Shopping Options Expand on Fourth Avenue
The monument to the Alaska Territorial Guard stands between Midnight Market, on the left, and its old location in Sunshine Plaza, which it now rents to Pacific Corner Market, on the right.
Photo Credit: Alaska Business
Tourists, commuters, and locals in Downtown Anchorage have new retail options on Fourth Avenue, even before a proposed supermarket arrives on the block. This week, Pacific Corner Market is celebrating its grand opening at Sunshine Plaza, the bright yellow mall at Fourth and D Street. The shop specializes in items that the city’s Asian and Pacific Islander communities can’t find on shelves anywhere else.
And if shoppers can’t find it there, they might try Midnight Market a few steps away, even up to 3 a.m., true to its name. Since relocating to a new storefront in Sunshine Plaza, the vape and smoke shop has expanded its footprint and its inventory, trying to anticipate every shopper’s needs.
Community Meets Connection
“We wanted to expand and bring in more coolers, snacks, and candy,” says Nader Qasem, store manager at Midnight Market. The shop has been in the mall for five years but moved into bigger quarters over the summer, vacating the space now occupied by Pacific Corner Market.
Snacks are also stocked in abundance there, but with more exotic brands. “There isn’t another store in this area that offers these specialty items,” says Pacific Corner Market store manager Lisa Walker.
“We have a very big Polynesian community here, an Asian community here,” notes Richard Watkins, who co-owns the market with his mother. “It’s nice to represent our culture in this area. A lot of tourists come in and see stuff like this. It’s nice to see their faces light up when they see our culture in the store.”
Watkins is a football coach with a degree in psychology, so retail is a new adventure. He’s been establishing the business through June, and he says the soft opening so far has performed above expectations. “A lot of our community, our people came out,” says Watkins. “They come in and like to see the goods.”
Those goods include grab-and-go fresh foods ordered from local kitchens: manapua pork buns, musubi Spam rolls, and lumpia. Walker observes, “It’s a space of culture. Community meets connection: we want our people to feel seen and have a place to go.”
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Packaged goods include staples that Pacific Islanders and Asian customers crave, such as kimchi-flavored chips and Zippy’s chili. Walker adds, “Canned corned beef, that’s big in the Polynesian community. Hawaiian Sun drinks.”
In the back of the market, some space is set aside for sundries like laundry detergent, a seemingly ordinary item that is difficult to find in Anchorage’s central business district, especially since the Carr’s store on Gambell Street closed last year.
Specialty groceries and convenience stores make up the difference, including Midnight Market, right across the plaza from Pacific Corner Market. Walker says, “They’re an amazing business, and the team there is awesome, as neighbors.”
Moreover, Qasem calls the Pacific Corner Market crew “good friends” rather than competitors. More importantly, “Those are our tenants,” he adds. “We don’t mind them. They sell different things.”
Cater to Customers
Asian and Pacific Islander communities in Anchorage might recognize some brands from specialty grocery stores around town, but Pacific Corner Market tries to stock hard-to-find items as well.
Photo Credit: Alaska Business
Hard to imagine what anyone could sell that isn’t stocked in some fashion at Midnight Market. “You can’t survive on one item,” says Qasem. “You have to bring a variety of things. This way, you cater to everybody.” In this way, the shop specializes by generalizing.
The wide selection includes tobacco and vapes, of course, as well as snacks and drinks. “Probably the only Frazil slushy machine downtown,” Qasem observes.
He points to departments for electronics, cosmetics, a gift shop, and a miniature drugstore, which tourists especially appreciate. “Some of them are sick because of the cruise ships, so we provide a lot of medications, over the counter,” he notes.
As he says so, a shopper thanks the store for an emergency purchase. “They went around looking for Hall’s [cough drops]. They can’t find that Downtown, so they came here and found it,” says Qasem. “They were able to find what they were looking for here without going outside of Downtown.”
True, hotel guests can find cough drops at concierge desks, for example. And barely a block away from Sunshine Plaza, Lucky Grocery & Deli stocks medicines and sundries. The shop has been on Fourth Avenue for twenty years. In addition to dry goods and a microwave oven to prepare meals, the store has refrigerator cases with fresh fruit, cheese, and milk.
Fresh options are poised to explode for residents of Downtown and Government Hill, according to a redevelopment plan for the Post Office Mall on Fourth Avenue. As Phase 2 of a project that began with the revitalization of The Wildbirch Hotel across C Street, the building is slated to be refurbished with residential condos on the top floor, a Seattle-inspired indoor market at street level, and a supermarket in the basement.
Walker hadn’t heard about that proposal, which former mayor and US senator Mark Begich has been touting for a few years. Walker welcomes the competition. “It’s OK if he does,” she says. “There’s McDonalds and Burger King across the street from each other. We have specialty items that he may not carry. I think it would be great if he did.”
More Activity, More Action
Relocating in Sunshine Plaza opened a vast selling floor for Midnight Market, enabling the shop to specialize in generalizing, with a little something for everybody.
Photo Credit: Alaska Business
For his part, Begich envisions a different category of retail than the convenience stores Fourth Avenue now boasts. His Northern Compass Group had tested the waters with the Stuaqpak supermarket brand in Utqiaġvik and Kodiak, but that venture ended last year. He hasn’t announced which store might operate in the Post Office Mall.
Whatever it ends up being, Begich believes it can coexist with the specialty markets. “Anytime you get more businesses downtown, that’s a good thing,” he says. “More food selections makes a big difference.”
Qasem agrees. “We just want Downtown to be more full, more activity, more action,” he says. “We want businesses to thrive. That’s what we care about.”
More activity may arrive on Fourth Avenue next year. Begich and his development partner Sheldon Fisher say the Post Office Mall is mostly demolished inside and ready for construction. Materials are stocked on site. A “Now Leasing” sign is on the exterior, enticing new tenants that Begich says the company is curating. Pending some final equity fundraising, Begich and Fisher expect to see some Phase 2 results by the end of 2027.
