Aloha Stadium, near the Salt Lake Neighborhood, is a well known Honolulu landmark, not only is it where the Pro-Bowl used to get played but it is also the stadium where UH football games happen and more importantly for many – where the three-times-a-week Aloha Stadium Swapmeet happens. On Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays – for a dollar per person locals and tourists alike wander through hundreds of vendors selling everything from fresh fruit and vegetables to aloha shirts and shave ice to just good old fashioned junk – along the circular route you will find those and everything in between – antiques, coins, clothing, ukuleles, tools, fishing gear, surfboards, video games – this is truly where the locals come to do their shopping – or selling.
I’ve loaded up my junk and treasures on dozens of mornings and set out hopefully for the swap meet – and so far – at the end of the day, I’m not any closer to being rich than I was at the start. It’s hard to get even good garage sale prices from the shrewd bargainers who haunt the junk sections – but with a stall price of just $15 and tent rentals at only $20 – you don’t have to sell a lot to make a profit and a big part of going is the fun of interacting with tourists and locals. There are a whole host of colorful characters who are regulars there – homeless guys who use their meager earnings to buy things to sell at thrift shops, professional garage salers, hoarders, people who are trying to make their social security checks stretch, junk addicted hustlers, video game junkies, displaced otaku, retired policemen, crusty fishermen, treasure hunting aunties, and local farmers and artisans. There is nowhere else in Hawaii where you can mingle with such a wide array of real Hawai’i folk.
The Stadium was originally built for Hawaii’s AAA baseball team, The Hawai’i Islanders, but that didn’t work out and the Islanders moved away. The stadium is still there though despite calls to tear it down and build another over the past twenty years. And the marketplace is still there – as far as I can tell, this is the last regular marketplace for low dollar vendors since the International Marketplace and Dukes Lane have been gentrified and turned into yet another Waikiki Beverley Hills. The Aloha Stadium Swapmeet is a place to find art by the artists, people selling the contents of storage locker auctions, farmers selling produce, people selling discount produce from wholesalers, and as mentioned above – nearly everything else. What you generally won’t find at Aloha Stadium Swapmeet are guns or knives or weapons of any kind, fireworks or flammables, pornography, drugs or vaping, alcohol, or anything else that doesn’t fit with a family atmosphere.
So, go ahead, buy expensive produce and souvenirs at other places – or head to the Aloha Stadium Swapmeet and get them for the kama’aina price. The swap meet happens Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday (unless there is a game scheduled). You can show up as early as 6am but if you show up later than 10am, don’t expect to find any treasure or good apple bananas – those go early.
