Inside a restored wing of the Old Waialua Sugar Mill on Oahu’s North Shore, Back in the Day Hawaii Vintage turns nearly four decades of personal collecting into a browsable time capsule of island style. Founder Etsuko Carper spent 37 years gathering vintage aloha wear, retro Hawaiiana clothing, and mid-century home goods long before she ever opened a storefront, and that lifetime of hunting shows in the depth and variety of what fills the racks, shelves, and display cases here. Shoppers can expect vintage Hawaiian shirts, dresses, and textiles alongside decorative pieces, barkcloth, ceramics, and small household items that once furnished island homes decades ago, the kind of finds that collectors of Hawaiiana specifically travel to Waialua to track down.
The setting itself is part of the draw. The Old Waialua Sugar Mill, which operated from 1865 until its closure in 1996, once anchored one of Oahu’s most productive sugar plantations, and the surrounding grounds have since been repurposed into a small cluster of shops, studios, and food vendors that give the North Shore town a second life as a creative hub. Back in the Day occupies space in the JC Building at 67-106 Keaohanui Street, tucked among the mill’s old industrial architecture, so a visit here doubles as a walk through a piece of Oahu plantation history even before a customer picks up a single item.
Regular hours are limited but predictable. The shop is open Fridays from noon to 4pm and Saturdays from 9am to 4pm, with private appointments available by emailing the store directly for anyone who cannot make those windows. Saturday visits carry an extra incentive, since a farmers market runs right next door from 8:30am to 1pm, making it easy to pair a morning of vintage shopping with fresh produce and local food stalls in one trip out to Waialua. Twice a month on a Saturday, the shop also expands into a pop-up yard sale, inviting multiple outside vendors to set up alongside the regular inventory, which means the selection genuinely changes from one visit to the next rather than sitting static on the same racks.
What sets this shop apart from a typical secondhand store is the specificity of its focus. Rather than general resale, Back in the Day curates specifically around Hawaiiana and island vintage, built largely from one collector’s decades of personal acquisition rather than mass consignment, giving the inventory a coherence and point of view that larger thrift operations rarely match. The space also carries a creative touch beyond the merchandise itself, with artwork throughout the store contributed by art director Mari Nakane, adding another layer of North Shore character to the shopping experience.
For anyone researching Oahu’s vintage and antique scene, visitors interested in aloha shirts, retro Hawaiian textiles, and plantation-era home goods, or simply looking for a reason to explore the North Shore beyond its beaches, Back in the Day Hawaii Vintage offers a tightly curated, single-collector selection inside a genuine piece of Waialua’s industrial past. Between the biweekly pop-up sales, the adjacent farmers market, and a building that once processed sugar for well over a century of island commerce, this is a stop that rewards both dedicated collectors and casual browsers alike. Back in the Day Hawaii Vintage is a 37-years-in-the-making vintage Hawaiiana boutique inside Waialua’s historic sugar mill, open Friday and Saturday, with pop-up yard sales twice a month and a farmers market right outside its door.
