Barging householdgoods from Seattle to Sitka?? (Fairbanks: sale, buying, university)

[Metlakatla]

Yeah, but that's not SE. The benefits I see to filling up in Seattle is having stuff that they might not be able to get in Sitka -- I just don't think they'll save that much money, although like I said, it couldn't hurt. I guess I should just give up trying to make this point, but Sitka is not a bush community. What's expensive in SE is perishables, and I wouldn't advise putting those in your car on the barge.

I'm always able to get enough stuff on Amazon Prime to take the edge off both the grocery store prices and their lack of selection. If you have room, get food and whatever household crap you think you have to have, but it's Sitka, not some fly-in village. The savings aren't going to be that big.

[6.7traveler]

3x food cost as anchorage is insane haolejohn lol. That would literally kill me financially as food/groceries is my biggest monthly expense up here as it is, I don't know how you do it. I'd definitely be filling up my car with food then in that case.

Amazon is continuing to ramp up the grocery selection online. I just read this article how they acquired some military type food processing technology to obtain decent tasting "food" that requires no refrigeration and can easily be shipped. Sounds gross and similar to one of those weight loss type "meals" to me, but that could be a game changer for people in the bush and Alaska in general. I get the bushmailer newspaper delivered for some reason and the prices of food they advertise shipped out of anchorage via flat rate mail is crazy.

Does anyone order a decent amount of actual food from amazon? I've heard of people doing subscribe and save on items like paper towels and toliet paper but haven't personally ran into anyone getting actual food from them. I may try it out of they have anything good, but I eat mostly meat and perishable goods that I just can't see how they can ship them.

[Metlakatla]

^ Yes, I do. I have no idea of what I save that way because I don't nickel and dime every last thing to pieces. It's more of a convenience for me because both the service and selection in the stores on POW are substandard. Get plenty of free seafood and perishables in season, though. I actually think I spend less on food when I'm there.

[6.7traveler]

^Very interesting. What do I search for on amazon though, just type in food in the search bar lol?

It's been a while since I've utilized my amazon prime subscription so I may have to try this out tomorrow. My grocery bill is about $1k a month so if I could save money that would be nice. I just don't like the package delivery guy showing up randomly unannounced though, he always catches me at a bad time . He usually seems somewhat perplexed and amazed and partly disturbed by the domestead though.

[Haolejohn]

We don't nickle and dime either. We do buy our snacks from Amazon. We used to order a lot of food from Walmart.com but they stopped doing feee shipping to Alaska. We saved A LOT that way. Now we buy local. It sucks, and we are going back to the bush method. One income.

We will be ordering from Fred Meyers this fall and winter. Hopefully we get a moose this year. I bought a boat so I can actually get out to moose territory.

Generally, we plan an anchorage trip and hot Costco up. We spend $3k and about $800 in shipping but we are good for 3-4 months. Also living in a hub, we can get meat flown innfairly inexpensivly.

[Metlakatla]

@ 67 You have a bunch of kids to feed, right?

My Amazon stuff comes to my PO box so I don't have to deal with delivery guys showing up. although they're showing up all the time anyway for the business. The local shopping situation is abysmal. Mostly, I get coffee and tea (wish I could get hooch), pet food, household crap, a certain type of tomato soup that's addictive that comes in little cartons, canned stuff like black beans and pumpkin, staples like rice, flour, spices, whatever. We can't even get Panko on POW. I also have a commercial FSA account and get stuff through them.

[riceme]

Geez, i'm thinking I need to try grocery shopping on Amazon.

67, just pointing out that your grocery bill is the same as a family that lives in the bush, in case you can't math. Wtf are yall eating?? :-o

Wait, Hj... was that figure just for your costco run, or all-in?

[rntim]

I agree with Met. Get a bunch of coffee and toilet paper. Not going to save a whole lot trying to stock up.

[AlaskaErik]

The problem with Amazon is that they don't ship a lot items to Alaska. Every time I tried to order food they said they don't ship to Alaska.

[Metlakatla]

That hasn't been my experience.