Company's 31st retail outlet includes 28,000-square-foot grocery store, outdoor-gear shop, gas station
Three Bears Alaska will soon unveil its 31st retail outlet in the state -- a 28,000-square-foot grocery store and gas station in Delta Junction.
Three Bears contractors worked through the winter to complete construction of the building that now houses the grocery and a smaller store that’ll sell outdoor gear. A company spokesperson says it’ll all be open for business any day now.
“We are actually set to be fully operational by Monday. But it could be sooner,” Three Bears Marketing Manager Chris Carlson said Thursday. “It's going to depend on some moving parts here. But as of right now, yeah, we are good to go by Monday.”
Carlson says those moving parts include some last-minute work needed on the gas station-convenience store on the site that the company bought a year ago. That required emptying the existing gas station’s underground fuel-storage tanks. So, Three Bears cut the price of gas to $1.99 a gallon, and it sold out in two days.
“They're done,” he said, referring to the fuel-storage tanks. “They are dry. And so as soon as the store is open, the new gas pumps will be operational.”
Touch-up work to continue
Carlson said that even after the stores open their doors, the company will continue doing touch-up work around at the site in downtown Delta just off the Richardson Highway.
“It's going to be more of a soft opening with some sort of grand opening later, probably in early summer.”
The new store will be Delta’s second grocery. The first is an IGA that opened in 1990 in a structure built in 1958 that had housed grocery and department stores over the years. The grocery store’s roof collapsed in December 2021 after a winter storm dumped a heavy snow load. So owner Ed Larson demolished the structure and built a new store that opened one year ago.
Carlson says he thinks Delta-area residents will appreciate what they’ll find on the Three Bears store’s shelves.
“Competition's great, and we definitely embrace that,” he said. “But, you know, as far as the store, I think it's going to be great for that community.”
The Wasilla-based company’s chain now includes 14 grocery stores, 14 gas stations, nine sporting goods stores and four pharmacies all around the state.
Company owner Larry Weisz opened his first store in Tok in 1980, and his first store with the Three Bears name in 1989 in Valdez. His son, Dave Weisz, is now president and CEO.
