The Best Places to Shop in Alaska

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

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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

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.

Out­door farm­ers mar­ket in the park­ing area of the North­way Mall

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

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. 

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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