With the only store in town, Alaskan grocer goes above and beyond to keep shelves stocked

When your store is the only place in town to buy groceries, you do what you have to do in order to ensure the shelves are never empty.

Toshua Parker and his wife, Cassia, own Icy Strait Wholesale in Gustavus, Alaska — population 450. This tiny town is only accessible by boat or airplane, and Parker used to have his Costco orders delivered to the store on Alaska's ferry system. Because of the pandemic, the ferry is not stopping in Gustavus. His supplies began dwindling in March, so Parker decided he would have to start picking up his orders in person.

Every week since, Parker and his employees have made the 14-hour round-trip to Juneau, 50 miles away, taking a converted military landing craft and loading it up with food and other essentials to stock the store. This long trek "doesn't seem like a big deal," Parker told CNN. "Alaskans are fiercely independent and resourceful; you really have to be to survive here. So when a problem arises, we don't typically look to someone else for help, we just find a way to do it."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

A lot of planning goes into the trips, with Parker having to take into consideration the tides and weather forecasts. He said he's grateful for his employees who are "going to work every day during this pandemic to make sure our town stays supplied," adding that having to go to such great lengths to keep the people of Gustavus fed is "just another day in our world."