Getting a warm and fuzzy feeling on a rainy Black Friday at the public markets

Holiday shoppers of all budgets wandering through three buildings filled with vendors didn’t need to go beyond Pauline Duncan’s table to find thrifty- and premium-priced items ranging from devil’s club/red clover lip balm for $3 to a hand-woven Raven’s Tail apron for $4,500.

Duncan, a Sitka resident with decades of tribal awards for cultural and professional contributions, made her first appearance at the Indigenous Artists & Vendors Holiday Market on Friday at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall. The annual market with about two dozen vendors was among two community markets that opened at noon, with the 41st annual Juneau Public Market opening a few hundred yards away at Centennial Hall and the Juneau Arts and Culture Center.

While the public market is the bigger event, with about 175 vendors this year, Duncan opted for the newer and smaller market for her first holiday season as a vendor in Juneau rather than her hometown.

“I thought just for change I think I’m gonna try to Juneau,” she said. “And I’m familiar with Tlingit and Haida, and it was easy for me to get a table.”

The lip balms were a bargain item because they were left over from the summer tourism season and Duncan said she wants to sell fresh ones next year. The two aprons listed at $4,500 might seem like a big stretch as an impulse buy, but on her table was a price list for Raven’s Tail weaving items in 1992-93, including a spaced-weave apron for $3,000 (about $6,400 adjusted for inflation) and a compact-weave apron for $5,000 (about $10,650 today).

“I don’t feel these aprons are too out of reason for the price,” she said.

The crafts, foods, practical gadgets and toys being sold inside the three buildings were by tradition a far cry from the traditional Black Friday shopping rush for big-screen TVs and game consoles at major retailers. But true to Black Friday tradition there was a line of a few dozen people standing outside Centennial Hall in the rain, plus a dozen or so more squeezed into the sheltered entryway, before the main venue of the Juneau Public Market opened at noon.

Standing second in line next to the door before it was unlocked was Larry Gamez, who said he arrived about an hour before the scheduled opening.

“I’m actually just here to check things out,” said Gamez, adding he’s been to the public market about five times during his 50 years of living in Juneau. “I’m looking for some artwork to hang on my wall. I’m not shopping for anybody, I’m just getting out on this very, very rainy day.”

Among the first buyers was one of the vendors, as Janelle Cook bought her mother a kuspuk from The Salvation Army Thrift Store tables in the hallways just inside the entrance.

She also made earrings to sell at the booth where her parents, Todd and Annie Fritze, were selling items made from furs they trapped near their home in Dillingham — an annual tradition that comes with them visiting Cook and other family members now living in Juneau for Thanksgiving.

In addition to their collection of fur mug warmers, earmuffs, plush animals and other featured crafts, the couple said a new item this year is keychains.

“We’re always looking for something new,” Todd Fritze said. “We discuss ways that make sense and we try to make use of spare parts.”

Expressing interest in bartering — of a sort — about knit hats the couple was selling was expressed by Cheryl Benson, who said she’s a knitter herself, but greatly interested in the detachable fur poms on the hats at the booth. They didn’t want to sell her just a pom since such scraps aren’t plentiful and she was reluctant to pay $45 for a hat with a pom. Ultimately she got their business card so she could “gift” them one of her hats to put a pom on.

Aside from that stop, Benson said she had other things she hoped to pick up at the market.

“I love to keep note cards handy,” she said. “I love to send real handwritten notes to people.”

Also adding to a plentiful collection was Nicole O’Brien, who bought “lots of bowls” made by longtime pottery vendor Betty Bell.

“I’ve been collecting her pottery for years,” said O’Brien, 36, noting she’s been going to the public markets regularly since she was a child.

An hour after the public market opened Centennial Hall was fairly packed and the line outside the door wasn’t that much shorter as a steady stream of new arrivals poured in. Peter Metcalfe, the market’s longtime organizer, estimated attendance will equate to about 20% of Juneau’s population of 32,000 — including repeat visitors — over three days.

But there’s plenty of traditional Black Friday shoppers elsewhere in town as well. Steve Baker, a local taxi driver, said he started dropping people off at Fred Meyer starting at 2:30 a.m. “to get in line, get the specials, get the deals on the big electronics.” He said he had no desire to be among such shoppers when the store opened at 6 a.m.

“It’s not worth it,” he said. “I don’t want to get in a fistfight, or someone getting an argument over who grabbed what first.”

Both the public market and Indigenous market are scheduled to continue through Sunday.

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.

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Know and Go

What: Juneau Public Market

When: Noon to 7 p.m. on Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Where: Centennial Hall, Juneau Arts and Culture Center.

Admission: $10 to Centennial Hall, children under 12 free. No admission to enter the JACC.

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What: Indigenous Artists & Vendors Holiday Market

When: Noon-5 p.m. Friday through Sunday.

Where: Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall.

Admission: Free.