Tongass Trading Company: A Lasting Legacy in the First City

Tongass Trading Company was there to supply and sell the prospectors gold pans, picks, blasting powder—practically anything they needed. As the local economy and population grew, so did the store, catering to locals with housewares, boosted by the acquisition of a competing merchant’s furniture store in the 1920s.

Times were changing in the region, and as the flashy Gold Rush faded to routine mining, in came the fisheries. Ketchikan boomed as a hub for commercial halibut and salmon fishing, and Tongass Trading Company was there for it, outfitting the fleet with halibut hooks, flashers, and hoochies, and stocking clothing and equipment for cannery workers too. The company also took care of its local clientele, maintaining inventories of household goods, clothes, and groceries.

In 1937, Tongass Trading Company was purchased by Ward Cove Packing, a longtime local cannery owned by the Brindle brothers. The acquisition was a sensible business move designed to manage the inventory that would support their thriving cannery business. They sold stock shares in Tongass Trading Company and, at one time, there were dozens of shareholders; Parks says the business today counts eight shareholders, and he’s one of them.

Parks calls A.W. Brindle a visionary entrepreneur who remained president of the Tongass Trading Company, as well as Ward Cove Packing, until his death in 1976.

“They built an empire,” Parks says.

Ketchikan again saw economic evolution in the second half of the century with the arrival of the lucrative timber industry. Tongass Trading Company pivoted yet again, building up an in-demand inventory of clothing and logging supplies for lumberjacks across Southeast. Floating logging camps were entirely built from Tongass Trading Company wares: furniture, bedding, plumbing pipe, and galvanized steel pins that kept the log base of the camp together.

“In the 1950s, they built the pulp mill here, so we provided the supplies they needed for that as well,” Parks says. “About the time we lost our timber economy, the cruise industry kind of exploded. That’s our main driver now.”

Eleven Departments, Six Buildings

Today, colorful Ketchikan’s downtown is a National Historic Landmark District, a cruise ship hot spot, and Alaska’s sixth-most populous city with around 8,100 year-round residents. Tongass Trading Company is a dockside fixture in Ketchikan, where its main store operates year-round, and its 180,000 annual customers depart carrying iconic red Tongass Trading Company shopping bags.

The company’s website says, “If you need a trinket, if you want to see what Alaskans really wear, or you just want to visit a store whose history goes back to before Ketchikan was incorporated—stop by Tongass Trading Company.”

But the big dockside shop is not the company’s only store.
“We’re a specialty department store with eleven departments in six different buildings,” Parks says.

Sometimes called the Tongass Trading Company Triangle, the company’s three main stores are in the heart of town, between Docks 2 and 3 and on Dock 4.

The flagship Dock Store at 201 Dock Street stands on the site of the original Tongass Trading Company marine store, which burned down in 1970. Its location means it’s often tourists’ first shopping stop. The Inside Passage Curio Store fills the first floor’s sprawling 10,000 square feet. It’s the largest curio store in Alaska. Souvenirs range from quintessential Alaska items such as tiny totem poles and ulu knives to hoodies, hats, and T-shirts.

The Dock Store’s second floor houses the Alaskan Outdoor Outfitters and Sporting Goods departments, with high-end brands like North Face, Patagonia, Under Armour, Marmot, Vuori, Helly Hansen, Pendleton, and more.

“We are name-brand driven,” Parks says. “It is more expensive, but our motto for years and years is ‘quality costs no more.’ It costs more initially but lasts four times as long. We have some value-priced stuff as well. If someone comes off a ship and needs cheap rain gear or boots, we have everything from a $1.99 poncho to a $600 Arc’teryx jacket.”

The Dock Store also stocks gear for hunting, fishing, and camping.

Kitty corner to the Dock Store, at 312 Dock Street, is the Menswear Building and the Ladies Loft, in a building listed on the National Historic Register that dates to 1913. This three-level building includes men’s fashion and footwear in the basement, menswear on the ground floor, and the women’s clothing and footwear section upstairs.

A block away, completing the triangle, is Inside Passage Curios and Gifts in the Ingersoll Building, an old hotel and restaurant. This space also houses Tongass Trading Company offices and warehouse space.

“We do have a Walmart [in Ketchikan], so if you need clothing or footwear, your choices are Walmart or us or online,” Parks says. “We’re well-priced for what we have. It’s pretty much all name brand stuff.”

Less than a mile away is the Tongass Marine and Outdoor store on Marine Works Way and The Furniture House on Tongass Avenue.

Tongass Marine “is a full commercial marine sporting goods store: rubber boots, waders, Ace Hardware boat repair gear, guns, and ammo,” Parks says. The furniture store runs the gamut of supplies, including living room, dining room, bedroom, and home office furniture.

These businesses operate under the Tongass Trading Company canopy and cater mainly to locals, continuing the business’ long tradition of providing locals with essentials for living and working in Southeast.

Filling a Need

As consumer behavior and economic needs have evolved over Tongass Trading Company’s 127-year history, the store has adapted its identity and services to remain viable and useful.

The upcoming reorganization continues that evolution. The change coming next year will separate the souvenir division from the non-souvenir division.

Tongass Trading Company will deal solely in curio sales at the main Dock Store, the Inside Passage shop, and an outlet store.

What won’t change, Parks says, is Tongass Trading Company’s longstanding ability to advise shoppers seeking outdoor gear and clothes.

“The outdoor stuff is more specialized, and you need expert advice on how it works,” he says. “I tell people we aren’t salespeople, we’re problem solvers, and we’re filling a need. It could be people off the cruise ship or people here for the summer working or people passing through on a yacht; they have different needs and expectations for what they want.”

Eighty percent of Tongass Trading Company’s business is between May and September, which is nothing new: even when its sales were primarily driven by the logging industry, the heaviest sales were April to September, Parks says.

“People aren’t making and spending money in the winter,” he says. “It’s a seasonal summer economy here.”

The cruise ship industry will deliver a predicted 1.47 million people to Ketchikan in 2025 and 1.6 million in 2026. The town has two cruise ship ports—four big berths downtown and another port 5 miles up the road at Ward Cove that can hold two mega-cruise ships. More than 1 million will come ashore at the downtown ports and flood Ketchikan streets.

“They like Ketchikan because it is a real working town, a blue-collar working town,” Parks says. “The marinas are full of fishing boats. It is very much the real Alaska.”

While cruise ship tourists are mostly in the market for souvenirs, they sometimes need gear they neglected to pack, and that’s where Parks and his team are prepared to help.

“You need hiking shoes? What kind of hiking are you going to do? Oh, you’re going on a glacier hike and walking around Juneau and going back to Alabama? I’ve got a pair of hiking boots for $99,” Parks says. “Another guy could say, ‘I’m going to the Chilkoot Trail with this 60-pound pack.’ Well, let me get you a pair of shoes that will support that trip and support that backpack weight and keep you safe.”

Tongass Trading Company today employs about 50 people during the winter and grows to about 130 staff members in the summer. Like many Ketchikan businesses, the company has built employee housing to account for the seasonal surge.

Looking ahead, the cruise ship industry is expected to grow, Parks says. More visitors is good news for Tongass Trading Company’s sales across all its sectors.

“They’ll buy shoes, better socks, better hats and gloves,” Parks says. “If it’s 55°F, it feels like winter to them. We sell tons of fleece-lined jackets in the souvenir shops.”

With its impending division into two freestanding businesses still bonded by a beloved brand, Tongass Trading Company is once again realigning to meet consumer needs. Parks will head Tongass Outfitters, working with Karl Biggerstaff; Shane Greaves will serve as general manager of the Tongass Trading Company curio branch.

“We’re still a small business, but we’re a larger small business,” Parks says. “We’re a medium-size fish in a small pond. We’ve evolved over the years and done pretty much everything in the retail business except for alcohol and tobacco. We had a grocery store for years. At one time we had an outboard [motor] store, a cable shop, and a gas shop, even carpeting. We’ve truly evolved throughout the years. You have to be changing and innovating or you’ll get left behind.”