha wear and other souvenirs.

Reasonably priced souvenirs. Nice cheap Hawaiian shirts. When you come in the door you are welcomed with an «aloha» and a shell lei. Good prices.

Hilo Hattie’s have gone downhill recently. This store, however hasn’t. It’s a really large shop with a lot of variety of mid to high end aloha shirts and other Hawaiian products. When you first enter, they put a free lei on you. Go immediately to the sale area because some of the prices are quite good. The selection of aloha shirts range from loud to subtle, so you should be able to find the one that best suits you. Make sure you check the tourist guides for coupons because Hilo Hattie usually has a coupon. They also have the 200XL shirt hanging on the wall. I think my cousin could wear it.

Ok, so I like getting the free lei, and we always seem to end up buying something. But it definitely is a tourist trap. It was 23 years ago, but seemed cooler back then. And of course if you are still looking for that 200 XL Hawaiian shirt… They got it!

Perfect for your run-​of-​the-​mill knick-​knacks. Good prices for what it is. Huge selection. They were generally very friendly and helpful, thought our cashier was jerky and unfriendly. I’ll order online and have stuff shipped straight home, too, so I don’t have to carry.

My family and I always come and visit when we are visiting the islands. You are welcomed by seashell leis and offered a refreshment upon entrance. Hilo Hattie has a slew of Hawaiian clothing, souvenirs, food, and jewelry. One of the first things we got hooked on doing the first time we went was the opening of the oysters in the jewelry department. However, after experiencing that once or twice there is nothing else much to it unless you are stricken by a divine setting that your must have. Prices are fair. Great place to come for souvenirs.

Hilo Hattie is a decent place to buy souvenirs to bring back home. The staff is friendly and you are greeted with a free shell necklace. They have everything: chocolates, candy, coffee, clothes, jewelry, etc. Many typical Hawaiian themed items. The only thing I bought was SPAM macadamia nuts, because I didn’t see them anywhere else. Otherwise I bought my other souvenirs at Costco or ABC stores.
If you don’t know what to bring back home this would be a good place to shop, because they have a large variety.

Bbooorrriinnggg!
Exciting when they give the ladies a key to open a chest just to find a coupon for the oyster perl.
But pretty lame after that.
$ 2.49 for a cute deck of cards.

One of the better HH’s that I’ve been in. Cheaper prices than Lahaina and an awesome in-​store wood carver who makes cool pieces and custom pieces if you’re in town for a while. Of course, free cheap shell lei and small dixie cup drink, but great for touristy crap to drag back home.

Hilo Hattie is a neat shop to browse, plus they have quite the clothing department. If you are in the market for a muumuu or blouse, they have it. That being said, they are kind of pricey for other souvineers. I made the mistake of buying a few stickers at Hilo Hattie, then walking down to ABC (on the other side of Safeway at this shopping center) and finding the SAME stickers for $ 1.50 less. Lesson learned. I would suggest making a stop to Hilo Hatties, but only after stopping at ABC for souvineers.
A side note: I saw a cool and affordable caftan on their website. At the store, I asked a clerk if they had it in stock. She did not know what a caftan was. In her defense, she was very young. They did NOT have the caftan. So just as an FYI, some stuff on their website is NOT available in store.

Don’t buy your chocolates or gifts from here. Tourist trap. They now have their own chocolate brand and everything is so overpriced.
I suggest you buy your chocolates from Costco and Hawaiian knick-​knacks from Wal-​Mart.