Hukilau Marketplace offers unique shopping opportunities  

Our designers and PCC team have assembled a fantastic variety of shops, kiosks and local, independent vendors that provide a spectrum of retail gift items, souvenirs, and regional products not readily available anywhere else — all encompassed in a beautiful new setting. The retro theme of old Laie runs through the plaza and is reflected in the design of the facilities and signage. The Hukilau Marketplace combines a delightful mix of PCC gift shops and independent vendors — most of them from the surrounding communities — in a mix of air-conditioned buildings and small kiosks.

The PCC retail team has done a terrific job merchandising the larger shops. For example, you can find Hawaiian hula skirts and Polynesian-themed smart-phone covers in Goo’s Old Plantation Store . . . or home décor items with a Polynesian twist in the well-appointed Hapa Home store. You can also relax in a wooden rocking chair on Hapa Home’s wide lanai.

The Goo name pays tribute to the late Charles C.K. “Charlie” Goo (1915–2010) who, along with his wife and five children, ran a colorful country store in Laie from 1955 until he retired 25 years later.

Another section of the shop honors the late Thomas Ha’aheo Au (1913–1991.) As a boy he earned the nickname “Uncle Five Cents” for his ability to retrieve coins tourists threw into a local swimming spot all the locals called the Beauty Hole. Many of the kids learned to swim there using coconuts as floaters.

Au eventually grew into the “uncle” part of his nickname. He also taught himself to play the Hawaiian steel guitar, and shared his talent as a PCC musician until he passed away.

Our resort and tropical wear store is appropriately named Aunty Nona’s Tropical Threads for Aunty Nona Warner, a Hawaiian woman from our community who for almost five decades worked in the PCC’s Seamstress department as the master cutter. She and her sister stitchers created many thousands of PCC uniforms and costumes over all those years. Laie’s Logan family, the late Sam Choy Sr., and Aunties Emily Enos and Emily Kaopua are also similarly recognized.

The Hukilau Marketplace also includes our PCC Ticketing Office and Customer Service Counter. The area is open free to the public from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. (closed on Sundays). Parking is also free. We hope to see you here.

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Story and pictures by Mike Foley

Mike Foley, who has worked off-and-on

at the Polynesian Cultural Center since

1968,  has been a full-time freelance

writer and digital media specialist since

2002, and had a long career in marketing

communications and PR before that. He

learned to speak fluent Samoan as a

Mormon missionary before moving to Laie

in 1967 — still does, and he has traveled

extensively over the years throughout

Polynesia and other Pacific islands. Foley

is mostly retired now, but continues to

contribute to various PCC and other media.