Sure, there are bodegas in Hawaii

Sure, there are bodegas in Hawaii. They don’t seem to be generally referred as such right here. “Bodega” is a Spanish phrase, solely slowly and just lately getting into Hawaii vernacular. I say that due to a latest debate I had with a visiting stranger from a significant American metropolis who insisted that so-called bodegas can solely be present in so-called large cities. I known as “nonsense!” and defined that the precise that means of “bodega”, in line with Merriam-Webster, is 1) a storehouse for maturing wine; 2) a wine store; and three) a small grocery retailer in an city space.

Now we have all three of these varieties of companies in Hawaii, so I purchased the visiting Center-American customer a snort of first rate Spanish port and gloated over my rhetorical and semantic victory by telling him about two bodegas which were an essential a part of my life for many years. They’re tourism-adjacent however are certainly not beholden to the capricious and arbitrary comings and goings of fleeting nonresidents. That’s what ABC Shops and 7-11s in vacationer hotspots are for.

On the perimeters of these hotspots and much past are residential neighborhoods full of people that want gasoline for his or her autos, a Spam musubi between jobs, paper towels, pet meals, or a twelve-pack of beer and a bag of ice or rice or each. Life’s incidental however persistent requirements, city or not. It’s straightforward to deem these companies “liquor shops”, and it’s not inaccurate. However they’re much extra essential and much much less insidious than that distinction implies.

The woman who runs the Shell station across the nook from my condo is a few quick years older than me and she or he shares my loathsome obsession with golf. I’m sure she performs higher than me. Years in the past, she threatened to ban me from her retailer as a result of I known as her “Auntie”.

“I’m not your auntie!” she protested. “We da similar age! You name me auntie once more, I no allow you to come again in!” It was a pleasant and welcome rebuke.

“Okay, okay,” I pleaded. “Sistah, den.”

“That’s higher.”

The individuals behind the counters

Through the lengthy months of Covid lockdowns and restrictions in 2020-2021, Sistah was one of many solely people I’m not married to whom I noticed on a near-daily foundation. I actually consider she helped my spouse and I by the pandemic in a significant method. She is aware of my hours, my habits, my selection of drink, and my most popular snacks and model of smokes. She is aware of that I’m a author and a musician and asks at times how these pursuits are going. I’m all the time sincere about it. I belief her.

I count on she helped lots of people in my Honolulu neighborhood by the pandemic in a lot the identical method. Throughout that point, she’d say, “Take some kimchee seaweed in your spouse.” She steadfastly refuses the home-baked cookies and confections my spouse affords. “I don’t play golf sufficient. I placed on weight.”

My different bodega is close to the center of Downtown Honolulu, a block away from the pub that I’ve been performing and dealing “out-of-office” in for 20 years. The woman who runs it’s recognized and is adored by everybody I do know and affiliate with. She is aware of that I drink bourbon, that I’m downtown most days for work and leisure, and that I play guitar and sing and write for my dwelling. She is aware of my sisters by identify and waves whats up at my spouse ready outdoors as we make our method into the adjoining public parking zone and even affords a me Christmas current yearly. In 2023, it was a fastidiously wrapped sweet choice.

“I do know you don’t eat sweets,” she mentioned, smiling brightly and patting my hand. “Give it to your spouse.” Her aged white-haired poodle-terrier combine howled approval and toddled from below the counter for the scratches I’m all the time glad to supply.

Each women have good-natured husbands, who’re round when the women aren’t. These husbands don’t know almost as a lot about me as their wives do, and so they definitely don’t care about my golf sport or what number of punters crammed into my local for the gig the night time earlier than. My spouse refers to these women as my “girlfriends” affectionately and she or he has her personal pleasant relationship with them.

I can’t actually say how a lot these women on the bodegas really care, if I’m sincere. But it surely’s a minimum of sufficient to know some little issues about me that solely individuals in my internal circle of family and friends can know.

For essentially the most half, bodegas in Hawaii don’t have web sites or social media accounts. Or procuring carts. Yow will discover them by way of most popular web engines like google, positive, however most guests are more likely to head for the florescent blue beacon of the closest ABC Retailer or heed the company siren name of the 7-11. And that’s fantastic. They’ve Spam musubi, too. It simply wasn’t made by the particular person you’re shopping for it from.

We’re sturdy supporters of native companies, and it doesn’t get extra native than bodegas in Hawaii (or liquor shops or mini-marts or what have you ever). The notion of “company” doesn’t come into it. However the very best batch of kimchee seaweed, Spam musubi, or essentially the most good egg salad sandwich you’ve ever had simply would possibly.

There are 65 (and counting) 7-11 stores in Hawaii, and 58 (and counting) ABC Stores. They’re straightforward to search out. Native bodegas, usually, should not.

Flip to our Hawaii Aloha Travel consultants to search out the very best bodegas in Hawaii.