Day 7: The Aloha Stadium Swap Meet

May 13, 2012

Today the Intercultural Communications class is on it’s own. All of the other classes left us to go to church near Waikiki and on a hike.

Our class stayed behind to have a REAL cultural experience.

The experience started with the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet (http://www.alohastadiumswapmeet.net/).

The swap meet was much different than I expected. I thought that it would be more of a bartering type of market like the ones that I’ve experience in Jamaica and the Bahamas. I was wrong.

This market had fixed prices, which wasn’t what I was expecting, but items sold were what I expected.

The swap meet had about five common tents:

1. Jewelry

2. Luggage

3. Wooden carvings

4. T-shirts

5. Some sort of health food

Although the tents had a common theme the merchants weren’t all the same. I’m pretty sure that all the ethnic groups of Hawaii were being represented.

Another thing that made these merchants different was that they were not pushy. In other countries the merchants are very pushy and ready to give you a “deal.” That was not the case at the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet, the merchants offered a greeting and were around to help, but that was all.

The people shopping at the market were for the most part, what I expected.  I was planning it being a tourist event…I was right. There were probably a few locals here and there but mostly there were tourists.

It is the perfect place for tourists because pretty much every shop has souvenirs.

I even bought a few.

In addition to buying souvenirs, I bought coconut milk to try. It wasn’t my favorite drink, but hey, when in Hawaii do as the Hawaiians do!

The Swap Meet was a different experience than any other market that I’ve been to.