Store provides more variety in offerings found on Maui | News, Sports, Jobs

WAILUKU – Come Wednesday, Maui residents will not only have a new Foodland store but will be treated to many firsts on Maui and in the state in Foodland’s products and food selections.

Foodland Super Market Ltd. will open its newest and Maui’s seventh corporate family store, Foodland Kehalani, in the Kehalani Village Center in Wailuku.

The 35,000-square-foot store will offer newly unveiled foods for the company, including char siu and kalbi chicken along with new Spam musubi varieties, including Sriracha (spicy), and a kim chee bar, now offered only at one store on Oahu.

Foodland corporate chef Keoni Chang said the new Kehalani store will treat Maui customers to the best in Foodland products and services in the locally owned and operated store chain.

“Maui’s going to be the best and the newest,” he said last week as vendors and workers stocked shelves and priced items around him.

Foodland Kehalani will boast one of the chain’s larger produce sections and delis, with 35 varieties of salads. The store will feature an R. Field Wine Co. section, with specialty cheeses, cured meats, wines and chocolates. The only other R. Field on Maui is at Foodland Farms in Lahaina. The store will offer customers full-service seafood, meat, bakery and floral departments. An American Savings Bank location is inside the store.

Adjacent to the store, with a separate entrance, is The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. It will provide motorists quick service with a drive-thru, a first for a corporate coffee chain on Maui. The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf stores in Hawaii are under the umbrella of the Foodland family of companies. Maui’s only other location is in Wailea.

Foodland Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer Jenai Wall said the company is opening its newest store at Kehalani because Wailuku has various developments and homes nearby.

“We see it as a growing community,” Wall said last week at the new store.

Foodland stores set up shop in areas that are growing, she said. Overall, on a per-store basis, Maui’s stores have been doing well financially, she added.

Wall attributed Foodland’s success on Maui to its customers and its people.

“It’s hard to believe it has been 44 years since Foodland opened its first store on Maui,” Wall said in a news release.

The first Maui Foodland was on the corner of Kaahumanu Avenue and Kahului Beach Road, a short distance from the current Foodland Kaahumanu, store officials said.

“And while much has changed in our community and stores since then, our commitment to taking care of our customers and providing them with a great place to shop remains the same,” Wall added.

Foodland Super Market Ltd. was founded in 1948 by Wall’s father, the late Maurice J. “Sully” Sullivan. It was the first supermarket in Hawaii, company officials said. The company employs more than 2,500 people at its 33 Foodland, Sack N Save and Foodland Farms stores on four islands.

The Kehalani Foodland has 75 employees, of which 50 have transferred from other markets on Maui.

Its manager, Vaughn Hamai, transferred from Foodland Kaahumanu.

Foodland Kehalani has raised the bar on many of its supermarket offerings. For example, it has a refrigerated case full of cheeses that range from good, better and best variety of cheeses, many with titles never heard of before to the average cook.

Wall said that with the rise of the cable food networks, many foodies may seek out specialty types of items.

“There is a greater interest (in different foods) than ever before. They want to try new things. Pushing the envelope gives them more options,” Wall said.

And for the more skilled cooks and the adventurous, the R. Field Wine Co. sells high-end deli products such as mascarpone and black-hoofed pig meat (the pigs were raised on acorns). Also offered are sauces from celebrity chef Mario Batali, wines in various price ranges and cigars.

Pat Jennings, specialty food buyer for R. Field, said Maui specialty retailers are featured not only throughout the store but at R. Field.

For example, Maui Fruit Jewel (gourmet fruit candies), Maui Pasta Co. (which supplies pasta to Mama’s Fish House and Casanova restaurants) and Wow Wow Lemonade will all have a place at R. Field.

While smaller local vendors may not consider approaching Foodland for a spot in its stores, Wall said they shouldn’t be afraid to make a pitch.

“The benefit for any producer is they get exposure in a company like us,” she said.

The produce section will feature many local vendors, such as Yee’s Orchard in Kihei for mangoes and Escobedo Farms in Kula for strawberries. The section will include organic fruits and vegetables as well.

Chang said that while Foodland Kehalani will have specialty and gourmet items, along with many other new products, it will still offer everything available at other Foodland stores.

But one thing the other Maui stores don’t have is a kim chee bar.

Chang said residents like kim chee, and it works well with the store’s seafood counter with 30 to 40 varieties of poke.

While there are many good varieties of kim chee in bottles, Chang said, Foodland wanted to bring the experience to life by letting customers self-serve their own helpings of kim chee that will be made of various cabbages, cucumber and daikon, or white radish, and other varieties.”You look at it, you feel like you are in Korea,” Chang said of the bar that will be up the week of July 14. “It fits perfect with all the things we like to eat.”

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.

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