In the Lower 48, people tend to take connectivity for granted, and access to affordable goods and services is an expectation, not a hope and dream. Life in my hometown of Bethel, Alaska differs substantially from more urban areas. A largely subsistence-based lifestyle isn’t just tradition, it’s often the most reliable and cost-effective way to keep food on the table. Nestled on the banks of the Kuskokwim River, 50 miles from the sea and hundreds of miles from the closest highway system, most goods come to Bethel by plane or barge – which means everything from groceries to gas are more expensive and harder to get.
In 2014, I opened Arctic Belle Boutique, a clothing consignment shop in Bethel. For the first year of business, I didn’t have internet at the shop so I’d have to wait until the evenings, when I went home, just to connect to the internet to post photos of new inventory. When I finally made the decision to connect, I realized all the other ways it benefitted my business: I could accept credit card sales, research brands and prices, and communicate with customers via social media, as well as delivering up-to-date information on what they could find at my boutique.
I opened the boutique because there are very few places for women to buy clothes in Bethel. The “most convenient” options were to fly to the city or order stuff online– which are not very convenient at all. And there’s no place in Bethel to dispose of clothes, so perfectly good garments would end up at the landfill (the long-term ecological impacts of this include plastics from synthetic fibers entering the environment and toxic dyes leaching out and polluting groundwater as well). Arctic Belle Boutique fulfilled a need for women’s clothing in my community while also creating a recycling culture around fashion. By making fashion more affordable and giving people a chance to reuse clothes, we are showing people there’s a way to be fashionable in a sustainable way. Still, I struggled to market the business early on without having regular internet connectivity.
Things changed when I decided to bring my brick-and-mortar shop online with GCI’s TERRA network. It was an advantage because I could post inventory to social media on the spot, showing people new items in the shop, and eventually begin making online sales.
In 2015, I left the state to attend college in Southern California, a move that could have led to the closing of my successful business. How was I supposed to manage a store from thousands of miles away? Thanks to GCI’s internet connectivity in Bethel, the transition was simple. I was able to manage my bookkeeping from Google documents synced with the boutique’s devices, market and advertise using photos sent from employees, and communicate with customers and clients instantaneously. If there was ever a hiccup or confusion, my employees and I would video chat to solve the problem, as though I was right there with them.
While internet connectivity has become a critical component of my business, it has also been a driving factor in my education.
From applying to colleges, to visiting them virtually, nearly all aspects of venturing off to college for the first time were made easier by the internet. Knowing that I could connect with my friends and family in Bethel, stream the local radio station, and watch video footage of the river during the Kuskokwim Ice Classic (the little things!), all from my dorm room thousands of miles away, was very comforting to me. It was, and still is, important to me to be able to keep my ties to Alaska and stay connected to what is going on and be reminded of my rural roots.