Usually, Talkeetna in March is bustling with activity. In the time of Covid-19, things have gotten a little quieter. In fact, life in Talkeetna looks very different that it did a few weeks ago. Colleen Love drove around Talkeetna to check out some of the establishments that are still open for business:
The downtown restaurants are all closed to sit-down customers, but a handful are open for take-out food. I stopped by Conscious Coffee last week for an Americano to-go. I knocked at the window and owner, Brenda Walsh handed me my beverage. She said that it had been a really slow day, but the people that came were unbelievably grateful. She said the decision to stay open or close was a difficult choice, and she was torn about the right thing to do. Conscious Coffee closed their take-out window just a few days later.
I walked over to the Denali Brew Pub and noticed that they were open for take out meals: lunch, dinner and now breakfast. And, of course, they were selling beer. But they were also selling other items, such as toilet paper and broccoli. I spoke with Tammy Apitzsch about some of the changes they’ve recently made.
“So we’re doing breakfast from nine to noon every day. And we’re also doing postings, you may have seen on the door when you walked in, of staples stuff that we have plenty of, that people might need like fresh produce, paper products and things like that. People can swing in and grab some fresh produce or eggs, if they can find flour, to make a cake. I think from the paper product perspective, we’re just kind of still ordering what we normally do, even though we’re not using that much of it, so that it’s a resource. A lot of people have a hard time getting out of Talkeetna so somebody without a car or whatever, it’s great for them to come in and get what they need.”
I got in my car and drove to the credit union. The Matanuska Valley Federal Credit Union remains open, but they are limiting the number of customers in the branch at a time.
I walked over to Moore’s Hardware, and spoke with Shane Rogers. He said their customer count is on par with last year, although they’ve had a run on paper goods, such as toilet paper and paper towels. He said they’ve also had a run on seeds, but that they order more each week and their supply chain is solid.
My last stop was Cubbies. The shelves where flour and toilet paper normally sit, were completely empty. But they had a good selection of produce, meats, and pretty much everything else.
I heard this week that it is possible to buy flour, along with other yummy items such as ruggelach and baguettes, from the Flying Squirrel, as a pick up service. So it seems that during the time of social distancing, we can still get almost everything we need, we just may need to look in an unconventional place to find it.
