Alaska is 1/3 the land mass of the U.S. and yet its lack of roads forces rural businesses to rely on water and air-based transportation to receive necessary inputs. Bush Alaskans rely on subsidies for access to basic federal and state services, like mail and medical services. Sudden rate hikes, like the recent 9.39% rate increase for bypass mail, can cause significant disruption in bush services.
In 1994, Esther Donhauser founded the Hound House in Aniak, AK. She and her husband Dave Diehl co-own the pizza joint, which is the only official restaurant in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta outside of Bethel, a land area the size of Oregon. Besides serving Aniak’s residents and the people willing to travel a couple hours for a hot pizza, Hound House also flies half-baked pizzas out to the bush.
Despite providing mouth-watering pizzas and one of the only cozy places for people to gather in Aniak, Hound House faces extreme difficulty staying in business. Hound House has managed to stay in business for nearly 30 years, even with the small customer base and high-priced operational necessities like electricity and stove oil. Recently, the U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission added another steep challenge: a 9.39% rate increase on bypass mail.
The rate increase makes getting supplies like flour, cheese, and sauce shipped in from Anchorage wildly expensive. A Hound House extra-large special costs customers $42, and a large pepperoni pizza costs $32. Higher prices will certainly lower demand, but keeping prices the same in the face of the increased bypass mail rates threatens the business’s ability to stay in the green.
Donhauser voices her discouragement at the news: “I mean, it’s just so hard to keep going. It’s like, every time you turn around, something else goes up. And you just get tired of fighting.”
Although Diehl indicates that it might be time to retire soon, for now, the Hound House furthers its pizza-producing legacy, maintaining hours all week long.
Hound House’s plight is only one example of many restaurants and businesses across Alaska suffering from the increased price of inputs. It is no secret that Alaskans living in both rural and urban areas have seen a significant increase in the price of goods and services. The bypass mail rate increase will drive prices higher across the state, and it may even eliminate the last existing restaurant serving the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.
If you don’t love what you do any more, then it is time to get out of business, move on or retire. Life’s too short to stay in the every day grind if you don’t love the restaurant business or what you do for work.
Prices are going up everywhere in Alaska (not just the Bush) for groceries, takeout food, etc. Large and small businesses regularly raise prices and pass the cost on to the consumer. Any business that doesn’t raise prices of products for sale despite cost of shipping, inventory/ingredients increases won’t last long. Example, a certain ice cream dessert someone likes was $5.99 a bag last year and now it is $9.49 for the same bag at the local grocery. OUCH!!
Is this all you got for a read and comment? Postage stamps?