January 2013 Show

Friday/Saturday 8am-4pm
Clarion Suites Hotel, Anchorage (8th & L)

For Buyers

"Alaska's Best" strives to serve both the Store Owner and the Artist.  We believe that Buyers attend our show to:

• Find new, unique, high-quality Alaskan products
• Hand-select one-of-a-kind products (which can be mailed at the show)
  
• Receive show discounts/Provide early cash flow to vendors
• Develop relationships with the artists
• Simplify and de-stress the process of stocking a store
• Network with several artists at once, to diffuse travel costs

If you would like to benefit from these services, please be sure to attend. If you would take the time to fill out our Pre-Registration Form before you come, and our Survey afterward, it will be a great help.

For Vendors

"Alaska's Best" strives to serve both the Artist and the Store Owner.  We believe that Vendors participate in our show to:

• Find the best shops for their products
• Get feedback on new products and presentations
• Sell one-of-a-kind products
• Generate early cash flow
• Develop relationships with store owners
  
• Simplify and de-stress the process of showing their work
• Network with several buyers at once, to diffuse travel costs
• Network and brainstorm with other talented Alaskan artist/entrepreneurs
  

If you feel that your work represents Alaska's best, and would like to take advantage of the opportunities this show provides, please complete a 2013 Booth Application.

About the Show

"Alaska's Best" Wholesale Show is a small venue for exclusively hand-crafted Alaskan products that are available for wholesale purchase.  This meeting of artisans and discerning merchants is facilitated as an opportunity for commerce and relationship building.

The "Alaska's Best" Wholesale Show distinguishes itself in the artists and products presented, by setting high standards and by encouraging vendors to bring special, unique items that may not be available for order.  By featuring the state's best artists and limiting the total number of booths, the event enables artists and merchants to meet and mingle at their own pace, in a calm, intimate setting.

Show founders Meriam and Maynard Linder are experienced wholesale crafters from Homer, making their living from their businesses Wilderness Wonders and Dancing Man Knives & Ulus.  Meriam also owns and operates Local Showcase, a retail store of exclusively hand-crafted Alaskan products.  Both Meriam and Maynard believe in Craft as a Business, and promote fellow artisans by providing encouragement, advice and sale venues. 

The show is held at the same time as the Wholesale Alaska Food & Gift Show at the Dena'ina Center.

How it Came to Be

A letter from the organizer, from 2010:

In 2009, I was expecting my first child in December.  I knew that the craft business I had cultivated over the last decade was the key to enabling me to have the stay-at-home-but-still-working-Mom lifestyle I wanted.  Unfortunately, the existing Wholesale Show at the Egan Center did not allow children under 18.  This had always troubled me, as family businesses are common amongst both crafters and store owners.  I had also rankled through the years at the restrictions on selling during the show (how do you market one-of-a-kind work if the buyer can't purchase it?), and the irreverent and unmarked mixing of Alaskan-made, out-of-state manufactured, and even overseas products.

Unwilling to consider doing the show without my one-month-old-to-be, and wanting to maintain connections with customers, Maynard and I decided to meet our customers outside of the Wholesale Show.  As we considered this, we decided that we would have better success (and a better time) if we brought along some fellow artisans.  Thus was founded the Alaska's Best Wholesale Show.

As you might expect, we pulled the show together on rather short notice, and were limited in the time and energy we could spend on it; none-the-less, it was a success.  We vendors had a very pleasant time, and even with the limited attendance we were able to attract on short notice, we matched the business that we had done in past years at the "big show."  We were inspired to repeat the show, and excited to attract vendors that had long been dissatisfied with the status quo.

The "big show" was sold earlier this year (2010), and the new management seems to be addressing some of the issues that concerned us (and other vendors).  I still believe that I, and the other artisans I would like Alaska's Best to represent, belong in a smaller, more personal setting.  I hope that vendors will have a better experience at the newly-named Alaska Wholesale Gift & Food Show, but I expect that the catch phrase of "A World of Opportunities" and the sprawling proposed floor plan indicate that only superficial changes can be expected.

Coordinating this event is a lot of work; I sometimes think about how easy it was to just purchase a booth and skip all the planning and responsibility.  I know, though, that it's worth the effort to do things right.  I have always believed in doing the best I can at the things I choose to do, and that keeps me motivated as I struggle to break up years-old routines, to create something better, and grow our little show.  I am inspired by the enthusiasm and interest of those I talk to.

See you at the show!

Meriam
and Maynard & Gryffyn