Who we are

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Alaska Commercial Company is a retail company which provides groceries and general merchandise in stores throughout Alaska. We have a compelling and authentic story with which few retailers in North America can compare. We are proud of our long tradition of providing food and general merchandise to rural Alaskans. Our history is interwoven with the history of Alaska. For the past 150 years Alaska Commercial Company has earned a special reputation in rural Alaska. We are Alaska’s trusted community store of choice, and the retail employer of choice in rural Alaska.

In 1776, Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, granted trading rights to the Russian American Trading Company and began exchanging goods and services for furs, gold and other items at trading posts throughout Alaska. When the United States bought Alaska from Russia in 1867, the company was sold to San Francisco merchants Lewis Gerstle and Louis Sloss and was renamed the Alaska Commercial Company. From 1868 to the Gold Rush Days of the early 1900s, Alaska Commercial Company was a provider of groceries and general merchandise for trappers, explorers and gold seekers.

In 1992, the company was purchased by The North West Company (NWC) from then owner The Commercial Enterprise Development Corporation of Alaska. This acquisition by NWC made the combined companies the largest North American rural retailers and one of the largest employers in the State of Alaska.