Ben Franklin Craft Stores Hawaii

Market City Ben Franklin at 2919 Kapiolani Boulevard, Kapahulu.

The yarn wall at the Market City Shopping Center (Kapahulu) Ben Franklin

First in my Hawaii fun/crafty shopping guide: Ben Franklin Crafts of Hawaii! Although there are one or two stores per island for the Big Island, Maui and Kauai, there are four stores here on Oahu: One in Kapahulu, one in Mapunapuna/ Moanalua, one in Pearl City and one in Kailua. (Click here for a list of the stores and their addresses). Originally a larger chain from the Continental United States, Ben Franklin Crafts Hawaii has become a local crafting institution and carries hard to find local craft items. Locally-themed rubber stamps, papers, lei-making supplies and instructions, clay and netting flower making instructions, washi and origami, clover products, imported Japanese beads and much more are trademarks of these stores; each store has different feature sections too. For example, the Ben Franklin at the Market City Shopping center in Kapahulu (a few minutes outside of Waikiki) has a large scrapbooking section, while the Ben Franklin in Mapunapuna has a large beading section. And of course, all Ben Franklin's carry lots of yarn (my fav!)and they most definitely have the widest color range of Red Heart yarn in the Islands, albeit at a more expensive price. They don't carry too many novelty yarns, and their wool yarn is quite expensive.

Although it doesn't even begin to tap into what they carry in their actual stores, Ben Franklin Crafts Hawaii does have an online shop here, though I've never bought anything using the online shop.

Ben Franklin's prices aren't the cheapest, though they do carry a wide range of products as well as some really cool items that are sometimes hard to find here in Hawaii; particularly for the serious crafter. Just don't expect to pay what you would in a JoAnns/Michael's/AC Moore. And again, they also carry distinctively local/Hawaiian craft items, so if you are looking to take some unique crafty items home with you, I'd definitely recommend Ben Franklin as a top choice! In any case, a crafting emergency can usually be solved by a quick trip to your local Ben Franklin :)