Gottschalks makes plans to expand Wasilla in 2002

Retail expansion in the Wasilla area is still a driving force in the local economy -- the most recent sign is a commitment by California-based retailer Gottschalks to expand its store in the Cottonwood Creek Mall.

The company hasn't made final plans or advertised the expansion yet, but Gottschalks chief executive officer Jim Famalette told the Frontiersman that an expansion is indeed in the works.

"We are negotiating with [the mall] right now," Famalette said, "and we do expect it to happen. I would say a year from now the store will be larger than it is."

Gottschalks operates around 80 stores in California and six other western states. Famalette said 16 of the stores have furniture departments in addition to the clothing and houseware departments that local shoppers are familiar with.

"That's actually something we're investigating right now," Famalette said. "We're looking into what it will cost for shipping and so forth to bring those things to the Alaskan market."

But the expansion plans in the Cottonwood Creek Mall store will go forward no matter what the company decides on the furniture front, Famalette said.

Famalette is bullish on Alaska, and his company is known for anchoring small-town malls like the Cottonwood Creek Mall.

"We make our living in smaller communities," Famalette said.

Gottschalks arrived in Alaska in 2000 in a fashion that was becoming familiar to Alaskans -- the company purchased 38 Lamonts stores as that company folded, seven of the stores just happened to be in Alaska. Midway through their second year in the state, Famalette said the Alaska stores are doing fine.

"We closed the old University Center store. That one was sort of closing itself actually, but the other six are going strong," he said.

The contrast between the fate of the University Center Mall in Anchorage and the Cottonwood Creek Mall in Wasilla presets a strange dichotomy.

Both malls lost anchor stores in nearly identical fashion as big box stores arrived in Southcentral Alaska. Shoppers went through the confusing Pay and Save-Thrifty-Rite Aid shell game before finally seeing the general stores close altogether. Shoppers at both malls also showed up to find Alaska Marketplace grocery stores closed after 20 months of trying keep Safeway's castoffs running.

But the University Center Mall -- now up for sale -- died a slow death during the late-1990s retail upheaval while the Cottonwood Creek Mall kept right on chugging along.

According to assistant mall manager Nancy Cameron, the mall's traffic counts are recorded electronically when shoppers come and go through the main doors. The loss of the large stores has affected traffic, but Cameron said the Cottonwood Creek Mall has never been devoid of shoppers.

"It speaks to the location and it speaks to the small tenants that we have who perform very well," Cameron said. "We have some tenants who are very good at what they do."

A case in point is the malls' Waldenbooks store, which earns sales awards practically every year, according to store manager Pam Oakerlander. Oakerlander said she doesn't have enough room to display all of the plaques and letters Waldenbooks sends her staff -- and she said the store's success is because of her staff.

"We're probably one of the best in the chain as far as institutional sales. We need one person just to handle that," she said.

Institutional sales are sales in bulk to librarians, teachers and other professionals. It's not a traditional on-the-floor retail job, but it's an important part of what this Waldenbooks location does. The job is handled by assistant manager Linda Maurer, using the telephone and fax machine to keep up with her customers' needs. Oakerlander also has one person who specializes in Alaska books, and has three employees who have been with the store for more than 10 years.

"We know our customers and that's the important thing," Oakerlander said.

Oakerlander has worked at Waldenbooks since the mall opened in 1984. She has seen a lot of businesses come and go in that time. She said her store sales were increasing 10 to 15 percent per year in the first few years, and although she hasn't seen that sort of growth lately, the store's sales haven't been shrinking. She credits the mall's small operators for keeping traffic steady, even as the big retailers left the store.

"Independents can do a good job running their business," she said, "but we also need the nationals."

Waldenbooks and some of its neighbors will likely move to another location in the mall to make room for Gottschalks to expand. That doesn't bother Oakerlander at all. She said she will give mall managers a list of the store's needs, and will likely come out of the move with a better store. An expanded stock room is on Oakerlander's list, the current stock room is small and tall with two ladders for employees to organize books coming into the store.

Next door to Waldenbooks, Fox's CafŽ owner Mike Fox is actually excited about being displaced. After retiring from shipping company Fed Ex, Fox purchased the cafŽ in 1998. He said he invested between $10,000 and $15,000 in renovations and a lot of long hours -- but it's paid off, even with a large empty space directly across from his cafŽ.

"When we first took over, $250 was a good day," Fox said. "Now if I don't make three to four hundred I'm wondering what's wrong."

Fox is also looking forward to being moved and hoping to get a better space. Fox's kitchen is tiny and some of the equipment is aging.

"It's a big deal, but it's something I'm excited about because I think I'm getting a bigger kitchen -- I think I'll be getting the kitchen I want," he said.