Check out Fairways Price Check!

It is safe to say that "Fairway" is the store that we all love to hate. Mostly because it is the only game in town. The nearest competition - that you can drive to - is over 100 miles away in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.

That said - this old woman has found Fairway to be much like tiny independent grocery stores throughout the sparsely populated areas of the American west. The food selection is of the hearty, carnivore, simple variety. This is not a salad bar, rotisserie chicken, sorbet sort of grocery. Think 1950's, dusty canned veggies, slabs of meat, frozen dinners.

One complicating factor for Fairway is that most of the food comes in via the weekly barge. So, in the winter - if the weather is too bad for the barge - no food. And in the summer - if more tourists show up than expected - then Fairway runs out of things like eggs, milk and bread. Soon, you learn to shop on Tuesday afternoon - because the barge comes on Monday.

Fairway is also our drugstore and cosmetic counter. Suffice it to say, that if more than generic aspirin, a tube of toothpaste or last year's color of Cover Girl lipstick are desired - bring it with you. No hair care products or makeup for women of color are available in Skagway.

All that said, the employees are fun, you visit with your neighbors while waiting in line. They cheerfully take your plastic - but no out of town checks.