AC Store

Kotzebue is the most expensive city in Alaska.  The price here is 61 percent higher than in Anchorage.  Everything we have here is either flown in or barged in.  We only get a few barges a year because our shipping season is short. Kotzebue Sound is very shallow, so the big barges have to park 14 miles out and the cargo is lightered into Kotzebue by tugs pushing shallow draft barges. It takes many loads and a lot of gas to bring a huge barge worth of stuff into Kotzebue.   There are two store in town, but the main one is called the AC.  The store is Alaska Commercial Company (AC) which is a Canadian owned company with many stores across bush Alaska. AC is the most convenient place to go when you want to get everything you need in one place. It is also very expensive.  If it were not for geographic pay diffential, I couldn't stay here. Kotzebue pays the highest geographic pay differential because of the cost of living and the remoteness are not appealing to many people. And if I didn't have to eat..I wouldn't  have shop here.