Catalog Ordering

I realize that some of the things that happen in Kodiak are due to the fact that we are a small town. Recently, however, living on an island in the state of Alaska has created new difficulties. Yes, shopping is limited. We have a Walmart and a local sporting goods store, Mack's. There are other smaller stores, but these are most frequented. They even have sales every so often. We were notified the other day that Mack's had a 20% coupon and Carlos and I couldn't decided what we needed the most. Was it new waterproof pants or long underwear for winter? We are still undecided, but we have through the weekend.

Other times, the items we want are not available. You have to go online or catalog shop for these things. Now, normally, if you live in the Lower 48 (this is Alaska language), you can get overnight shipping if you are in a hurry. Even 2-3 days shipping is easily attained and frequently even free. Such is not the case here.

I recently found an item in a major department store online catalog. It was exactly what I needed and it stated that shipping was free in the United States.  Well, I really thought that the Alaska Territories became a part of the United States in 1959. Maybe I was mistaken, but shipping was not free to Alaska. In fact, I have since found that many stores will not even ship to Kodiak. This does create somewhat of a problem at times.

What is a little more interesting is the UPS situation in Kodiak.  We recently had an item recalled by the company. They explained that a pre-paid UPS sticker would be send to us and we only needed to have the UPS pick up the item. We know that the UPS truck travels the island. We've received packages. But when you try to schedule a pick-up, the automated telephone person states that there is no such delivery area. This was a problem.

We started asking others in the neighborhood if they had ever encountered this problem. Needless to say, they had. And their solution.....you need to watch for the driver when he is making deliveries and flag him down! I think we've taken a step backwards in this area.

Yes, we finally got a package picked up, but it was only because there were regular deliveries at the hospital and Carlos was able to slip our package with theirs.

From now on, let's hope most deliveries are via FedEx. They have an office.