A man from Gustavus, Alaska, has revealed how he makes a 14-hour boat trip to Costco every week to make sure his small city has enough food and supplies amid coronavirus pandemic.
Gustavus, formerly known as ‘Strawberry Point,’ is a coastal community that borders Glacier Bay National Park and has 450 residents. The only place where locals can buy groceries is ToshCo or Icy Strait Wholesale.
That’s why the owner of Icy Strait Wholesale, Toshua Parker, makes a weekly boat trip with his staff to restock on supplies and essential food. The journey to Juneau takes about 14 hours to complete.
Parker usually has items and food delivered to his store from Costco but the state’s ferry system stopped going to Gustavus due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In an interview with CNN, Parker said: “It’s funny because for us, this doesn’t seem like a big deal.point 378 |
Alaskans are fiercely independent and resourceful; you really have to be to survive here.point 76 | So when a problem arises, we don’t typically look to someone else for help, we just find a way to do it.point 165 | ”point 168 | 1
Working with local fishermen and employees, the small business owner has been making a 14-hour boat trip every week. They dock in Junaeu and purchase food and supplies from Costco then load everything onto the vessel.
But when storms suddenly hit on their way back to their city, they have to return to Juneau, unload supplies, and wait for the weather to calm down before trying to go back again.
“The town needed to be supplied with groceries so we just did whatever it took to make that happen. Just another day in our world. Next year it will be another obstacle to overcome and we’ll buck up and deal with it,” Parker expressed.
The community has been very grateful for Parker’s and workers’ efforts to make sure the Gustavus is running.
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