A Behind The Hustle episode (not the main MFM pod — different hosts, shorter format) about Gustavus, Alaska — a town of 400 people that lost its ferry supply line during COVID. The grocery store owner bought a $200,000 barge and started making weekly six-hour runs to a Juneau Costco to keep his town fed. The episode also covers the broader pattern of rural grocery store closures accelerated by the pandemic.
Speakers: Bret (host, Behind The Hustle), Zack (reporter)
Note on This Episode
This is a “Behind The Hustle” segment, not the main My First Million podcast. Hosts are Bret and Zack, not Sam and Shaan. Short-form documentary format.
Gustavus, Alaska — The Town at the End of the Supply Chain [00:00:00]
Bret: You found this small town in Alaska that was already remote and cut off, and now even more so. What did you learn?
Zack: Almost everyone in the lower 48 has had some run-in with supply chain issues — can’t find eggs, can’t find milk. In many remote Alaskan towns, this is just ordinary life. I was curious about a place where the supply chain is so ordinarily complicated that any extra pressure is almost devastating.
Zack: The town is Gustavus, Alaska. Population: 400. No electricity until 1985. No cell phones until the mid-2000s. Last night I joined a town hall meeting by telephone — five people on the call, considered a monumental turnout.
Zack: There’s one grocery store in town. Normally, it gets supplies by ferry. You can’t reach Gustavus by car — only by plane or boat. If you’re coming from San Francisco, you fly to Seattle, fly to Juneau, then take a six-seat seaplane from Juneau to Gustavus.
Zack: A few months ago, the state cut the ferry budget. The town runs almost entirely on tourism revenue. Everything hit at once. The grocery store owner had to find a new way to supply not just food but lumber and concrete for local businesses. So he bought a $200,000 barge and started making weekly runs — six and a half hours one way, Gustavus to Juneau — hitting the Costco there (the smallest Costco in the United States) and bringing back $20,000 worth of supplies at a time.
Bret: Who is this person?
Zack: His name is Lane Parker. His family goes back to 1917 in this town. His great-grandfather’s name was Abraham Lincoln Parker. These are deep roots. His family probably went there originally seeking a remote lifestyle — Gustavus is right next to Glacier Bay National Park. But remoteness comes with a cost. Before he opened his store, a gallon of milk in Gustavus cost twelve dollars. He found a more efficient logistics path and brought that cost down.
The Broader Pattern: Rural Grocery Stores Are Disappearing [00:08:00]
Bret: This isn’t just about one remote Alaskan town — it’s about what rural America is going to face as the pandemic stretches on.
Zack: Right. This is an extreme case, but there are plenty of small towns in Kansas, in the rural Midwest, where there’s one grocery store and no Walmart or Dollar Store because the population is too small to attract them. These stores are usually owned by someone who’s been there a long time, a town fixture. When they retire, there’s no one to fill their shoes. The store closes. People now drive 30 or 40 miles to the next town.
Zack: Under normal conditions, that’s hard. With COVID and shelter-in-place orders, it becomes impossible — especially for people without cars, or the elderly. And big freight companies will sometimes bypass these towns because it doesn’t make financial sense to stop there.
Zack: So in tandem with COVID we’re seeing this ongoing decline of rural grocery stores. Some communities are turning to local farmers and ranchers to fill the gap, but that’s not always enough.
Bret: Lane Parker would make Abraham Lincoln Parker proud. Thanks, Zack.