College student opens Kotzebue fabric shop

TAMAR BEN-YOSEF

May 29, 2008 at 2:10PM AKST

Some college students, home for their break, choose to party and sleep late, some get a job at a local store or office.

Then there are some who get bored and open a business.

Such was the case for Ashley Baker, a 20-year-old college student from Kotzebue, who recently opened Margie’s Materials.

Named after her grandmother and her sister, Margie’s Materials sells everything from needles and tape to specialty yarn and a variety of fabrics.

“What better way to honor them, because they mean the world to me,” Baker said of her choice of names for the store.

Baker was a second-year student of anthropology doing a double minor in education and sociology at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire when she came home this winter for a long break.

At Dartmouth and several other schools around the country, sophomores are required to remain in school for the summer term and therefore have a longer-than-usual winter break.

Not wanting to get a regular job in town, Baker racked her brain for alternatives, all the while spending time with her cousin, Robin Westlake.

Westlake, a fan of crafts and knitting, would often go to a local store with Baker to purchase materials for her projects.

It was from those frequent trips that the idea for the store arose.

“It was hard to get good material — decent stuff, not the same variety you can get in town,” Baker said. The only other option was to order online or stock up on trips to the big city.

“I figured it would be nice to have another place you can go to that would be quick and easy,” she said.

Baker also had the neighboring villages in mind and said the store would benefit the people from the area coming in and out of Kotzebue.

Baker approached her parents and told them her idea, which they both supported.

Next, following a tip from a friend, she applied for and received a small business grant from Maniilaq Association.

The road to opening her first entrepreneurial establishment was bumpy at first — finding an appropriate location with an affordable lease turned out to be a challenge, and Baker was running out of time.

Two months passed, and Baker had to return to school in the Lower 48.

Luckily, Baker’s mother, Tammy Baker, who worked part time helping Baker’s father with his business, was able to step in and completed what her daughter had started.

Margie’s Materials opened on March 31, above the Nullagvik hotel in Kotzebue.

Most of the store’s stock is on order from the Internet, according to Baker.

“I am still working on establishing a good relationship with wholesale vendors,” she said.

Though not able to be hands on with the business most of the time, Baker still juggles the responsibilities of a business owner with a full-time college career. When the store runs out of stock for a particular item, Tammy Baker calls her daughter, who takes care of the ordering.

When she has a chance, Baker attends large wholesale events to shop and see what’s new on the market.

At first Baker kept the idea of the shop quiet, not wanting to jinx the project and reserving the right to back out. But once the word was out, Baker said the feedback was good.

“People were pretty shocked — I’m pretty young,” Baker said.

“They would say, ‘That’s so good that you are young and out of high school and opening a business.’ ”

During its first couple of months, the fabric store saw a steady stream of customers, but as summer approaches, Baker said business has slowed down a bit.

“I don’t know if people do less crafts in the summer,” Baker wondered. But still, she said, “Business is good.”

Tamar Ben-Yosef can be reached at (907)
348-2419 or toll-free at (800) 770 9830, ext. 419.