There I was, minding my own business trying to decide between the hibiscus print in red or bright blue, the halter top or the button front blouse when a loud choir of angels pronounced, "Ah-LO-HAAAA!" causing me to jump from my decision making temporarily until I realized it was only the Hilo Hattie's staff just trying to make a newcomer feel right at home. Their robust greeting is as regular as rainbows in Kapalua, as ubiquitous as whales breaching in the straits, as innocent and naïve as Hawaii herself and after an hour or two it won't bother you at all.
After a dark period in time, when Elvis had left the building and most Hawaiiana had been officially designated as cheap, commercial, trashy kitsch, the sort of thing fingered jokingly at garage sales and found in your Uncle's pine paneled basement covered in dust, a great and wonderful force emerged. The force was known as "retro-chic" and from that day hence all the marvelous island-produced items are in vogue again and to be revered forever from this day forward.
Okay, so it's not as mythic a history as my exaggerations, but Hilo Hattie's almost is. Just try walking through these spacious aisles and not pick up dozens of items you imagine a friend back home would delight in (the quilted, appliqued potholders especially). Try to pass by the profuse selection of Hawaiian shirts and dresses and not imagine the day when Aloha Friday is understood on the mainland for all its original implications. I dare you to walk past the smell of pure, aromatic Kona coffee and not pick up a pack. Sample those chocolate covered macadamia nuts and then pass them by. You just try leaving the beautiful tapas cloth photo albums and journals on the shelves where they belong. Go ahead, stick your pictures of paradise into some shoebox in the back of your closet instead!
I promise you, as ridiculously gauche as you might have thought those little charms of whales, fish, iguanas and turtles were before you got here to see the creatures in person, to share their essence in the grand universal cosmic wonder of paradise, you will want to buy one now to wear around your neck or ankle or wrist. You will gaze at it happily, perhaps in the middle of a meeting or traffic jam, as it continues to accompany you through life carrying with it the memories and awareness of all that is simple and beautiful and childlike and pure in the best way possible. Like Hawaii herself and Hilo Hattie's selection of kitsch souvenirs.