Juneau’s Costco might be the smallest in the world, but it has an outsized impact on many outlying Southeast Alaska communities that rely on it for supplies.
However, a soon-to-be change in its shipping services is expected to make it more difficult and expensive for small businesses to get products to their towns.
For years, Juneau’s Costco has offered a specialized shipping service for members in outlying communities in Southeast that many small business owners relied on. They say the service allowed their businesses to order pallets of various products assembled by Costco employees, ready to be shipped out from Juneau via ferry or barge to their towns to be resold.
But that’s about to change.
An email from Juneau Costco’s management went out last month to numerous Southeast Alaska businesses that use the service. It stated that, beginning on June 7, the Juneau Costco location would no longer offer its specialized shipping service. Instead, customers can order full-size pallets of individual products. The email stated that the customized service was no longer logistically sustainable due to “current physical limitations and staffing.”
Costco management declined to comment or answer KTOOʼs follow-up questions regarding the change. But other people had a lot to say.
“It’s a really sad situation,” said Sue Thompson, the owner of Angoon Trading Company. It’s a general store located in the village on Admiralty Island, southwest of Juneau. She said she’s been utilizing the service at Costco for two decades, and now she’s very worried about losing the service.
“It does have a huge impact,” she said. “Reason being, our village only consists of like 350 people, and there’s not a lot of work, there’s not a lot of jobs here, so when I can utilize groceries from Costco, it keeps the cost down rather than bringing it up from down south.”
She said she doesn’t know how she’ll cope with the change, but she isn’t throwing in the towel.
“The cost of groceries have to go up, and trust me, groceries here in the village, because of where we are, are expensive already,” she said.
For example, right now she’s able to resell a dozen eggs from Juneau’s Costco for about $5.39. But, if she were to have to ship those eggs up to Angoon from the Lower 48, she’d need to charge roughly $8.35 to make it pencil out.
When the Costco service goes away, Thompson said there is the option of flying to Juneau herself, but that gets expensive fast.
“I’m 71 years old, I’m not a spring chicken anymore — I need to figure something out, because I can’t let down my community,” she said.
She’s not alone either.
“It definitely will be an impact for sure,” said Heather Bryant, co-owner of Pelican General Store. It’s the only grocery store in the small fishing town on Chichigof Island, west of Juneau.
She said her business relies heavily on Juneau’s Costco to fill its shelves and feed the town. The shipping service allowed her to curate orders to Pelicanʼs specific needs. Without it, they have few other options.
“We would have to go and get it ourselves,” she said. “My husband or I, or we’ll have to fly over and shop Costco ourselves instead of having somebody else do it.”
Bryant said when she adds up the additional costs to fly and stay in Juneau and be away from the business, she worries about how it will pencil out in the long run. But, she’s trying to remain optimistic — a character trait she needs to run a business in an isolated place like Pelican.
“You just have to make it work somehow,” she said. “I feel like it’s always a little bit stressful when it first happens, but then I think you just kind of adapt — you just have to figure out what you’re going to do.”
