If you’ve eaten at Gina’s Korean BBQ or Formaggio’s, or even purchase craft products at Ben Franklin’s, then you know about the Market City Shopping Center on Kapiolani Blvd under the H1 freeway. Although they will not have a public celebration, this Saturday, an invitation only celebration for their 60th anniversary will be held at the lower parking lot level, where Ben Franklin and Formaggio’s is (Source: Honolulu Advertiser).

The event will be held between 6-8pm and will feature about 500 people. That’s pretty busy if you ask me.

And not for a quick trivia question. Where was the location of Hawaii’s FIRST Foodland supermarket? If you guess Market City Shopping Center, then you’re absolutely right! So where was the location of Hawaii’s first McDonald’s? Not Market City…go farther east…

That’s right. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Maui is now holds the highest gas prices in the nation at an average of $4 a gallon. In fact, somewhere in Hana the price was up to $4.55 per gallon of gasoline. How crazy is that? The national average is about $3.36 per gallon, and I’m sure it will be close to $4 sooner or later. That also means that if the national average rises, so will the Hawaii’s gas prices.

Driving around town, I noticed that gas prices for regular 87 octane was about $3.60 on average. Costco was selling their gas for $3.50 a gallon. I guess that’s not so bad, but they usually cut the competition by at least 15 cents, and usually by 20 cents. I guess they feel that most people don’t actually look at the price, but just trust that it’s much cheaper. Tony’s gas station which isn’t too far away, probably no more than a mile, was selling gas at the same price as Costco. And they both use Aloha gasoline…lucky for those who aren’t Costco customers.

Fortunately, my girlfriend and I both have cars that don’t use up a lot of gas…her Civic that pretty much gets only city driving, still pulls in a respectable 25mpgs. My Acura gets around 28mpgs, but that’s cause I drive farther on the weekends, so it gets a bit more mileage due to driving on the freeway. Nevertheless, we both get decent mileage. Our coworker gets 36mpgs on his Toyota Yaris, which is outstanding, and makes me think that the Prius might not bring in that much more for the premium you have to pay…and not to mention the maintenance.

Just watch out. Maui may be expensive, but Oahu isn’t that far behind. Might be time to change that SUV to a compact car no?

Since it’s opening on March 7th, Hawaii’s first full blown Nordstrom has been getting a lot of attention. I visited the Nordstrom located at the Ala Moana Center after the storm calmed down because one, I wanted to get parking, and two, it was just too crazy to be with so many people at the same time, just because it was a new place.

I have to say I was kind of impressed. Nordstrom is normally pretty expensive, so it’s not a place I would probably go to purchase things, but they did a pretty good job with the interior. What surprised me was two brands of clothes I didn’t think they were going to carry, which was Affliction (a lot of UFC fighters are sponsered and wear this clothing line and RVCA (pretty much use designs from various artists to support them). I own both clothing lines, and was very happy to see them there. Then again, the price was still pretty steep, with the Affliction costing around $55-70. But it was pretty cool to just see it there. Now there is another place to purchase Affliction clothing besides Blue Buddha on Kapiolani.

What was also pretty cool was the children’s section. Where they have the fitting room for the children, there was also a room for kids to play XBOX 360. This is a good place to have your kids just chill while you go off looking for clothes (well, one of you parents have to stay to keep an eye on them). Just offering something like that for kids to play was a cool idea.

We walked into the Cafe which was pretty much a cafeteria where you point at food, and the put it on your plate. It wasn’t too expensive, but still was more than I would normally pay. They have the cafe on the ground floor.

We visited one of the two e-bars, where they let you buy anything you want. Their menu didn’t look like they had more than 10 different items, but the lady who helped us said you could order any type of coffee beverage and they’d make it. Pretty cool if you ask me.

We did walk into the gelato bar, but didn’t buy any of it since there was a line. It looked pretty good, but they had limited flavors. If you want more flavors, I suggest going to Mondo Gelato on the Waikiki Beachwalk.

I guess Nordstrom is a good addition to the Ala Moana Center, since they cater a lot to the tourists who want to spend money, and the fact that Ala Moana has a lot more ritz-ier stores than any other shopping center on the island. Is it a cool place? Sure. Places to eat, e-bars to hang out, gelato for a date…it has it all. Would I purchase stuff there? Not likely, but it is a little more affordable than Neiman Marcus. Then again, they are both too expensive. Maybe after a few more raises…

For those of you who like up to the minute fashion and trends, head down to Blue Buddha at Restaurant Row.  Why?  Because all shirts and jeans are 50% off.  Yes, that means you can get brands like Affliction (popular now with UFC fighters), Monarchy, 7 Diamonds, etc. for 1/2 off.  So shirts that usually run about $50-60 are now $25-30.  Dress shirts are 25% off, which is still a good deal, but most of their dress shirts run about $75 and up.

So why the massive sale?  Well, they are going to relocate their very small Restaurant Row store to a mini mall on 1221Kapiolani Blvd Suite 111, across of the new Honolulu Design Center and next to Gyu-Kaku.  This trendy store is much bigger at the new location and also includes womens wear as well.  So what other brands are they selling?  For men, they store includes Affliction, Monarchy, Z-Brand, 3rd Born, Deeper Shade of Soul, Yellowman, English Laundry, 7 Diamonds, Falcon’s Eye and Plain Jane Couture.  Women will have the opportunity to shop for items by Akiko, Zoa, Caste, Miss Me, and the Paris Hilton Collection (Source: SMART Magazine).

I picked up two Affliction shirts myself, which was a grand total of $53 which included tax.  My girlfriend bought me one online for $55, so as you can see, this is a good buy.  Then again, I still think the one my girlfriend gave me is my favorite shirt. 

So go by as soon as you can before all the sizes or brands are gone.  They had a bunch of XL and XXL sizes for Affliction left, and a few M and S.  VERY little L sizes left…especially since I bought two of them.  If not, make sure you head down to their Kapiolani location for some stylish clothing.