While Cubby’s is an independent business and its future is far from certain, it’s a king salmon in a lake full of trout when compared to other retail outlets within roughly a 55-mile radius. Add to that mix Cubby’s new tenant, Knik Kountry Liquors — which inked a lease July 25 — and a destination is born.
The retail grocery market Cubby’s will enter features small, independent stores, some of which also sell fuel. Grocery prices tend to be markedly higher than those in Wasilla. Transportation costs are a primary factor retailers cite for the higher prices, including the cost of staples like bread and milk.
 JOHN R. MOSES/Courtesy photo The new Cubby'€™s Marketplace is taking shape in the northern part of the Mat-Su Borough. |
The Pearsons plan to keep costs down by ordering groceries along with D&A Shop Rite in Wasilla, an independent grocery store the couple will continue to manage for its owner even as they open their own new store.
The Pearsons think the store will be a benefit to the surrounding community.
“I think we’ll be able to enhance each other’s businesses,” said Greg Pearson Friday after a busy day lining up contractors and acting as general contractor at the site. He spends most of his time there, working and living on the job site.
Pearson envisions a tent in his paved parking lot next year hosting an outdoor summer market for art and other merchandise. He hopes that would help attract tour buses so weary tourists could buy fruit or deli items as well for their long ride to Denali. His deli counter will sell food and the produce shelves currently empty will sparkle and reflect fresh fruits and veggies in their shiny, well-lit back mirrors. The butcher shop will present fresh-cut meat.
All of that is in the future. The present is pretty gritty. Framing is up inside the store, some awaiting sheetrock. Temporary work lights illuminate the concrete sales floor and upstairs office areas. Those gleaming produce bins are empty.
Shelving will eventually be built and lighting installed. As many as 15 employees will be hired and merchandise will be stocked. Details like computer inventory systems and cash register purchases and installation are in the works now. The future home of the liquor store is framed, but a new door facing the parking lot must go in.
The Pearsons are already planning which key employees, some of them family members, will staff the store. Greg Pearson said workers there will be trained in many skill areas, a practice that makes them valuable in the future to other retailers who do not do broad training in many skill sets.
“We train our employees to basically do everything. You go to Safeway, they’ve got a courtesy clerk and that’s basically all they do,” Pearson said.
Presently 10 local craftsmen and plumbers are working on the site.
What does Pearson see as the best possible outcome after his fall grand opening — the date of which is still not set?
“That I can break even and pay off all my bills. That’s all I’m really concerned about now.” Pearson said. “I came out here to serve the community and be a good steward.”
Changing landscape
Shifting retail patterns in this remote area began with the opening of a new Three Bears in Meadow Lakes about 55 miles south of the Talkeetna area. Three Bears President David A. Weisz could not be reached for comment.
One Sunshine business owner predicts good things overall for residents and small businesses that are near Cubby’s. Doug Moore said neighboring businesses will only see benefits from a concentration of businesses in the area of Sunshine known as “The Y,” where the Talkeetna Spur Road meets the George Parks Highway at Mile 98.4.
“I’ve always said that putting a large, full-service grocery store there is going to affect my customer base positively,” said Doug Moore of Moores’ Hardware & Building Supply. His family business is literally just around the corner from Cubby’s at Mile .3 on the Talkeetna Spur Road.
Moore said his own family only goes into the Palmer/Wasilla area to shop unless something like a trip to a medical specialist is required. They shop every one to two weeks. Moore said he and his family plan to avoid Wasilla completely if the Pearsons can keep their prices in the right range, and Moore predicted many other locals will do the same.
“People are going to stay here,” he said.
Small grocers in Talkeetna don’t know what to expect this winter, but one hopes to buy products in bulk along with Cubby’s to lower costs.
“I totally support Greg and Lisa,” said Bev Tanner, who, with husband Yukon Don Tanner, owns Tanner’s Trading Post and Tanner’s Coffee Cabin & Gift Shop in Downtown Talkeetna, about 14 miles from Cubby’s.
The Tanners also own the town’s only laundromat and two public showers, both of which are maintained as a community service. The associated costs of maintaining them, heating water and feeding propane-fueled dryers pile up against the fees charged for using them.
The Tanners have known the Pearsons for years and have known the store was on the way ever since the Pearsons bought the land about eight years ago.
“Yes, it’s going to impact me, but we need this store,” Bev Tanner said. “If it impacts me too much I might have to do something different. I’ll see how the winter goes.”
She said she isn’t making any hasty decisions. Many of her customers come from “up the tracks” and arrive for groceries on ATVs. She said that they, and other Talkeetna residents, will still shop at local grocers rather than make the almost 30-mile round trip to The Y.
Cubby’s could also be a benefit to local Realtors.
Holly Stinson of McKinley View Real Estate at Mile 11.5 of the Talkeetna Spur compared the store’s pending arrival to the arrival and expansion of the Sunshine Community Health Center. While groceries and medical care are very different, both are priorities to some potential buyers who want a relaxed lifestyle but also need nearby services, she said.
“I’ve heard several people — buyers — say, ‘Oh, there will be a grocery store right here,’” Stinson said.
Cubby’s may not benefit one respected local business about a mile south of Cubby’s on the highway, but the owner of that business doesn’t see trouble coming his way — he sees it heading straight for the new guy.
“The way the economy’s going I don’t think he’s going to make it,” said Jack Ince, who owns The Store, a small grocery about a mile south of the Cubby’s site on the Parks Highway.
Ince has maintained since first hearing of Cubby’s pending arrival that his prices are already competitive with Wasilla prices. Ince has said he has a loyal customer base.
One other unknown player lurks: A new Wasilla Target store will provide another retail venue. Greg Pearson said he isn’t sure what the new store will carry, but another grocery outlet in Wasilla in addition to Wal-Mart could add additional pressure to the grocery landscape in Wasilla, including Shop Rite.
Tough time
to start a store
Two state economists say this is a tough time to start a business.
State Department of Labor and Workforce Development Economist Dan Robinson said retail is a unique kind of market sector in that there are only so many people in the customer base. Impacts occur if a market becomes “saturated.”
In general, when a new and larger business opens it competes for the same customers being served by existing businesses and “someone else loses business,” Robinson said.
When Wal-Mart and The Home Depot recently moved into Juneau, where Robinson lives, there was a brief rise in employment, but in the end there were about the same number of jobs.
“That, to me, is a sign of a market that’s saturated,” Robinson said.
Anchorage-based state economist Neal Fried said that overall there has been a huge expansion in Valley businesses, and in the case of the Wasilla Wal-Mart that meant an overall gain in jobs for that region.
“When I see retail move in, it’s not a zero-sum gain, it’s a net gain,” Fried said. In the case of Cubby’s, “Obviously in that area that makes them a significant employer overnight.”
Fried pointed to the arrival of the Wal-Mart store in Kodiak. He said local sales tax revenues spiked. Either people were buying a lot of merchandise outside that area or the sheer availability of merchandise in a convenient area caused local consumers to spend more.
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