A man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship
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Re: A man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship
#2I visited Dawson City in the Yukon last year and was surprised to see Kirkland Signature goods on sale at the general store. Didn't think to ask how they got there.
Re: A man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship
#3Nice read - enjoyed that.
Re: A man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship
#4I visited Dawson City in the Yukon last year and was surprised to see Kirkland Signature goods on sale at the general store. Didn't think to ask how they got there.
For those who are unfamiliar, "Kirkland Signature" is Costco's private brand.
Re: A man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship
#5That's actually how a lot of businesses in rural parts of Alaska work, even places that don't require a boat or plane to access. My dad lives right off the highway in a small town in Alaska, and the closest thing to a grocery store is an old airplane hanger that one of the locals runs a general store out of. The owner makes weekly trips to Costco, which is ~4 hours away, and buys as much as they can fit into a big U-Haul, then resells it at their store. The selection is pretty limited, but they take requests throughout the week and will try to fulfill them on the next trip.
Re: A man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship
#6> Parker did some work around town, scrounged together $3k, and began taking a state-subsidized ferry to Juneau, where he bought Costco inventory to resell in Gustavus at a small markup.
> As the store grew, Parker and his father launched their own freight company, purchased the town’s gasoline station, and bought two of their own ships — a $300k “insurance policy” that gave Parker tighter control over the supply chain in case of an emergency.
I feel like they left out a step between $3k and a frieght company with 2 ships.
Re: A man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship
#7> Parker did some work around town, scrounged together $3k, and began taking a state-subsidized ferry to Juneau, where he bought Costco inventory to resell in Gustavus at a small markup. > As the store grew, Parker and his father launched their own freight company, purchased the town’s gasoline station, and bought two of their own ships — a $300k “insurance policy” that gave Parker tighter control over the supply cha…
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Re: A man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship
#8> Parker did some work around town, scrounged together $3k, and began taking a state-subsidized ferry to Juneau, where he bought Costco inventory to resell in Gustavus at a small markup. > As the store grew, Parker and his father launched their own freight company, purchased the town’s gasoline station, and bought two of their own ships — a $300k “insurance policy” that gave Parker tighter control over the supply cha…
Moving inventory on the existing ferry service and selling it at a profit?
Re: A man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship
#9> Parker did some work around town, scrounged together $3k, and began taking a state-subsidized ferry to Juneau, where he bought Costco inventory to resell in Gustavus at a small markup. > As the store grew, Parker and his father launched their own freight company, purchased the town’s gasoline station, and bought two of their own ships — a $300k “insurance policy” that gave Parker tighter control over the supply cha…
A small loan of a million dollars.
Re: A man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship
#10The scarcity of flour, especially bread flour piques my curiosity. I haven't heard about anyone eating vastly more bread than before the quarantine. It's just that everyone is making it at home instead of buying it with meals at restaurants. One would expect the flour not being shipped to the restaurants would be redirected into the retail supply chain but that doesn't appear to be the case.
The only explanations I can see are: 1) People are still panic-buying flour even after they've settled down about toilet paper, 2) everyone is secretly gorging themselves on bread, 3) the supply has dried up, or 4) there's some vast and growing stockpile of unsold bread flour in the wholesale supply chain. None of these explanations ring true to me, so where's the flour going?