Camille Jones says her gift shop on Franklin Street is still open after the end of cruise ship season because she has to pay rent no matter what and she might as well earn what she can. Beau Cramer says his gift shop on Franklin Street is closed until next year’s cruise season because keeping the lights on would be more costly than any income earned from sales.
The two stores at opposite ends of the main shopping street for cruise ship visitors were among the few where owners or operators were present Friday — especially on the southern blocks between the Red Dog Saloon and Goldbelt Tram — the day after the final ship of 2024 departed Juneau.
“We’re paying rent on the space, so it just sits here either way,” Jones said while staffing her Treetop Tees store at 110 North Franklin St. alone early Friday afternoon. “So I do appreciate the community involvement, we still have our random customers through. January through March is our slowest of all of that time, so it really is like the occasional visitor or legislature person and then birthday presents. But otherwise, yeah, it’s just kind of for those people who are like ‘We wish there was something that was open in the winter.’’
Jones said she makes use of the slow off-season by developing new designs for the custom t-shirts and other items she sells, as well as working on projects for local organizations and other customers.
Cramer was attaching a surveillance warning sign to the exterior of The Bald Eagle Gifts at 365 South Franklin St., which he co-owns with four other family members, seeking to deter burglars and vandals that have been reported along the street when the stores are unoccupied.
“There’s just nothing here for us in the winter,” he said.
Beau Cramer, co-owner of The Bald Eagle Gifts, attaches a warning sign to the exterior of his Franklin Street business on Friday as it closes for the winter after this year’s final cruise ship in Juneau departed Thursday, (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
The 1.68 million passengers arriving between April and late October set a record for a second straight year and people still at shops Friday generally said business this season was strong, as might be expected. But the growth of businesses targeting the steady increase in passengers over a few decades means that many more are empty when the tourists leave town.
A core of year-round businesses near the heart of downtown remains open along Franklin Street — Kindred Post, the Alaskan Hotel and Bar, and the retail stores in the Senate Building, to name a few — although the Mexican restaurant El Sombrero announced last week it is closing on Nov. 2 after 45 years of operation.
But the desolate impression further south is frustrating for some businesses staying open in the hope of luring local residents to buy books, clothing, engagement rings — and of course gifts for upcoming holidays and other special occasions.
Pradeep Chhabria, manager of Monarch Jewelers, said it feels a bit strange to be the only business open along a stretch of a couple blocks near the tram. But he said the store has operated year-round for the past three years since, in addition to needing to pay the year-round rent, “for us this is home.”
“Sometimes we are lucky, we get some business,” he said. “So whatever comes in it’s a bonus.”
The store was full of employees on Friday doing a post-season inventory of jewelry. Chhabria said the store will trim its staff from the dozen who work during the summer to a few during the winter.
Another jewelry store open a few blocks to the north on South Franklin Street — but with plenty of closed stores on both sides — was Gary’s Fine Jewelry, opened four years ago by owners Gary and Kristina Totwani. They said they used to be among Juneau’s seasonal tourism shop employees, working for many years for a different company here during the summer and the Caribbean during the winter.
A person enters Monarch Jewelers, one of the few businesses on South Franklin Street near the Goldbelt Tram still open on Friday after the final cruise ship of 2024 departed Thursday. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Now, aside from closing for a four-week break during the winter, the couple operates their store year-round for residents seeking what they sell.
“Of course we want also something more for the community, they like to have their jeweler,” Gary Totwani said. “People do get married. People do get engaged, people have anniversaries and Christmas.”
A new element this year for some cruise visitors was being greeted by people and signs related to a proposed a ban on cruise ships with room for 250 or more passengers on Saturdays and the Fourth of July. A ballot measure enacting such a ban was defeated in the Oct. 1 municipal election with 61% of voters opposed, with the tourism industry spending heavily on its opposition campaign while proponents literally spent almost nothing.
But many people from outside Juneau got a different impression of the community’s collective attitude as global media coverage during the campaign featured headlines ranging from “Awash in tourists, Juneau prepares to turn some cruise ships away” (Alaska Beacon) to “Alaskan tourist hotspot fed up with cruise ships considers drastic move to give locals a break from pesky visitors” (Daily Mail of London).
Business owners interviewed Friday said they encountered varying levels of awareness among their customers about the ballot measure.
“I talked to plenty of people about it,” Jones said. “Like some of the cruise ship people if they saw a sign, or if there were like protesters or something at some point in the summer, it was a talking point.”
Gary Totwani said he reassured numerous customers they were welcome after some asked about the town’s general feeling toward tourists.
“You spend all or most of your life savings to come to Alaska and first thing you come out from the boat and see is ‘no-ship Saturdays’ or something,” he said.
Chhabria, meanwhile, said he rarely heard such questions from customers, although some were raised on the days they saw people and signs related to the ballot measure.
Another controversy that surfaced at the end of the season that’s of concern to downtown businesses is a planned private cruise port on the west side of Douglas Island as soon as 2027, with Royal Caribbean Group and Goldbelt Inc. announcing a partnership agreement Oct. 16. Goldbelt, in a press release, noted the port would result in nearly one-third less bus traffic downtown.
“It’s going to hurt us a lot,” Kristina Totwani said.
Jones said that while she wants to hear more about the specifics of the project and how it might affect downtown tourism traffic, “it’s definitely a concern.”
“That would be disappointing as small business owners,” she said. “We’ve all fought so hard to keep tourism available to downtown.”
A more accepting attitude about the proposed west Douglas dock was expressed by Cramer.
“The world is changing all the time,” he said.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
