Businesses, event planners, rural Alaskans, and every-day Costco members will have another option to purchase bulk food and other goods in Anchorage, when a new Costco Business Center opens at 1074 N. Muldoon Road in Anchorage, near the Tikahtnu Commons.
Costco Business Centers are already located in 12 states. On Feb. 2, Alaska will get one of these “super bulk” stores that caters to restaurants, hotels, rural cooperative buying clubs, and companies that use large quantities. It will be a huge benefit for rural Alaskans who want to buy in bulk on their shopping and medical trips to Anchorage.
Costco, which has consumer warehouse outlets in Juneau, Anchorage (two with one on the way), and Fairbanks, is the second large food seller to expand its Alaska market footprint in just three months.
Amazon opened up a major distribution center in November in midtown Anchorage.
Meanwhile, Alaska’s Rep. Mary Peltola is trying to tamp down competition by preventing Kroger and Albertson’s from merging to compete in this ever-changing free marketplace, where other businesses are quickly making their moves.
Peltola was on the House floor earlier this week proclaiming that the Federal Trade Commission had postponed a decision on the merger until later this year and that she continues to fight the merger of Kroger and Albertson’s. This is a position consistent with the Big Labor unions who support her.
Peltola is following in the footsteps of Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who have attacked the grocery business sector relentlessly, even though the companies are having to pay ever-higher wages to union-controlled workforces and even though shareholders were measurably harmed by the Biden Administration’s economic shutdowns and mandates in 2020 through 2022, shutdowns that have been proven to have caused drastic harm to the economy.
Amazon distribution center is one of the biggest game changers in the Alaska consumer zone, cutting delivery times dramatically for online shoppers. Amazon now operates its own cargo flights through Amazon Air and also has warrants to acquire minority share in Atlas Air Cargo; both operate with daily Amazon cargo coming through Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. The new 66,0000-square-foot sorting center in midtown Anchorage is where packages get put on vans for delivery on the Alaska road system.
Three Bears is also in expansion mode. Three Bears has 13 grocery stores with more on the way in Eagle River, Cooper Landing, Ketchikan and North Pole.
Walmart has stores in Anchorage, Eagle River, Wasilla, Fairbanks, Kodiak, Kenai, Ketchikan — nine retail units across the state. IGA has eight stores in Alaska and Alaska Commercial Company has 33 stores, primary in very-rural Alaska.
