This Unique Costco Location Doubles As A Food Truck Hot Spot

Costco locations don't vary too much — there's usually a huge warehouse building with an equally large parking lot, and maybe some other retailers nearby. One warehouse, however, is neighbors with numerous food vendors set up in large-windowed trucks. We're talking about the Maui, Hawaii location on Haleakala Highway, and if you visit, you can not only get your infamously cheap food court hot dog on your way out (or the relatively new Italian calzone, if you prefer), but then cross the street and visit not one, but two food truck parks in adjacent lots.

One of these parks is known as Plate Lunch Marketplace, and it sits across the street from Costco's gas station. The marketplace proved so successful that another one popped up across the street from the warehouse's food court. Both parks offer customers a diverse array of Hawaiian, Hawaiian-fusion, and international cuisine.

Some favorites at Plate Lunch Marketplace include Thai Mee Up, a popular truck that serves up delicious Thai food and noodle dishes, and Like Poke?, a poke bowl-themed truck that makes them up fresh. From the other park, you can grab a pick-me-up at Kraken Coffee, vegan dishes from Earth Aloha Eats, and a wide variety of fish and meat dishes from Da Nani Pirates.

There's a reason these Maui food truck parks can coexist peacefully next to a Costco, even though the big-box store has its own food court. We posit that Costco likely appreciates the influx of customers the food truck parks bring basically right to its door. After all, tourists and locals alike, after grabbing a bite from Thai Mee Up, might want to see if Costco is carrying its tropical-inspired bakery treat Mayorca Suprema (guava sweet rolls), which has sold primarily at Hawaiian locations.

While food trucks rose to prominence in the early 2000s throughout the contiguous 48 states, they've played a key role in Hawaii's culinary scene for decades. They first appeared there in the 1970s, and the people running the trucks (or vans, in those days), were known as manapua men, with manapua referring to the char siu buns these entrepreneurs sold. These eventually became part of the blanket term by which they're still known today.

Manapua men and their trucks quickly gained popularity thanks to their diverse cuisine, local ingredients, cheap prices (even today, they sell some of the most cost-efficient meals in Hawaii), and mobility — since they're on wheels, they can set up shop anywhere. Today, they're still beloved by both locals and tourists for these same reasons.