10 Years of Foodland Farms Ala Moana: The Store That Changed the Way Hawai‘i Shops for Food

(Partner Content) From its ambitious beginnings to its vision for the future, Foodland Farms Ala Moana celebrates a decade of changing how Hawai‘i shops, eats and gathers.

When Foodland Farms Ala Moana opened its doors in 2016, it was more than the return of a familiar local grocer to Ala Moana Center. It was a new vision for what a grocery store could be.

Nearly a decade earlier, Foodland had closed its longtime Ala Moana location after more than five decades at the shopping center. When the company announced its return, it promised something different: a reimagined food shopping and dining experience that would bring together the things Hawai‘i loves most about food, from locally inspired products and prepared foods to restaurants, specialty offerings and a place to gather.

Ten years later, that vision has become part of the fabric of Honolulu’s food culture.

A New Kind of Foodland

The idea behind Foodland Farms Ala Moana was to blur the lines between grocery store, restaurant and culinary destination. The expansive flagship was designed to give shoppers not just more choices, but more reasons to become apart of the Foodland family.

From the beginning, the store brought together a full-service supermarket with an extensive selection of prepared, made-to-order and take-home-and-cook foods. Its culinary program was a major part of the concept, led by a team of local chefs, including Foodland Corporate Chef Keoni Chang.

And then there were the experiences within the store itself, specialty food counters, poke, chicken skins, pastries, coffee and more. Today, the location continues to combine everyday grocery shopping with food experiences, including The Bar by R. Field Wine Company and ELEVEN.

The thinking was simple but ambitious: Foodland Farms shouldn’t just be where you go to buy dinner. It could be part of the dinner.

Designed Around How Hawai‘i Eats

What made the Ala Moana store distinctive was its focus on food as an experience and on the people and products that make Hawai‘i’s food culture unique.

The store created space for local farmers, makers, chefs and creatives while introducing customers to new products and new ways of eating. It reflected an understanding that grocery shopping in Hawai‘i isn’t simply about filling a cart. It’s about discovering something new, picking up a favorite poke, finding the perfect ingredients for dinner, grabbing something ready to eat or meeting someone for a drink.

That spirit also fits into the larger Foodland philosophy established by founder Maurice J. “Sully” Sullivan: put customers first, remain locally rooted and build a company that is part of the community it serves.

Ten Years Later, What’s Next?

For Chef Keoni Chang, looking back at the last decade is also an opportunity to look forward.

In our conversation celebrating the 10th anniversary of Foodland Farms Ala Moana, Chang reflects on the thinking behind the original concept, the evolution of Hawai‘i’s food culture and what it means to continue innovating in a rapidly changing grocery landscape. The next 10 years, he says, aren’t simply about making the store bigger or adding more products. They’re about continuing to rethink what customers want—and finding new ways to connect food, community and experience. That could mean deeper partnerships with local farmers and makers, new culinary experiences, evolving technology and new ways for customers to discover food. At its heart, the goal remains the same: create a place that feels distinctly Hawai‘i while continuing to push forward.

Foodland has been serving Hawai‘i since 1948, when Sully Sullivan opened the state’s first modern supermarket at Market City. The Ala Moana store—Foodland‘s 11th location when it originally opened in 1959—has its own remarkable history with the shopping center.

Foodland Farms Ala Moana represents the next chapter of that story.

Ten years in, the experiment has become a destination. And if the first decade showed us anything, it’s that the future of grocery shopping may have a lot less to do with simply buying food—and a lot more to do with experiencing it.

Watch our conversation with Chairman & CEO Jenai S. Wall and Chef Keoni Chang as they look back at the creation of Foodland Farms Ala Moana and ahead to the next 10 years of food, innovation and community.