Hygienic Store

It’s an old school store and a nice stop for simple stuff like drinks and snacks when you take a drive up to the North shore. Nothing fancy about it, but will do the job when you have cravings and thirsty as heck.

Hygenic Store is a staple of the Windward side. It’s been around forever and a day. Okay maybe not FOREVER, but I remember coming here as a small kid and my mom buying her tea cookies while we got Icees or ice cream :). I’m pretty sure they have changed owners along the way, but the tea cookies are still the same which is nice. I will usually stop by to buy an energy drink and tea cookies for my mom :) $ 4.99 for tea cookies and $ 1.99 for my Rockstars. Yes it’s cheaper at times at the 7 – 11 across the street, but its nice to support the smaller business too :)

I support local as much as I can, but if the owner himself isn’t willing to help or be nice then sorry but you lost my business. Should’ve just went to 7 – 11 across the street.

I just love the hygienic store! It seems like its practically been around forever.
To someone who’s never been there, it probably seems like nothing, but the memories that I have there are just priceless. There are your typical items there, chips, soda, juice, beer, a few toiletries, etc.
The one thing that I love about the hygienic store is that it’s never changed… ever, and that’s what makes this place so unique.

I remember coming here as a child for luaus as our family originally owned the original Hygienic Store. My dad would spend his childhood summer’s here catching ‘o’opu in the mountain stream and ride on horseback. Yup, the song «Ku’u Home O Kahalu’u» is based on what my dad (and then young Jerry Santos) would do with their friends and cousins.
I don’t remember much, but I clearly recall catching the bus with my grandpa from Kuliouou to Kahalu’u. Family from across the island would come and celebrate. They’d hire Chinese dragons to bless the place and I’d be freaked out and hide under the long Kraft paper-​lined luau tables while my grandma would laugh and try to coax me to sitting in her lap (but she’d always call the dragon near if I did!)
The store closed early during these celebrations, but the lua (bathroom) was inside. In the dark I’d be taken to use it, but not before passing the candy stand near the cashier. I so desperately wanted to take my heart’s content of candy and just run and hide and eat it all by myself. On our way out, my grandpa must of saw the tempted look in my eyes as we passed the candy stand once more. He allowed me to take just one item of my choice and I hesitated first (the place is closed, are we stealing, I thought), then snatched a box of grape ZotZ or roll of Violets (something purple I know). Before we left, he reached into his pocket and put the 15 cents onto the dark counter for the morning cashier.
This place still doesn’t look like much, but what it does represent, especially for our family, are loaded memories of catching ‘o’opu, riding horseback, family luaus, Chinese dragons and candy stands. Wonderful flashbacks of the times I spent with my grandpa. Me kealoha ku’u home o Kahalu’u.
#Yelp 365: ¹⁰⁹⁄₃₆₅

Really nothing special about this place. Without the fact that this place is a local land mark, it has the same dusty trinkets and can that you would find at any mom & pop operation. The location is great because on the weekends you can find me here grabbing a couple lau-​laus and a cold coconut at the holo holo truck that shares the same parking lot before heading to north shore. If you need a quick drink or some aspirin dusty aspirin before making your way to the north shore this is the spot for locals and tourist a like. Tourist get your cameras out! Like I said this is a great land mark it’s been around for ages:-)

5 stars for pure nostalgia.
Growing up a block away, I have been going to the hygienic store since I was about 6. While my shopping list has changed over the years (from candy and Icee’s as a kid, to chips and soda as a teen, and eventually alcohol and cigarettes later in life), not much about the store has changed. Even when Texaco, became Arco, and eventually 7 – 11, The hygienic store kept everything the way it was, and still stands to this day.
I will always stop by the Hygienic store first, before going across to 7 – 11.

I was in Kaneohe for a wedding, and I was in charge to keep one of my nieces who was a flower girl occupied and happy. She loved it here because of the snowcone thing that we got her mostly. It was a fun experience in itself, lots of local flavor here.

I live in Kahaluu, so I drive by the Hygienic Store all the time and regularly stop there. My son begs to go in for a treat all the time. Everyone’s friendly to me and my kids. I love that they took down all the cigarette and beer ads, so it’s just awesome orange walls that make a perfect backdrop for that kid-​and-​popsicle photo.
A bit of history my friend shared: the store was once part of a dairy called the Hygienic Dairy. After the dairy closed, the store changed its name to the Hygienic Store.

No way, I’m the first person to get to write this review? Awesome!
If you didn’t grow up on O’ahu, you’ll probably think this is a strange sounding name for a store. I still can’t figure out why they called it that… the name makes it sound like they must specialize in «sanitary» stuff” like toilet paper or tampons, which never seemed to be the case. Maybe I’ll never know why they chose the name… maybe that’s part of the draw to hygienic store — it’s got a little mystery behind it (OK I just looked up «hygienic» in the dictionary and as the stated definition is «conducive to good health; healthful; sanitary.» Hm… I guess beer, Icees candy and chips must be conducive to good health! Arrrright!)
If you did grow up here, you’ll know Hygienic Store is a historic landmark — like Matsumoto’s Shave Ice (I’m surprised they don’t have t-​shirts for sale). Nothing super fancy about this place, just a good old fashioned store to get a the aforementioned «health staples» plus a few groceries, etc. It’s like a slightly bus’ up version of 7 – 11, minus the fluorescent lighting, with a more down-​home country feel.
It is at a great location — right where Kahekili Hwy. and Kamehameha Hwy. converge. This place was a big part of my childhood, cause it’s where I’d have to wait for the school bus to take me on the 30 minute drive to Kamehameha while I was in Elementary School. I don’t even remember if the store was open that early in the AM, when my Mom, sisters and I would screech into the parking lot, trying to get to Mr. Hubbard’s school bus in time. But after school, I did buy a good amount of candy here, (I remember getting Pop Rocks from this place!).
There are lots of little places around Hygienic store that have opened up and closed down in the last 3 decades or so, and Hygienic store is like the ONE thing around that area that’s still standing! I saw they just painted it bright orange and it actually looks pretty cool. Long live Hygienic Store.
Me Ke Aloha Ku’u Home ‘O Kahalu’u!