Medical Lake Woman Gives Villagers Shopping Power
For four years Bonnie Kaesemeyer of Medical Lake has provided a personal shopping service for a remote village in the Alaskan interior.
Chalkyitsik, population 90, is on the Yukon Flats, just a few miles inside the Arctic Circle. The name is an Athabascan Indian word meaning “to fish with a hook at creek mouth.” In fact, residents call it “fishhook town,” said Mary Nathaniel, whose family has lived there for generations.
It’s a town with an airstrip but no roads. There are no malls, just a small general store.
The nearest village to Chalkyitsik (pronounced chawl-KIT-sik) is Fort Yukon, 40 air miles away. Fairbanks is 170 air miles to the southwest.
Much, much farther south is Medical Lake, Wash., where, for the past four years, Kaesemeyer has found jeans, sneakers, Easter outfits and assorted other items, even knickknacks, for Mary Nathaniel’s family and other residents of the village.
Every three months or so Nathaniel sends a shopping list, and Kaesemeyer hits the sales, closeouts, clearances, thrift stores, even garage sales to make the dollars stretch for her budget-conscious customers.
Kaesemeyer said the villagers from the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge prefer this personalized shopping method to dealing with mail-order catalog purchases. Rather than asking the pricier shipping and handling charges customary with catalog purchases, Kaesemeyer charges flat fees - “very reasonable” - for her efforts. Profit occasionally takes a hit if Bonnie has to buy an item at full department store price.
She prides herself on customer satisfaction and said she has had only one minor complaint. Nathaniel thought the three pairs of white gloves sent with some requested Easter outfits were “a bit much” for Chalkyitsik.
Kaesemeyer understands the rigors of living in a remote area. While growing up in Spokane, she became fascinated with Alaska’s “last frontier” mystique, she said. At age 25 she answered a cannery ad and worked on fishing boats in the Aleutian Islands.
Despite the hard work and spartan conditions, she signed on for several six-month stints, outlasting many crewmates.
Later, while working in a post office at Sand Point, Alaska, she saw the opportunity to start a store (“Bonnie’s Boutique”) and provide a shopping service for residents in remote areas.
Because supplies were flown or ferried to the island settlement, Kaesmeyer said she learned to appreciate things she now can take for granted, such as fresh produce, or having choices in menu planning. She learned how life revolves around the weather, and when someone says they will stop by, it might be next week before they show up.
She said she also learned self-discipline - like having a case of Almond Joys in the closet but limiting herself to just one a day.
She also knows how big an event in a remote village is the arrival of each shipment of what she calls “great stuff.”
After returning to Spokane, Kaesemeyer mailed fliers to Alaskan villages offering her shopping services. Nathaniel responded and has called back regularly ever since.
The shopping service may be expanded to other villages, possibly using the Internet, Kaesemeyer said.
Now a single mother, Kaesemeyer keeps a “day job” as a dental assistant but also does personal shopping for a few other single moms in the area. She also operates the Great Stuff shop in Medical Lake, where she can resell some of the “treasures” she finds on shopping trips.
Travel adventures still beckon. Kaesemeyer said she and her son, 11, may visit Alaska, including Chalkyitsik, or perhaps Africa, where a friend is a missionary nurse in Zambia.
Map of State of Alaska