ABC Stores in Hawaii are everywhere in Waikiki. Stand on any corner for ninety seconds and you will see one. Walk a block and you will probably pass a second. The running joke among visitors is that you cannot see one ABC Store without seeing another, and on parts of Kalākaua and Kūhiō Avenues that is literally true. The chain is dense enough in the Waikiki resort core that travelers often use it as a landmark. Most first-time visitors react to that density in one of two ways. They either walk past every ABC on principle, assuming a chain that ubiquitous must be a tourist trap, or they wander in once and end up using ABC Stores for breakfast, sunscreen, beach toys, and souvenirs, then walk away wondering why their food budget evaporated. Neither approach is right. ABC Stores are a tool. Used the right way, for specific things in specific moments, they are genuinely useful. Used as a substitute for a real grocery store or a real souvenir shop, they will quietly drain your wallet. Here’s the difference.

ABC Stores is a family-owned Hawaii convenience chain founded by Sidney and Minnie Kosasa, who opened their first store on Kalākaua Avenue in 1964. The chain expanded as Waikiki tourism boomed, locking in dense Waikiki real estate while the resort strip was still being built out, and today operates more than 50 locations across the Hawaiian Islands plus a smaller footprint in Las Vegas, Guam, and Saipan. Their corporate site is the canonical source for the current store locator and current hours. What that means in practice: ABC is not a national 7-Eleven equivalent and not a Hawaiian copy of CVS. It is a homegrown Hawaii business with a specific muscle for the Waikiki visitor. The product mix is tuned for someone walking in from a hotel. Most stores devote substantial space to impulse-buy travel goods like sunscreen, water, snacks, and basic beach gear, with grocery-adjacent items alongside them. The food side runs from chips and candy to fresh local-style snacks like Spam musubi and bento boxes.

A short list of items where ABC Stores are either the best or the most convenient option. None of these are why ABC will hurt your budget. They are why we still stop in. Spam musubi. Hawaii’s most beloved portable snack is a slice of grilled Spam pressed onto a block of rice and wrapped in a strip of nori. It turns up in nearly every ABC Store deli case, typically priced in the $2.50 to $3.50 range. It travels well to the beach, fills you up, and is genuinely a local food rather than a tourist gimmick. We have a full primer on Hawaii’s plate-lunch and snack culture if you want the broader context. Fresh deli food at the larger ABCs. Some of the bigger Waikiki ABC locations have full deli counters with poke, plate lunches, fried chicken, and bentos made on-site. Quality varies a lot by store, and it is no substitute for a real Honolulu poke shop, but the bar is higher than most travelers expect from a convenience chain. Hawaii food gifts. Mac nut chocolates, locally roasted Kona coffee, Big Island honey, Maui-made jams. ABC carries the major Hawaii food-gift brands at convenience-store markup. That is fine if you are buying one bag of Hawaiian Host chocolates on the way to the airport, but bad math if you are stocking up for a dozen coworkers. Costco, Foodland, or a farmers market will be cheaper for volume. Bottled water and basic snacks at hotel-room scale. Buying a case of water from ABC for your stay will run you more than a stop at a real grocery store. If you only want one or two bottles for the day, ABC is reasonable and within walking distance of every Waikiki hotel. Same logic for sunscreen-stick top-ups and granola bars. The thing you forgot. Phone charger, reading glasses, cheap rashguard, beach towel, ibuprofen. ABC is the airport-stand equivalent for vacation supplies. You pay more than you would at a Walmart on the mainland, but you can get to the store in five minutes from your hotel room.

The fastest way to blow your Hawaii budget is to use ABC Stores as your grocery store or your main souvenir shop. A few categories where the markup is real and the alternatives are clearly better. Anything you’d put in a vacation-rental kitchen. Bread, milk, eggs, fresh produce, pasta, condiments. Stock that at Foodland, Times Supermarkets, Safeway, or Costco. ABC’s grocery-adjacent items exist for someone needing one item right now from a hotel room, not for stocking a five-day stay. We’ve written a full Hawaii grocery store guide for that strategy. Big-ticket souvenirs. The aloha shirts, ukuleles, and jewelry at ABC are mostly imported tourist-grade products. If you want a real aloha shirt that Hawaii residents wear on Aloha Friday, look at Reyn Spooner or Tori Richard. If you want a real ukulele, visit a Hawaii music shop. ABC is fine for a $15 magnet or a postcard. It is not the place for the gift you’ll still have in ten years. Premium alcohol. ABC stocks beer, wine, and spirits at convenience markup. Imported wines and high-end spirits will run noticeably more than at a supermarket. Hawaii-made beers (Maui Brewing, Kona Brewing) and local spirits are sometimes priced reasonably for singles, but for anything more than one bottle, a supermarket is cheaper. Sunscreen for the entire trip. ABC sunscreen costs more per ounce than a real drugstore, and most Hawaii visitors burn through more sunscreen than they expect. Buy a reef-safe, mineral-based sunscreen on the mainland and pack it. Maui’s expanded sunscreen rules now ban most non-mineral sunscreens, so bringing the right product saves you both money and a hunt. See our Maui sunscreen-law explainer for current details.

ABC Stores generally do not have public restrooms. The footprint of most stores is too small. If you are walking Waikiki and need a restroom, the public facilities at Kūhiō Beach Park are your most reliable option, followed by the restrooms inside the major shopping complexes (Royal Hawaiian Center, International Market Place, Waikiki Beach Walk). Your own hotel lobby works too. Don’t count on ABC. Hours vary by store and have tightened. Many Waikiki-core ABCs still open early and run late, but the historic “open until 1 a.m.” model is no longer universal. A check of the official locator shows many Waikiki stores now close at 11 p.m. or midnight, especially the smaller side-street locations. Check the official store locator for the specific store nearest your hotel before you count on a midnight ice-cream run. If you’re flying in late, a 24-hour gas-station convenience store is a more reliable backup.

The pattern that saves visitors the most money on a Waikiki trip is roughly this. On day one, after you check in, do a small Foodland or Times run for the breakfast and snack staples for your room: water by the case, milk, cereal or pastries, fruit, beer if you drink, ice. For a stay of more than a couple of nights, that single trip will save you real money against hotel-mini-bar-or-ABC-only behavior. Getting to a real grocery store is easier with a car, especially if your hotel is at the eastern end of Waikiki. If you don’t already have one, Discount Hawaii Car Rental is the booking tool we recommend across the site. Factor in your hotel’s daily parking fee before deciding whether a single-day rental for a grocery and errand run pencils out for your trip length. Then use ABC the way it is designed to be used. The Spam musubi at 8 a.m. before the beach. The forgotten reef-safe sunscreen on day three. The ice and a local beer when you decide to stay at the beach for sunset. The bag of mac-nut chocolates for the colleague at the airport. The cheap pair of slippers (rubber sandals, what the mainland calls “flip-flops”) when yours snap on the lava rock. Used that way, ABC Stores stop being a tourist trap and become what they actually are for residents and frequent visitors: the most convenient option in Waikiki for a small set of specific things, owned by a Hawaii family, and densely placed enough that the store is always exactly as far away as you need it to be.