Support local Skagway business

As a tourist, you may not realize that many of the businesses you encounter while in port are not locally owned and operated. While this may not seem like such a big deal, doesn’t it make more sense to support the businesses of hard-working family people that call Skagway their home? Let’s take a look at why you should support local Skagway business and then review ways to ensure your tourist dollar is being spent locally.

Local Skagway business is the life-blood of our Alaskan community

The tourist season lasts less than five months. As a tourist, you get a glimpse of life during the tourist season, but what happens during the other seven months of the year? This is a more quiet time for the people that remain in town. They have mortgages and car payments. Their kids go to the local school. They shop at the local businesses that remain open during the off-season. In other words; they’re living life.

When you spend your money at a locally owned business, every dollar stays in the community. It’s true that the 5% sales tax on every item you purchase goes toward local government services like road maintenance and the Skagway recreation center, but when you support a local Skagway business the other 95% also stays in the community.

Think about that for a minute. Let’s say you purchase $100 worth of ulu knives and refrigerator magnets for your spoiled grand-kids back home. If you shop at a local Skagway business, the owner now has $100 to pay their employees wages, buy food at the local grocery store, pay for their home heating oil during the cold winter months, and save money so their kids can go to college.

But if you spend that $100 at a business that isn’t locally owned, up to $95 is removed from the local economy to be spent elsewhere, often on cheap margaritas on a Mexican beach. This does not mean that businesses owned by non-locals are bad, but it does show that how you spend your money truly makes a difference.

How to identify a local Skagway business

The best and easiest way to find out if a business is locally owned is to ask the owner where they spend their winters. If they say Fiji, they are not a year-round local. You will also find that owners of local Skagway businesses like to announce this tidbit of information on their advertising and signage. You can also ask them if they’re open during the winter months. If they are open during the off-season, then you know they’re locally owned.

Stuff in Skagway is expensive and locals get stuck with the bill year-round

You may have noticed that everything in Skagway is pretty expensive. The locals pay just as much for everything as you do. If a gallon of milk costs you $9 at the local store, it also costs us $9 at the local store. Local Skagway business owners have to buy their kids food to eat and pay more than $4 a gallon for fuel. However, business owners that travel south for the winter are collecting the same high prices on their goods and services but spending it in areas that are far cheaper to live.

Take the time to make sure you’re supporting local Skagway business owners. You will feel better about yourself and we will be able to afford heating fuel over the winter. M&M Tours is locally-owned and operated. Every employee is also a local Skagwegian. If you care about where you’re money goes and like to support small business, your choice of tour vendor is obvious.