The Best Places to Shop in Alaska

Angoon Trad­ing Co. is a gen­er­al store locat­ed in Angoon, on Admi­ral­ty Island. They car­ry a full line of gro­cery, hard­ware, lum­ber, as well as gifts, and clothing.

All-nat­ur­al meats, all raised with­out antibi­otics or hor­mones and fed an all veg­e­tar­i­an diet. The selec­tion includes beef, pork, buf­fa­lo, elk, rein­deer and even yak.

Stop into this small log cab­in near the end of Main Street Tal­keet­na to find hand­craft­ed Alaskan made goods. You’ll find prod­ucts rang­ing from Dev­il’s Club salves, goat milk soaps, organ­ic teas & herbs, and stoneware pot­tery made right here in the Upper Susit­na Val­ley. They’re also the first com­pa­ny in Alas­ka to offer a line of Hemp Seed Oil balms, soaps, and oils. 

Alas­ka-made goods with a large selec­tion of Russ­ian prod­ucts make this a unique shop­ping stop.

Danc­ing Leaf Gallery. Own­ers Sta­cy and Troy Smi­ley built this shop new for 2011! The large build­ing fea­tures Sta­cy’s sig­na­ture batiks and silk screens done right here in Tal­keet­na from her own linoleum block print. Sta­cy is also known for her mixed media jew­el­ry, like neclaces of a neck­lace of pearl, glass, wood, stone and metal.

TLC Man­age­ment LLC, or Tena­kee Log­ging Com­pa­ny pro­vides selec­tive and sus­tain­ably cut high qual­i­ty tim­ber for builders, luthiers, ship­wrights and artists in SE Alas­ka. And, they cut tim­ber to mill for build­ing projects in Tena­kee Springs. 

This fun gift shop offers an array of local prod­ucts — such as goat’s milk soap, can­vas prints, cal­en­dars fea­tur­ing local pho­tog­ra­phers, Alas­ka Flour Com­pa­ny prod­ucts, and more.

Star­board Frames fea­tures met­al art, blown glass, pho­tog­ra­phy, and wear­ables such as scarfs, hats and jew­el­ry. And of course, there are lots of cool frames at all styles and price-ranges – even for­est-friend­ly recyclables.

YFish is a fam­i­ly owned and oper­at­ed fish pro­cess­ing busi­ness locat­ed in Pel­i­can, Alas­ka. If you are look­ing for qual­i­ty seafood pro­cess­ing and pack­ag­ing give them a call. Bring your catch and they will fil­let, pack­age, freeze, box and ship your fish for you. You can also buy a vari­ety of seafood prod­ucts from caught buy local com­mer­cial fishermen. 

Homer is known through­out Alas­ka as the state’s pre­mier artist com­mu­ni­ty, home to dozens of gal­leries and artists. You’ll find a con­ve­nient clus­ter of gal­leries worth vis­it­ing along ​“Gallery Row,” the stretch of Pio­neer Avenue between Main Street and Lake Street. Here are three we like. Pic­ture Alas­ka Pic­ture Alas­ka (448 E. Pio­neer Ave.) fea­tures orig­i­nal paint­ings and fine art prints by notable local artists. This diverse gallery also…  ...more

Find items from cloth­ing to mus­tard, fish­ing tack­le to pot­tery and pho­to postcards. 

Fam­i­ly-owned oper­a­tion focus­es on two main prod­uct lines: 100% whole-grain, stone-ground bar­ley flour, and a cream-of-bar­ley break­fast cere­al. Both are avail­able through­out Alas­ka and online.

Go-to sport­ing and out­door goods store — a good place to pick up items such as out­door gear, bug spray or fish­ing equipment.

The only spe­cial­ty cheese shop in Anchor­age is also a can’t‑miss café. It’s the only place in Anchor­age to pur­chase spe­cial­ty cheeses sourced from across Europe and the U.S. But it’s also a hip, casu­al spot with a great lunch menu that mix­es arti­san cheeses with high-qual­i­ty fast food. Some peo­ple come just for the cookies!

Far from your aver­age cor­po­rate book­store, Par­nas­sus Books feels homey, per­son­al, and full of local spir­it. The shelves house a wide vari­ety of read­ing mate­ri­als for the hun­gry book lover: fic­tion, non-fic­tion, poet­ry, children’s lit­er­a­ture, IndieBound best­sellers, cook­books, Pacif­ic North­west and Alaskan Native arts and cul­ture, local his­to­ry and ecol­o­gy, and more.

You’ll real­ly get a feel for Tal­keet­na in this lit­tle shop, since locals own and run it. You can see exclu­sive items by Tal­keet­na pho­tog­ra­ph­er Jim Trump and scrimshaw artist Mary Barr. And don’t miss the unusu­al ear­rings from a Tal­keet­na outdoorsman/​artisan; they’re made of beaver teeth and oth­er unique materials.

You’ll find hand­made wood­en sou­venirs, carved-wood stat­ues, clocks, bowls, and oth­er creations.

Browse some of Alaska’s best hand­craft­ed art in this sum­mer­time out­door mar­ket. The artists man their own booths, which gives you a chance to chat with peo­ple like Dora Miller, from Wil­low, Alas­ka, who makes beau­ti­ful jew­el­ry from Alaskan stone. The mar­ket is oper­at­ed by the Denali Arts Council.

As this shop’s name would sug­gest, you’ll find beads of all kinds here: glass, ceram­ic, and crys­tal, just for starters. Own­er Beth Valen­tine grew up here in Tal­keet­na and trav­els to exot­ic places in search of beads with beau­ty and style. She also car­ries jew­el­ry, hand­bags, hats, plaques, and glass­ware from all over the world; it’s all locat­ed in a cute log cab­in with a sun­burst pat­tern locat­ed on the right as you enter town.

Ketchikan Arts & Human­i­ties Coun­cil (KAAHC) is the pow­er­house of Ketchikan’s arts com­mu­ni­ty; if there’s an arts event in Ketchikan, this orga­ni­za­tion is on it! Locat­ed at the Main Street Gallery, KAAHC pro­duces dozens of art events annu­al­ly, such as summer’s Blue­ber­ry Arts Fes­ti­val and February’s famous Wear­able Arts Show.

Find an orig­i­nal Alas­ka keep­sake at the Alas­ka Trib­al Cache Gift Shop on Main Street in Sel­dovia. The shop offers the work of area artists and jew­el­ers, as well as Alas­ka-themed t‑shirts, post­cards and oth­er souvenirs.

Whether you wish you’d caught more fish when you vis­it­ed the Kenai Penin­su­la — or you just want easy access to excel­lent fish at about half the usu­al retail price —this fish­ery in Kasilof is a great find. The fam­i­ly-owned fish­ery — a his­toric site first estab­lished in the 1930s —offers fresh-caught wild salmon and oth­er fish at har­vester prices. They sell whole fish, and you get the sat­is­fac­tion of pick­ing your own fish from their catch if you’re…  ...more

Out­door farm­ers mar­ket in the park­ing area of the North­way Mall

Home to a lit­tle gro­cery store and the West Rib Brew Pub, Nagleys also has inter­net access and a few camp­ing sup­plies upstairs. There’s a rich his­to­ry here: Nagleys sup­plied min­ers and trap­pers start­ing in 1921; you’ll see the antique store items lin­ing the walls. Rumor has it that the orig­i­nal own­er, Horace Nagley, kept the store open for busi­ness while rolling the build­ing on logs down Main Street to its cur­rent location.

Plants, organ­ic flours, hand­made prod­ucts (like pot­tery, bead­work, knit­ted goods, art­work, lip balms and salves), and his­tor­i­cal books about the area. Food stands, mean­while, brim with mar­ket favorites like soft pret­zels, hot dogs and fries.

No bus­es come by the Tena­kee Bus Stop, just folks look­ing to trade a book or some cloth­ing at the ​“take one, leave one” trad­ing shop. The Bus Stop name is an insider’s joke in this com­mu­ni­ty, where it takes just a few min­utes to walk wher­ev­er you need to go.

Alaska’s pre­mière shop­ping des­ti­na­tion. Anchored by JCPen­ney, this 5‑level shop­ping cen­ter hous­es options like Apple, Michael Kors, lul­ule­mon, Sepho­ra & 100 oth­ers, along with local shops and bou­tiques like Alas­ka Wild Berry Prod­ucts and Once in a Blue Moose. 

Tena­kee Springs Mar­ket opened as Sny­der Mer­can­tile in 1899. Over the years it’s been a main resource for res­i­dents and trav­el­ers. Today it’s con­sid­ered the best store in South­east Alas­ka, car­ry­ing a lit­tle bit of every­thing you’ll find in a large gro­cery, plus top shelf whiskeys, wines and beer from all over the globe. 

For afford­able, local­ly appro­pri­ate goods (think boots and rain­coats), this com­mu­ni­ty-oper­at­ed thrift store is tough to beat; crews off cruise ships shop here, but hours are lim­it­ed. It boasts a large selec­tion, includ­ing Alas­ka sou­venirs, cloth­ing, books, house­wares and games.

This small his­toric cab­in was built in 1930 in the Nor­we­gian style — with hand-hewn logs and lock-lap notch­es with­out nails or spikes — and today it’s owned by local res­i­dents Tom and Margie Waite. The Indi­an fra­grance nag cham­pa wafts over you as you browse Tal­keet­na’s most orig­i­nal col­lec­tion of native art­work; Margie’s Aleut ances­try has giv­en her great con­nec­tions and insight into native cul­ture. Look up on the walls and you’ll see a squirrel…  ...more

It’s hard to miss this shop — it’s the biggest log cab­in on Main Street. And the fam­i­ly who runs it knows Tal­keet­na well — they came here in 1959. Inside is a wide vari­ety of gifts: totem poles, gold-nugget jew­el­ry, quilts, Denali-themed trin­kets, and moose nugget lip balm (called ​“lip chap” in rur­al Alas­ka). Woman also love the ​“red hat ladies dis­play,” a nook filled with hats/​boas, high heels, jew­el­ry and oth­er ​“red hat” style gifts. And it’s…  ...more

Even in Ketchikan we can’t serve salmon for every meal, so we have our own pro­gres­sive health food store, where you can find grass-fed milk, local­ly-grown organ­ic pro­duce and what­ev­er sup­ple­ments you might need.

This local thrift shop is a vital fundrais­ing effort for St. John the Bap­tist Catholic Church in Homer. It’s Sat­ur­day morn­ing week­ly shop­ping appeals to diehard deal-find­ers and those who love a good trea­sure hunt. Join the locals in a com­mu­ni­ty-mind­ed shop­ping expe­ri­ence that con­nects you to the res­i­dents of Homer. 

Alas­ka Moun­taineer­ing and Hik­ing (AMH) is an Anchor­age insti­tu­tion that has been in busi­ness for over 30 years. AMH, offers a large selec­tion of out­er­wear and base lay­ers that are designed for tough win­ter con­di­tions. These are the guys who out­fit climbers seek­ing to sum­mit Denali, so they are experts.

Out­side is a sled dog stat­ue des­ig­nat­ing the start­ing line of the Rondy World Cham­pi­onship Sled Dog Races and the Idi­tar­od, but don’t stop there — step inside to the Dog Mush­ing Hall of Fame & Rondy Head­quar­ters! Learn about the state Sport of Alas­ka that has cap­ti­vat­ed the world for decades: his­to­ry, races, dogs and mush­ers. Check out con­tem­po­rary high tech sprint sleds, hand-made wood­en sleds or freight sleds once used by Arctic…  ...more

You’ll find the gamut of salmon prod­ucts here – from alder-smoked fil­lets to canned pâté. How about a lit­tle smoked sock­eye salmon bel­ly with hon­ey? Pep­pered smoked salmon jerky? The staff here will explain the dif­fer­ences in prod­ucts and give you sam­ples so you can see what you prefer.

This quaint jew­el­ry and gift shop on his­toric Sted­man Street show­cas­es a live­ly mix of jew­el­ry, cloth­ing, art, and house­wares. Cur­rent pro­pri­etor Ash­ley Burns fills the shop with an eclec­tic mix of items she loves – from children’s clothes, toys and books to ladies’ vin­tage aprons and trendy dress­es. Jew­el­ry has to be the high­light, though, with pieces from up and com­ing woman artists.

Rude, bel­liger­ent fish speak their minds in his wild and wacky world of Alaskan fish art.

This delight­ful lit­tle gallery fea­tures local and statewide artists, pho­tog­ra­phers and jew­el­ers. Own­ers and artists Leslie and Jens Klaar cre­ate their own water­col­ors and col­lages of Alas­ka along with tra­di­tion­al Swedish tech­nique carved knives.

What to do, and where to quench your thirst or sate your hunger when prepar­ing to cross over the Top of the World. Or when you’ve just done that.

Ton­gass Trad­ing Com­pa­ny has been a fix­ture on dock­side Ketchikan for more than a cen­tu­ry, and is worth a vis­it any­time you are in Alas­ka. As the old­est con­tin­u­al­ly oper­at­ing busi­ness in the state – since 1898 – Ton­gass Trad­ing Com­pa­ny is a liv­ing sym­bol of Ketchikan his­to­ry. Through­out the years, it has out­fit­ted min­ers, log­gers, fish­er­men, tourists, those who work in the tourism indus­try – and even locals need­ing a tux rental or evening gown  ...more

Local­ly-owned muse­um-like shop offers sil­ver jew­el­ry, carv­ings, lith­o­graphs, bent­wood box­es, hand-made drums and a line of unique t‑shirts designed by the own­er, Ken, himself.

Chi­nook and Com­pa­ny car­ries sev­er­al types of salmon, in the can and in glass jars. Lin­da will hap­pi­ly give you the low-down on each – and will also hap­pi­ly pack­age up and send your pur­chas­es back home for you.

The biggest hunt­ing and fish­ing out­fit­ter store in Anchor­age, Sports­man­’s Ware­house offers all the gear you’ll need at rea­son­able prices.

This is the kind of store you might have found on the Main Street of any town in the 1950s before big box stores trans­formed the Amer­i­can shop­ping experience.

JCPen­ney is locat­ed in the heart of Down­town Anchor­age. If you for­got any cloth­ing essen­tials from Home, this is an easy place to stop into and pick up what you need.

Great, local Anchor­age book store that is also stocked with a stel­lar selec­tion of used DVDs and Blu-Rays, and thou­sands of CDs and LPs. In front, they have a huge Alas­ka sec­tion. Grab hik­ing books, Alas­ka his­to­ry, nov­els writ­ten by Alaskan authors and more.

Con­ve­nient­ly locat­ed near down­town Anchor­age, New Sagaya City Mar­ket is more than a gro­cery store. Stop in for an Espres­so and fresh­ly baked crois­sant, vis­it the soup and sal­ad bar, order a fresh made sand­wich, or grab a hot dish. There is a small sit­ting area indoors, as well as out­doors dur­ing the sum­mer months if you would like to dine-in. Or, take your items to go. 

Here you’ll find real peo­ple who make a liv­ing on the ocean com­ing off their boats – more often than not cov­ered in fish slime.

You can find gor­geous but func­tion­al hand-carved wood­en bowls, glass sculp­tures of fish, cop­per etch­ings, antler and soap­stone carv­ings and pot­tery. Prints, pho­tographs, and orig­i­nal paint­ings adorn the walls, rep­re­sent­ing both well-known (Bird­sall, Munoz) and less­er-known artists.

The Sil­ver Thim­ble has been in busi­ness for more than thir­ty years, pro­vid­ing locals with much more than just fab­ric and thread. Its large airy space is the per­fect spot for arti­sans to gath­er and share their pas­sion for quilting.

Every Fri­day, Sat­ur­day and Sun­day in sum­mer, more than 100 ven­dors sell a wide vari­ety of Alaskan-made goods and food from all over the world. Whether you’re in the mar­ket for a valu­able keep­sake or a last-minute sou­venir, you’ll like­ly find what you want here. You’ll find sou­venir T‑shirts, furs, painters and pho­tog­ra­phers sell­ing their work, hand­made jew­el­ry, and more. Music and dance per­for­mances keep the mar­ket lively.

You will find a vari­ety of Alas­ka themed fab­rics, pat­terns and kits. Plus a huge selec­tion of batiks, nov­el­ty fab­rics, bright col­or­ful or earthy toned fab­rics. Join one of our many quilt­ing class­es or select a new Janome sewing machine.

Beware: if you came just ​“to look,” you’re kid­ding your­self. You can carve a block of choco­late out of the air in this aro­mat­i­cal­ly-rich Parisian-style store. Moun­tains of fresh choco­late sur­round you – and at the end of the aisle is a young lady who is hap­py to trade you choco­late for money.