Fair offers plenty of shopping

August 27, 2006

By MARY AMES

Frontiersman

PALMER -It's that time of year, where people hunting for bargains can make one stop for some competitive shopping.

Venders at the Alaska State Fair have spread their wares.

Shoppers for cell-phone packages have at least four providers from which to choose, most offering deals and drawings at their booths. People cold and tired from this past Alaska summer can inspect an array of spas, infrared saunas and hot tubs at about five booths. Internet and television providers also are out in force.

There are multiple choices for fashion statements, from glittery funk, to imported kitsch and upscale gorgeous jackets, shirts, pants, handbags and dresses.

If you are tired of your tresses, several booths will service your coiffure, adding lift, braids and multiple hues.

Even people who attend the fair repeatedly discover something they didn't know was there.

&#8220Every year we get the ‘Are you new?' customers,” said Vicki Potter, sitting and selling in the Bad Girls of the North booth. Potter and cohort Carol Green are in their ninth year at the fair, same booth every year.

&#8220Sometimes we tell them yes, because the customer is always right,” Potter said.

It was a slow start this year for Bad Girls, maybe because of the weather, but Potter and Green were upbeat about new offerings, especially from some local artists such as Julie Reynolds of Palmer and Chelline Larsen of Talkeetna. And they were confident their regular customers would come around.

Like Bad Girls, Fairweather Prints just across the road has regular customers who come to the fair for specific items each year.

&#8220We have a lot of fans,” said Colin Herforth. &#8220Many of them are professional ladies from Anchorage.”

Those women, Herforth said, come out to the fair in the Valley just to shop. Also off to a slow start, Fairweather Prints was saved by one women on the first-day.

&#8220She said she shops three times a year,” he said. &#8220She goes to Berkeley twice a year, and she comes here.”

Some fair regulars come for certain small things.

Matt Gjertson and his wife, Tina, of Wasilla said they come every year.

&#8220I come for the Flitz,” Gjertson said. &#8220I use it to polish my boat.”

The Gjertson said they don't enter many drawings at the fair, though, because they found themselves fending off sales calls afterward.

A weekend at the fair culminated an Alaska vacation trip for Ilya Elyashkevich and Masha Resman. After a week of backpacking, they thought the fair was a nice way to end their trip. They bought some honey and a small puppet to take home to Los Angeles.

Connie Aschenbrenner and her mother come to the fair every year from Anchorage.

&#8220We come to dream - a lot,” Aschenbrenner said. &#8220Fireplaces, hot tubs and saunas.”

Those things fuel their dreams of getting warm, she said in the soggy wind.

A bus from the Kenai Senior Center brought more shoppers to the fair Friday.

Bundled in hats, coats and gloves against the cool, wet weather, Tom Holland said they were at the fair shopping for fun.

With friends Norma Lillard, James Clark and Barb L'Heurux in tow, Holland said they wanted to try out a spa to warm up.

&#8220They wouldn't let us,” he said.

Wayne and Gaia Marrs were in the Mat-Su Valley for the first time since they went back to Kennicott Valley in May. They'd come from McCarthy to shop specifically for one thing - funnel cakes.

&#8220I'm really psyched on this,” Wayne Marrs said.

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.