Business

This is Tongass Voices, a series from KTOO sharing weekly perspectives from the homelands of the Áak’w Kwáan and beyond.

A Juneau bookstore turns 50 this year. Earlier this month, it was voted one of the nation’s top 10 best independent bookstores by USA Today. 

Olga Sofia Lijó Seráns took over Hearthside Books in 2022, but she got into the book business as a librarian in Juneau nearly two decades ago after arriving from Northern Spain.  

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Olga Sofia Lijó Seráns: I love Waiting for the Weather. Eric Forrer’s memoir. It just has so much information about Alaska without being ponderous. Actually, it’s pretty funny. So it’s a great way to just have a very good look at Alaska without thinking that you are studying on it. 

My name is long. It’s Olga Sophia Lijó Seráns, and I am the owner of Hearthside Books and Toys. I was approached about buying Hearthside Books around three years ago, about this time of the year, by somebody else who thought that I could be a good match, because Hearthside  had been for sale for a while, and well, nobody in this town wanted it to close. 

I’m not sure why people thought about me. I have my guesses. I’m a book person. I’ve been always very active in the community. Since I arrived in Juneau in 2007, I got my master’s in library science. I already had two degrees in similar subjects, and then I became a public librarian, and then I became librarian for the Legislative Affairs agency. 

So between that and the fact that I’m always around books, I guess it was not very strange that somebody would have thought about me. 

What brought me to Juneau in the first place was love. My then love interest invited me for a holiday in 2006 and that was it. He was definitely a love interest, but Juneau just closed the deal. 

The big surprise was bestsellers and having to be on top of those changes almost daily. So it makes it a little bit terrifying, because you’re always having to be thinking about what’s coming next and what’s going to be people’s next interest. But on the other hand, it’s also exhilarating, a lot of fun. Will that set of books that were really, really hot two weeks ago arrive in time for being still of interest when they get here?

Hearthside is turning 50 on September 19. It was open in September 19, 1975. So I wasn’t thinking about what that would mean when I initially bought the store. But it has become more and more obvious that people in Juneau consider Hearthside a legacy. 

When you have three generations of the same family coming to you and saying, “You know, my mom used to bring me to Hearthside as a kid, and now I’m bringing my own kids here too.” It kind of makes you realize how important an independent bookstore is still in a community like Juneau. 

The editor of Juneau Empire is leaving the paper. Mark Sabbatini has edited the paper since 2023 and announced his departure in a Facebook post.

Sabbatini said he submitted his resignation letter three weeks ago over disagreements with the publisher, Carpenter Media Group, which bought the paper last year. His last day with the Empire was supposed to be Tuesday. But he said he was fired today.

“I kept it quiet until word leaked out today on social media that I was departing, and at that point, I announced my departure on the Empire’s Facebook page, and a few hours later, I was informed that, well, basically they fired me,” he said.

He said the disagreements stem from his view that Carpenter Media is focused on cutting costs and publishing sensational content that gets the most web clicks rather than focusing on important issues that affect the community. 

Just before Sabbatini became the editor, the paper decreased its publishing frequency from five issues per week to two. 

Sabbatini said he plans to launch a new, nonprofit online newspaper called the Juneau Independent at the end of this week. 

“I think there should be a locally based, locally owned, locally focused, full-fledged newspaper, which is exactly what the Juneau Independent is going to strive to be,” he said.

According to Sabbatini, the publisher does not plan to replace him. The paper will now be edited remotely from the Peninsula Clarion office in Kenai. 

Carpenter Media Group did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.

Juneau’s Joann arts and crafts store is closed. 

The location in the Nugget Mall has been a go-to staple for crafters, sewers and DIYers alike for more than two decades. Now the doors are closed, the lights are off and a handwritten sign taped to its entrance says it’s closed. The Juneau store’s official closure date was May 26.

In February, the Ohio-based company announced that its Juneau and Anchorage locations were among more than 500 stores across the country slated to close as part of a restructuring plan. At the time, many Juneauites called the impending closure a huge loss.

A month later, the company announced it would be closing all of its nearly 800 stores nationwide and going out of business. 

In the past few weeks, the Juneau store promoted sales on its final items and hung a large closing sign at its entrance. The company said all stores would close by the end of May.

Nugget Mall’s property manager did not give an update on what will become of the vacant space. 

A charter cabin cruiser’s engine quiets down on the approach to Canoe Lagoon Oyster Farm about an hour and a half from Wrangell. The tide isn’t high enough to pass through the inlet right next to the farm though, so farm owner Brian Herman pulls over to wait.

“I’m not going to sneak in there, because of all these freaking logs,” Herman said. “We have oysters staged on that beach.”

Herman said there’s a huge demand for his product. But the shellfish isn’t native to the state and that makes it difficult to grow oysters that are hearty enough to reach dinner plates in state and Outside.

Herman bought the business in 2020 and has been refining his techniques through a lot of trial and error.

He buys the Pacific oysters as seeds to grow on his farm. He has a few different brands, including small Beach Bums and medium-sized Rose Islands. He said it’s not hard to find buyers.

“Every Alaskan oyster is in high demand. There’s not enough oysters in the market,” he said. “Cold water oysters are considered a premium oyster. And Alaskan oysters are so unique because there’s so few of them here.”

According to the McKinley Research Group report, Alaska’s oyster harvest was forecast to triple between 2023 and the end of 2025.

Canoe Lagoon is one of 16 active oyster farms that are part of the Alaska Shellfish Growers Association. The association, which represents oyster farms from all over coastal Alaska, from Ketchikan to Kodiak, has doubled the number of active farms it represents over the last decade. President Weatherly Bates said she thinks there’s room for a lot more.

“There’s not enough oysters produced even in the state to fulfill the state’s demand for oysters during the summer and cruise ship time,” she said. “Oysters are brought in from other places.”

She said that the oyster industry in Alaska consists mostly of small family farms, which makes it difficult to keep up with the demand, especially during tourist season at Alaska restaurants.

“I feel like the sky’s the limit since there’s a huge demand because oysters are growing in popularity,” Bates said. “And with fisheries worldwide declining, there’s more and more of a need to have aquaculture species available.”

She said Alaska’s oysters are in high demand in part because of the cold and pristine waters, since that can help lower risks of illness caused by oysters.

Newer growing methods

To take advantage of the demand, Herman has to get better at growing oysters. And he is improving. He’s found they grow better when they’re closer to the water’s surface with fewer oysters in float bags, the mesh bags oysters grow in that rest close to the surface.

“You’re trying to force something to grow that doesn’t really want to be here, but we’re proving that you can do it, and you can do it fast,” Herman said.

When the tide rises high enough to get to the farm, Herman’s full-time employee, Matt Lemma, gives a tour. He’s excited to see last year’s oysters growing so fast.

“All those brand new black bags there, this entire set, and that entire set, every single one, is the June ‘24 plant that I’ve been babying,” he said. “It’s crazy. It’s crazy.”

“They look better than the 2022’s,” Herman replied.

Many of the oysters will be harvested in a couple months, after a year of growing.

Herman said he’s expanded the business a lot over the last five years and that’s eaten into profits. He thinks the business will do much better this year though.

He said Canoe Lagoon’s oysters have more of a vegetable flavor to them, like a fresh cucumber.

“That’s what’s so cool about oysters is, yes, everybody on the West Coast is growing Pacific oysters, right? But no two oysters are the same,” Herman said. “So even the ones on Prince of Wales will taste completely different than ours, and they’re 20 miles away.”

If all goes well, he expects to ship oysters both in state and out of state. As of right now, he ships in state and to one restaurant in Arizona. He said some restaurants in New York have contacted him, but he needs to produce more and he thinks this year might be the year.

Just over the Canadian border from Haines and Skagway, Ranj Pillai runs the show. He’s the premier of the Yukon territory’s government – and the territory’s minister of economic development.

So he has strong feelings about President Donald Trump’s trade war, which the White House says is meant to boost U.S. manufacturing and supply chains.

“We’re seeing just this absolute desolation of the U.S. markets because of a decision that really never had to be made,” Pillai said in a recent interview with KHNS. “We think there’s other ways to strengthen both the U.S. and Canadian economy to make sure there’s more jobs in manufacturing back in North America.”

He also has a request for his American neighbors.

“We also want to make sure that the folks in both Haines and Skagway are reaching out to anybody they can to send the message that this is incredibly damaging,” Pillai said.

Residents and leaders in both towns have taken steps to do so, including a rally in Skagway where participants left animated voicemails for lawmakers and a recent “Canadian Neighbors Appreciation Weekend” in Haines.

The last few months have seen a chaotic rollout of Trump’s international trade policy. Earlier this year, for example, Trump announced – and then paused – 25% tariffs on goods imported from Canada, China and Mexico. He later threatened to impose so-called “reciprocal tariffs” on many U.S. trading partners – sending markets into a tailspin – before pausing some of those, too.

But some of the policies have stuck, including 145% import taxes on China and 25% tariffs on U.S. imports of steel, aluminum and cars. Pillai is particularly worried about the latter.

“One major component can have 10 crossings through the border,” he said. “And every time that part crosses the border, in the current context, you’re going to have tariffs put upon it. So it’s going to really increase the cost of both U.S. vehicles and Canadian vehicles.”

Pillai said it’s clear the policies are coming from Washington, D.C., not Alaska, Haines or Skagway. And he said that Alaskans’ support for Canada has been widely appreciated.

That includes testimony against the tariffs from Skagway assembly members at the state legislature. And the Haines assembly gave Mayor Tom Morphet the green light in February to write the mayors of Whitehorse and Haines Junction, voicing the importance of cross-border relationships.

Still, there’s a growing movement in Canada to boycott the U.S. in response to the tariffs – and in response to Trump’s repeated comments about the country becoming the fifty-first state. The Yukon government, for its part, has generally avoided advising Canadians how they should approach visiting or doing business in Alaska.

“We want to make sure that our kids continue to play sports with each other. We want to make sure that these events like the Buckwheat are as successful as they always are,” Pillai said, referring to an international ski race that draws Alaskans and Canadians every year. “But we’re not going to give a direction to an organization.”

At a higher level, Canada has responded by imposing some $155 billion in retaliatory tariffs, Pillai said. Some territories, including the Yukon, have also responded by directly targeting Trump advisor Elon Musk.

That includes eliminating rebates for Yukoners who purchase Teslas, shifting government communications off Musk’s app, X, and considering how to reduce the territory’s reliance on another of his businesses: Starlink.

“There will be some times that the government, in the current situation of dealing with forest fires and floods and being in remote areas, will still use some of the remote units,” Pillai said. “But over time, I think our big push is to have a Canadian solution.”

Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified Dr. John Raster as a physician with Family Practice Physicians. He leases space for his independent practice in the same building.