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Three Bears Butte

The following article appeared in the Montana Standard on April 6, 2006.

Store plans move forward

By Erin Nicholes of The Montana Standard - 04/06/2006

Butte shoppers will no longer have to leave town to buy bulk groceries and household supplies if the financial pieces align for Three Bears Alaska.

The Alaska-based company is moving forward with a warehouse store on Mount Highland Drive, just west of Thunderbolt Harley Davidson — its first store in the lower 48 states. It has five Alaska stores.

“We really want to come to Butte,” CEO Larry Weisz said Wednesday. “We wanted to be part of a community that is continuing to grow.” A few critical details remain, including a requested tax break, before Three Bears can stake its claim here (see story at right).

Meanwhile, it is already designing a 61,000-square-foot store that would combine a Costco and a traditional grocery store.

People who have shopped at Costco would recognize much of Three Bears’ inventory; the store sells Costco-brand meat, poultry, baked goods, produce and pizzas.

“If you find it at a Costco, you’ll find it at a Three Bears store,” company adviser Doug Kramlich said.

And, like Costco, Three Bears sells bulk items, from spaghetti sauce to bleach. But like a traditional grocery store, it also sells them individually, and no membership is required to shop there.

The Butte store would feature groceries — including fresh Alaskan fish — a pharmacy, household products, some appliances and fuel pumps.

It would employ about 85 people, paying between $9 to $20-plus an hour, and would provide local construction jobs.

Three Bears officials first came here in October, on the prowl for a community to host a new store.

Its interest in Butte has had as much to do with the people here as dollars and cents, Weisz said.

“Butte people, and Montana people, are more like Alaska people,” he said. “We all have the same thing on our boots.” That includes, he said, Butte’s business leaders, who have been resourceful and responsive from the get-go.

“They’ve been business-friendly and that contributed,” Weisz said.

From an economic standpoint, Butte makes sense, Kramlich said.

“It’s a nexus for the area,” he said. “There’s a lot of traffic here that might not go to other towns.” And Three Bears would benefit Butte, local officials said.

Fewer people would leaving town to shop at Costcos elsewhere, Chief Executive Paul Babb said.

“This type of operation will help with any leakage we’re seeing right now,” he said.

It could also spur development on the east end of town, said county economic development director Russ Connole.

“This project should be the first large step forward in promoting commercial development in that area,” he said.

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© 2006 Three Bears Alaska, Inc.