Business briefs are an opportunity for the Chilkat Valley News to inform the community about new, changing or improving businesses in the borough.
Bookstore to change owner in September
The Babbling Book will become The Babbling Book and Dragon’s Nook, after ownership changes hands next month.
Liz and Tom Heywood are selling the bookstore they’ve owned for almost two decades to Darcee Messano.
Tom Heywood said the sale will ensure the bookstore remains on Main Street and give he and Liz more time to visit family and travel. The Heywoods will stay in Haines.
Haines’ independent bookstore has been in town for 25 years and weathered various economic storms.
“Internet sales and big-box store sales closed down a huge portion of the indie bookstore business across the county,” Tom Heywood said. “But it seems as though the need for independent bookstores has begun to increase now a little bit because people kind of realized what they lost. When there are independent bookstores people are trying to support them to keep them around.”
Tom Heywood said Messano will be walking into a viable business with room to grow and change.
“We’ve been doing this for 19 years,” Tom Heywood said. “We would like to be freed up a little bit but we never wanted to leave a hole in Main Street. She’s going to step into a viable business that’s already operating and she’ll change it up with her own creativity over time but she’ll be able to walk into it as it is right now.”
Messano said she plans to remove the center island where the cash register is now. She wants the bookstore to be a hub where people can come to relax, drink coffee, read and hook up to Wi-Fi.
“I want it to be more of a venue, a relaxing place to go to meet with friends,” Messano said. “There will be comfy chairs and an espresso machine, nothing fancy. I’m a little bit hippie. I like to burn incense. I’m going to be putting live plants in the store. I’m open to ideas and inspiration.”
Messano said she wants to host evening events such as wine tastings, art nights and book readings.
People can say bye to the Heywoods and hello to Messano during the Sept. 1 First Friday event.
“First Friday will be a pretty big deal for us,” Messano said. “It’s the day I sign over. I’m hoping a lot of people come down and wish Liz and Tom good luck and see me in the new space.”
Liz Heywood said she’ll miss being surrounded by so many great books, but that “I think I’ll be better read because I’ll have more time to read.”
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IGA receives perishable items quicker
Howsers IGA Supermarket has changed its perishable foods delivery method and is selling fresher meat, dairy products and produce with longer expiration dates.
“The feedback from customers has been positive,” Store manager Kevin Shove said. “You can see the difference from two days on the road versus seven days on the barge especially in the berries and those sensitive items. We’re getting an extra week dating on products now.”
Not only does it take longer on the barge, Shove said, container vans are moved around and sometimes unplugged for up to an hour.
Fairchild Freight, the company Howsers now uses to ship its perishables, specializes in transporting consumer food commodities through Western Canada, Alaska and North Pacific island communities. The company approached Howsers earlier this year.
“We weighed the options and the cost,” Shove said. “The cost is a bit more than the barge but the product quality is selling just fine. We didn’t raise prices or anything like that. We wanted to try something new and see how it would be received and it was definitely successful.”
Fairchild Freight drives up the Alaska Highway from Washington and brings fish from the canneries back down south. Two drivers work in shifts in one truck for the 40-hour haul to Haines, Shove said.
“They leave Monday. A lot of times they didn’t get out of Seattle until 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. and they still made it here by Wednesday morning,” Shove said.
Howsers changed its shipping method on June 6 and plans on continuing for several more months before they decide whether or not to continue through the winter.
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Local baker sells goods at Olerud’s
Local bread and bagel baker Josie Allen is now selling her goods at Olerud’s Market after a successful run at the Haines Farmers Market.
Allen runs her baking business, Josie’s Bread and Bagels, out of the senior center kitchen where she rents space.
Allen said she’s been baking for her family and friends for years but stepped up her game after attending a baking course in California last year.
“I’ve mostly learned at home as time has gone on,” Allen said. “I’ve just been able to dabble here and there but last year I went down to San Francisco and took a class on the fundamentals of baking and the science behind it and how the hydration and salt and yeast effects the bread.”
Allen sold around 50 loaves of bread at each Saturday’s farmers market. Olerud’s stocks 15 loaves each week but they’re starting to go fast.
“Last week I had one loaf left over,” Allen said. “I bought it back from them. I brought in 15 yesterday and today there’s three left.”
Olerud’s sells Allen’s white, whole wheat and rye sourdough. She also bakes multigrain three-seed and pumpernickel loaves.
Allen’s loaves cost between $9 to $10. Individuals can place special orders with her or through her Facebook page, which is the same name as her business.
Allen buys all her ingredients from Mountain Market and hopes to expand her bread sales throughout town.
Allen said she wants to provide Haines with the “best bread possible.”
“I love how it’s kind of an art and a science both in one,” Allen said. “The possibilities are limitless to me, how you can change something, how dynamic it is, how you can easily change one type of bread to another just by technique or hydration or content of yeast.”