New store combines warehouse model with dollar-store items

MAT-SU -- Larry Weisc wants to change the way Valley residents shop.

As the owner of Three Bears Alaska, Weisc is currently building a new 51,000-square-foot store near Four Corners on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway that will contain everything from 99-cent trinkets to bulk food items and conventional groceries.

"We're applying all three of these items under one building to cover a broad spectrum of shoppers," Weisc said. "People can spend as little or as much as they want."

Weisc is a longtime Alaskan who opened his first Three Bears Alaska store in Tok in 1980. Now he owns three other stores in Kenai, Seward and Valdez with his latest store slated to open in June 2005.

Weisc said his goal is to provide a different kind of shopping experience by creating a miniature Costco or Sam's type of store and combining it with the most popular grocery items and dollar-store goods.

"Stores normally do 80 percent of their sales on 20 percent of their items," Weisc said, "We're taking the 99-cent stuff, conventional groceries and bulk items and offering the top 10 percent of those items in each category. You have the fast and slow movers and we're going with the faster-moving items."

Weisc said his store will provide fewer products than Fred Meyer but more than Costco, and he is hopeful that with 15,000 items to choose from he will get both traditional shoppers as well as restaurants and larger buyers.

"It's kind of a new concept," he said. "Everything is integrated and we're also adding fuel pumps and a pharmacy to this location. We've never done that before."

Weisc is also planning to sell liquor, but is still working to purchase a license.

With in-laws in Wasilla, Weisc said he visited the Valley often and recently noticed the vacant lot across the street from both the Mom and Pop store and two large potato fields.

"I always looked at the spud fields there and I saw all this traffic," Weisc said. "When I saw that lot there I thought it was a good opportunity."

Despite the fact that he is only a few miles from Fred Meyer stores in both Palmer and Wasilla, combined with the fact that Mom and Pop already sells gas, Weisc remained optimistic and said the competition would just serve to add more business.

"Competition is great," he said.

Scott Frank owns Mom and Pop, and agreed there is room for competition.

"We're adding on, too, and we're expanding," Scott said. "There's lots of growth out here and plenty of room."

Trudy Visker has a different view. She just opened the 12,000-square-foot Alaska Premium Food Source 18 months ago and Three Bears Alaska will be less than a quarter mile from her store, selling many of the same discount bulk foods and retail items.

"We definitely do the same type of groceries," she said. "I don't think the traffic supports any larger stores than what I have here. I originally planned to expand my store but the traffic pattern didn't dictate it."

In spite of her concerns, Visker said the Four Corners area is a hot spot.

"The Palmer-Wasilla Highway is going to do nothing but grow," she said.

Weisc said he expects to hire about 55 employees when the new store opens. He is also committed to buying from local farmers.

"We will sell local produce," he said, "and we have done that for 15 years."

Contact Joel Davidson at joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.