Great Northern Guns has been operating in the same location with the same owners since 1968. Joe Andreis and Anita Dalton, partners, have been delivering the same great service and quality fi****ms for 50 years. They are fixtures in the Anchorage fi****ms trade.
“We were truly in the woods.” said Joe, describing the very early days, when Tudor Road was a two lane dirt road. Anchorage has grown up around them for, while this little gun shop run out of a trailer has persisted.
They were able to make the business work in the very early days, by renting out space for trailers in a trailer court. They were able to generate enough income to pay back their loan on the property, and invest in their new company.
“I had positive cash flow of $600.” Joe explained.
With that cash flow, they created a business that has served Alaskans and provided quality fi****ms for over 50 years. It has become something of a community meeting place. Every day, “the council of old wise men” meet to have coffee and talk about guns, knives, survival equipment, hunting/fishing spots, cars, airplanes, politics, history, and anything else that comes to mind. They come from diverse backgrounds. Dentists, pilots, cops, career military, guides, surgeons, even professors and politicians. Most of them have been visiting for decades.
In the beginning, the clientele were mainly outdoorsman. They consisted mostly of outfitters, guides, fisherman, and hunters that Joe had made connections with while he was a guide and commercial fisherman. Then, through word of mouth, they started getting the doctors, lawyers, dentists, etc. to patronize Great Northern. They have had “all the politicians, from state and U.S. senators to governors, and mayors” throughout the years. When the oil boom happened in the 70’s, the workers coming up from the Lower 48 states heard through word of mouth that Great Northern Guns is the place to go to get set up for the outdoors. Over the years, it has become something of a community landmark. The old spirit of frontier Alaska is very much alive and well inside Great Northern Guns.
That many years of success cannot just be chalked up to momentum. They have had to make many changes along the way. In the early days, Joe and Anita lived in the trailer park themselves. Joe would fly to the lower 48, pick up a brand new truck, load it up with fi****ms and collectibles, and then drive it back to Anchorage.
He sold airplane propellers right in store. They managed their trailer court. They acted frugally and sacrificed to create the business that has survived on their excellent reputation for good price, good service, good selection of guns for a variety of uses, and knowledge, that persists to this day.
“I have had to adapt and diversify.” explained Joe. “We moved on to more modern fi****ms, which I resisted very highly myself,” he smiled. “We brought in the AR-15 type guns.”
The manager, Frank, came on in the 90’s with a more modern focus. He worked on getting the more current equipment into the store, while Joe remained concentrated on the hunting and collectibles. It was a good match. These days, the store is an eclectic mix of high-end collectibles, economical to top quality hunting rifles, modern sporting rifles, competition guns, long range target guns, and a variety of handguns for most any application.
“I used to sell bows for bowhunters or sporting archery. I used to sell gun safes. I used to sell airplane propellers! But I have had to adapt to the market.” Said Joe.
The trailers are all gone now. Great Northern Guns is now the only building on that lot. Gone are the airplane propellers, the gun safes, and the archery equipment. It is a more streamlined operation, now concentrating on guns and gun accessories only. As the state and the country changed over the years, so did the economy and the basics of doing business.
“No one even had a credit card when we started!” laughed Joe. “It was all cash and checks.”
Boy has that changed! That kind of reflects the changes in American society at large, moving away from paying cash and moving to electronic means of paying, like credit cards and debit cards.
Anita, his partner and “Queen of the Backroom” who runs the book keeping, says that is one of the biggest changes. “Everything is credit cards these days.”
The last several years have been the most challenging. The national politics under Obama, who was openly campaigning on gun control, pushed gun sales for guns like AR-15s that had been in the political crosshairs. But in that same time, lots of competition in the form of the “big box stores” have come to town to take a bite out of that and the hunting business.
And now, that the administration is more gun friendly and the state economy is suffering, “they are cutting the pie too thin!” said Joe.
They have adapted to every other challenge that has come their way. And though it has been a challenging last couple of years, Great Northern Guns is still weathering the storm and adapting to the market as it changes. After 50 years of ups and downs, they know how to tighten the belt and make it work.
What has remained consistent is their dedication to knowledgeable and friendly service, and top quality merchandise. Joe attributes his success to having a small, intimate operation with personal relationships with his customers.
When asked what advice he would give to someone starting today, he said “I wouldn’t take the keys to Cabella’s if you handed them to me.” He went on to explain “I don’t think someone going big could make it work. Keep it small and personal. Treat your employees well and they will stay around to learn your customer’s names and stories.”
