Do Locals Overspend? A Closer Look at Hawaii's Consumer Culture.

so we're here at Al Moana Shopping Center and I wanted to talk about whether Hawaii people are in general Spenders or Savers it was a topic that me and my wife had talked about in our marriage video but the footage had to be cut because it wasn't really related to marriage but I thought it was an interesting topic as just a standalone topic so knowing what you know about Hai people what do you think Hai people are Spenders or Savers Spenders hwai I think from what I've experienced so far since moving here I've just seen so many people shopping buying gifts and giv to others yeah and um just a lot of craft fairs that goes around throughout the year but why do you think white people like to buy and shop at those places so much what like craft fair like craft fairs or just like in general I think craft fairs are probably because um they want to support local especially they like to shop out those craft fairs and find those unique items well I think that's a good point you brought up that you like to find like unique things I definitely think that Hoy people are in general Spenders and it it it's kind of ironic to me because we live in the most expensive place in the country and yet Hoy people in general just love to spend money for some reason I I don't know how the math works out sometimes for some of these households maybe it just doesn't but I'm always surprised that we're a very consumer driven place and I think it comes in three three categories and you can chime in um what you think about these so the first is eating out oh yes I think Hawai people love to eat out not just because the food is good but I don't know I just feel like they just like to default to eating out a lot I think that's just a wave to um just socialize and you know spend time with other people like just eating food and just eating food is just part of the culture I feel like from a more maybe more I don't know practical standpoint I think a lot of people eat out because of our work schedule I know growing up here my parents didn't get home till late and so instead of going home through traffic and then you have to cook dinner it was just easier to pick up food on the way and I think that's a big reason why a lot of people like to eat out it's just lack of time lack of energy and it's just a lot easier it feels like to to buy food and also I think Hawaii people like to try new things I think knowing where to eat knowing different kinds of foods is really important here like socially so if you've eaten a lot of places if you can recommend a lot of places to eat it it sort of increases a lot of social power that you may have my one hand's getting tired so we got to go on this side the next area I think is the shopping like you were describing like I think people here love to shop my mom loves to shop she goes several times a week and not just for like essential things but for like I don't know like gifts for Rand I mean she loves Ross she loves Target you know she'll go to those St stores like every week and then of course she buys stuff and then she got to return it cuz not everything she buys is good like she be like oh you want this and we're like no no we don't want it or oh doesn't really fit the boys and then she has to go and return it I guess like in General stores like just general shopping like cuz you know we're we're walking by all these like luxury Brands these are not stores that everybody can afford they're not really catered towards like local like local people like I don't see a lot of local people coming into some of these stores what is it about like just general in because we like to shop right I and you know this is speaking from the guy who has I don't know how many of these hats and I have watches I think for me is just like knowing what the trendy items are and like and H H how are you informed of the trends oh I just look on social media yeah but then that just applies for the food too cuz all these food critiques or whoever Instagram or they will go and post oh this new new restaurant has opened and B and that's how people hears about them right so it's the power of the social media influencers right that's social media that's how much it plays Yeah in our life nowadays we can go that way oh speaking of watch o oh speaking of watch it's nice watch anything else about shopping women like to shop women like to shop in General yeah you see I don't see a lot of men shopping I think some guys but I think I think guys spend their money in oh wait look want to meet you wait oh remember we're supposed to eat here for um it says 12 but it did say it wasn't open oh maybe they changed or what or maybe maybe that's just an old sign and and the last thing I recognize in a lot of locals in terms of their spending and definitely not savers is a lot of locals like to go to Vegas they like to gamble and that that that's fine that's that's wonderful I've only been to Vegas one time so you know I can't really speak to that but I know people that go to Vegas two three times a year at least they get to stay at the Cow for free of course and they just have a great time and that's just how they spend their extra money that's like their vacation I know what do you think about other ways that locals spend money like that no I think it's understandable I mean we live like travel not just Vegas travel because we live in such a small island there's a certain things that we can do and then when it comes to a point of like okay I've done everything that's on this island okay you know you can't stay here forever and I think traveling definitely allows people to explore outside of you know this small island which is totally understandable like well everybody loves Japan of course they like traveling to Japan yeah so many many people went to Japan this past like 6 months I would say I bet Japan was crowded and packed with tourists and visitors yeah I mean there's so many people that went went shopping especially they bought a lot of stuff the first they ate a lot of food yeah because I mean it was closed right it was shut down for such a long time cuz the dollar is doing really good too right so it makes sense I think it's very interesting to take a look at our spending habit and also our saving habits because you know when you when you live in such an expensive place you need to know how to either make more money or manage the money that you have you know because the salaries aren't as high here we're going to have to learn how to really manage and control the money that we we do have I know as a public school kid I wish that they had taught us financial literacy things like how to write a check even though I know people don't write checks but like just how to manage money how to make sure that you can invest or save just doing a general budget I think is huge because I think most adults don't even live with a budget right like before we got married you never ever did a budget right yeah not too tight like how we do it yeah and and I think just keeping track of everything like it doesn't necessarily save you any money like you don't make more money by doing like a budget we go this way but I think by just having a budget you are able to keep track of where all your money goes and then you might be like oh wow I spent a lot of money on Starbucks do you have anything else you want to say no but I think as we get older you just have to be more I guess be aware of what you spend on money especially when you're raising kids the cost that we have to consider for the the the school and you know yeah and it's something that made me Rec consider okay what's Worth to spend money I don't exactly know how but then like um when I went back when I went back back to Japan and when I came back here I sto using so much money on food and I honestly don't know why like I would just blow out all my allowance money on like you know eat outs maybe you're just maybe you're just changing yeah and and knowing how much joy it gives to see how much money is growing in my my own allowance envelope it's very it's very um motivating too I mean not that I have a goal to save up to buy certain items or anything but it's just um you got to just think to yourself what's worth or not to save up and then even if you're buying a big purchase perhaps like is it worth it sometimes you know we we often complain about our our lifestyle how expensive things are how things aren't affordable and sometimes when we look at our own spending choices though it doesn't necessarily reflect that type of responsibility you know like if you're going to complain about how Hawaii is so unaffordable but then every two years you go out and buy a new truck or you know you got to have the newest you know Tesla vehicle or all these other things while sometimes it may be essential is it really essential to have that one and so I think it's just important for us as local people because it's so expensive again you either out earn the cost of living or you got to figure out a way to manage the money that you're you're you're currently able to earn and I think both would be great but the latter being a lot more important because that way you always live within your means no matter where you live no matter how much money you make you're able to budget and just think about short-term but also long-term financial goals and I think that's very important something that is very hard to do but I wish they would emphasize it more in school because these kids when they come out of school they don't know like well they don't know a lot of things but like you know they they're going to live with Mom and Dad for the rest of their life and that's fine for some for some people but I wish that we would know how to budget and also speaking for myself here as someone who graduated from public school like I wish I would have known how to budget I didn't learn how to budget until after grad school like even maybe after that I didn't I didn't know cuz I didn't have to right I always made more than I needed but once you start you know having a family you start being more responsible once you start buying a place or thinking about buying a place like you do got to budget and make make sure that you have enough so you ready to go outside are you ready to walk around but oh you want snack okay snack time all right well thanks for watching and hell hello hello H from Hawai

Channel: Hello From Hawaii

Views: 9,781

Keywords: living in hawaii, Life in hawaii, what is it like in Hawaii, Moving to hawaii, hello from hawaii, hawaii, oahu, honolulu, hawaii life, life on hawaii, hawaiian life

Id: 4rwqh_FaNT8

Length: 10min 58sec (658 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 16 2024