Food Shopping near the Makiki District of Honolulu

I know everyone is waiting for the food shopping entry in the blog for Honolulu (not), and I won't disappoint you. This mathematical army of one definitely marches on its stomach. I had an apartment in the Makiki district of Honolulu, at the corner of Pikoii and Wilder. Honolulu is divided up into relatively small districts (Waikiki is the most well known to tourists). Locals tell me that there is a real local flavour to life on the Islands. It is true that they are not large and traffic is heavy enough that getting around is slow even if you wanted to travel outside your area. So, in my area I shopped for food at three main places:

1. Safeway at the corner of Pikoii and Beretania. This seems pretty dull and in some ways it was. I could use my Safeway card from BC for discounts. What was interesting was that overall food prices were double that in Vancouver. It makes sense when you think that everything has to be shipped out there, and Hawaii is not close. It is interesting that locals praise stores like Safeway and Costco for coming to the Island and making prices "reasonable" to what they were before. If you can't stand patronizing Safeway there is a more local Foodland next door on Beretania with almost identical selection and pricing. 
2. Makiki Farmers Market at the corner of Wilder and Mikiki, Thursday evenings. This was just a few blocks away, on my bus route back from the University. Small market but all kinds of local fresh fruit and vegetables. I tried fresh pineapple, apple bananas, mangoes, long squash, Thai basil, all kinds of lettuce and tomatoes from this market - all great. Prices were not low, but competitive with Safeway and all local and fresh. 
3. Hawaii Farmers Market at the corner of King and Ward (in the parking lot of the Blaisdell centre), Wednesday evenings. This was a bit father away, but on my way home from the fuel cell test facility on the Hawaii Energy Corporation site. This is a larger market, with local coffees and fresh fish (except the week I was planning to get fish there). 

Another place you might want to check out for specialty liquors is Tamuras on Waialae (which seems to be the main street in Honolulu for locals). This is a bit of a trip outside the Makiki district. I stopped there on the way back from the Kahala Mall (which I went to on the city bus) where there is a Whole Foods, which I also recommend as a good place to shop for food.