Anchorage's booming retail industry.

• Author: Hill, Robin Mackey
• Position: Anchorage, Alaska

Just when local economists and others with their finger on Anchorage's economic pulse were declaring the patient on the mend, symptoms of a once-again ailing economy surfaced during 1992 like a pesky rash. The fight for what jobs there were was hard-knuckled and Anchorage's retail industry was predicted to remain sluggish.

Sluggish?

Several months after making his annual economic predictions, state economist Neal Fried says maybe "sluggish" wasn't the right word, after all. His prediction for a lackluster performance by Anchorage's now-booming retail industry was made before several big-ticket retailers announced plans either to expand their existing Anchorage operations or to enter the market. Now that the word's out, get ready to shop till you drop because -- as of this fall -- four Outside retailers had announced plans to significantly expand their Anchorage operations, while four other large retailers said they, too, planned to enter the market or have already done so.

Planned expansions include warehouses for both Costco and Pace, the construction of a 175,000-square-foot Fred Meyer store that will include a full-line grocery, and expansion by Sears, Roebuck and Co. Carr Gottstein Food Co. also announced plans this summer to add Chinese take-out, a floral department and a taco bar in Muldoon, creating yet another of the chain's "super-stores."

Those planning to enter the Anchorage market for the first time or with stores already open include The Disney Store, Eagle Hardware & Garden, toy store giant Toys 'R' Us and Michigan-based Kmart, one of the nation's largest and most aggressive discount retailers. Kmart has begun work for a store 0in south Anchorage and revealed in October that it was looking for land across town to build a second store. The south Anchorage store is scheduled to open in late 1993, the second one sometime the following year. The retailer also plans to open stores late next year in Fairbanks and Kenai.

Do They Know Something?

Scott Hawkins, president of the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation, thinks there are two basic reasons major retailers are keen on coming to Anchorage. The first is that, even though our economic outlook seems to us to be a bit overcast, it's actually more inviting than Outside. "We may not think it's great," says Hawkins, "but it's a heck of a lot better than other places."

Secondly, Hawkins says, there's the fact that Anchorage residents are relatively young and well-paid. They tend...