Send this article to Promobot

Smoke shop opens in Point Hope

December 23rd 3:03 pm | Hannah Heimbuch Print this article   Email this article   Create a Shortlink for this article

Larry Higbee is no stranger to Alaska's multi-occupational tradition. He's worn his fair share of hats since coming to Alaska in 1977 to be Point Hope's first police officer. This month he took on a new one, as co-owner and operator of Aulagraug's Store smoke shop with his wife, Violet.

They opened up on Agviq street across from Aj's a few weeks ago. The small store sells tobacco products, pipes and a number of other goods - like band aids and aspirin - that quick-stop evening shoppers may want. They also provide money transfer services. They are open 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday, alternate timing from the grocery store.

Higbee said he wanted to be open at the same time as AJ's across the street, but is trying not to compete with the products his business neighbor sells. Aj's doesn't sell tobacco, and Aulagraug's Store won't be selling the candy and pop that Aj's offers.

Higbee has owned a number of businesses in Point Hope over the years, including a pool hall and arcade he built inside a cargo plane that crashed in Point Hope in 1969. He saw the British Argosy, previously used for delivering fuel, when he moved to town. It was sitting idly by the airstrip where it had crashed.

"I admired it so much," Higbee said. "You could drive several trucks right in, it was so big. I got fixated by trying to get my hands on it."

After a wild goose chase of tracking down the actual owners and the title - both of which he found in Nebraska - he formally acquired the craft and put in pool tables, arcade games and a snack bar.

Higbee and his late first wife ran the pool hall and arcade for seven years. After his wife became ill, Higbee said, they donated it to the city and it's been sitting empty ever since.

True to his nature and love of atypical building materials, Higbee set up his current establishment inside a 28-foot, modern cargo trailer. He added a glass front, tile floor, some wallpaper and opened the door for business. Higbee said it's going well so far and thinks word-of-mouth and low prices have brought people in.

With tobacco and other products, Higbee said they're trying to offer lower prices to build a competitive customer base, though that does cut some of their profit out. He was especially pleased that they were able to offer cigarettes at $8.50 a pack, as opposed to the $11 per pack charged at the store. The grocery store has since reduced its price to $9 per pack, Higbee said.

Any small business owner in rural Alaska faces a unique set of difficulties - weather, isolation, low clientele numbers, expensive shipping - and Higbee has experience with most of them. Fuel costs and lines of credit have been the priciest hurtles for him in past business - especially when it came to a taxi service he started and closed last year.

Higbee said that between the cost of insurance and fuel, and the amount of credit he extended to customers needing a ride, he wasn't able to keep the business going and dubbed it a "disaster."

"It finally ended up reaching a point where we had too much money out for the credit - eight or nine thousand dollars," Higbee said.

Despite that, Higbee still has great regard for the 'tab' system that rural Alaskans have used for decades. He wants to be able to continue providing goods and services to people who may not have the cash to pay right then.

"I like the idea of the tab, it's old school," Higbee said. "This whole culture was based on tabs. It's not only traditional, it's an acceptable way of doing business here."

Higbee also said, in his experience, the majority of people make good on their IOUs given the time to do it.

"Even if you loose your shirt on a tab, the ability for someone to have a tab up here I believe is cultural," Higbee said. "It goes much further than the need for the product or service, it goes to a time not that long ago when money was tighter and harder to come by."

Aulagraug's Store will start by offering a credit limit of $50, but Higbee hopes to increase it to several hundred eventually. First, however, he has to wait and see how the cost of electricity, fuel for heat and other expenses all shake out.

Once the business and up and running smoothly, Higbee said, his wife Violet will be the primary operator - then he'll be on to his next project.

Now 62, Higbee has been a police officer, airline agent, GCI technician and ATM technician. He's run a pool hall, a taxi service and now a smoke shop. Next winter he'll add a new hat to his collection. Following the remodel of a 30-year-old Bob CAT he plans to start a snow removal business. This career variety is personal preference coupled with practical necessity, Higbee said.

"It's not by choice, just the nature of our situation sometimes. You have to."

 

Contact us about this article at editor@thearcticsounder.com

Copyright 2012 The Arctic Sounder is a publication of Alaska Media, LLC. This article is © 2012 and limited reproduction rights for personal use are granted for this printing only. This article, in any form, may not be further reproduced without written permission of the publisher and owner, including duplication for not-for-profit purposes. Portions of this article may belong to other agencies; those sections are reproduced here with permission and Alaska Media, LLC makes no provisions for further distribution.