Ben Franklin closing after more than 50 years of operation downtown by three generations of family
- Mark Sabbatini
- Sep 16
- 6 min read
Building that opened as Sanitary Grocery a century ago evolved into general store that saw vast change in customers over the decades due to tourism
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
One of downtown Juneau’s longest-lived and most distinctive businesses is set to close by the end of the year, as the family that has operated the Ben Franklin general store for 52 years says it's time to move on to retirement and other ventures.
The store that during the 1970s sold staples ranging from lampshades to shoelaces to local residents now makes most of its money selling souvenirs and other items to visitors during the cruise ship season, said Mike Wiley, the family’s current patriarch at the store. The store still carries an assortment of everyday goods from kitchenware to school supplies, along with crafts, toys and hobby items including remote control planes Wiley started favoring in the past 15 years or so.
Wiley said he began working for his parents at the store when he was in junior high school and in recent years has been co-operating it with his daughter Meagan Bishop.
"I wanted to be, after 52 years of working here, I want to be able to do a little bit of what I want to do, and not have one foot in and one foot out," he said in an interview Monday at the store. And his daughter is raising two kids so "taking it on is more than what she wanted to do."
The Juneau location is one of the last Ben Franklin stores in the United States. The chain founded in 1927 had about 2,500 stores at its peak, but entered Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings during the 1990s. A company that bought the Ben Franklin name, Promotions Unlimited, filed for bankruptcy in 2017, leaving a relative handful of stores operating independently.
The local store on Front Street also has its own century-old history, being housed in the Blomgren Building that was built by Gunnar Blomgren after the Heidelberg Saloon on Front Street burned in 1923. He opened the location as Sanitary Grocery and in 1931 added a second story to the building, resulting in an appearance that remains much the same today except for the Ben Franklin signage on the exterior.
Fred and Sally Wiley — Mike Wiley’s parents — purchased the location in 1972. Fred Wiley was managing a Woolworth’s store in Anchorage at the time and, when asked by the company to relocate to California, opted to move to Juneau and operate the Ben Franklin store instead. Mike Wiley said he started working at the store before and after school.
"I used to come in and mop the floors and sweep, and then I went to school," he said. "After school I’d walk over here."
While his siblings also worked there at times, Mike Wiley said he was the only one who remained and eventually took over his parents’ store.
"I went out and went to school for a little while, for six months or something, and then came back," he said. I like retail and I also felt a little bit of obligation to help my parents."
A customer entering the store expressed a similar family mindset when Ronnie Hayes, a cruise ship visitor from Healdton, Oklahoma, greeted Mike Wiley by stating "I can't believe your (store’s) sign — I used to work for Ben Franklin."
"That was my first job ever," Hayes said. "And here's the thing: My aunts worked there and my sister worked there, and my cousins — even though it wasn't our store, it was family."
Hayes came in asking about flies for fishing — something he custom makes for his own business at home. In this instance, it was something the store didn’t have.
Mike Wiley said he encounters plenty of customers with similar tales about Ben Franklin stores daily and "I trained a lot of kids for their first-time jobs." But he said people with past memories and future ambitions at the namesake stores aren’t likely to be around much longer.
"I think you got about 10 years, 12 years and they’re all going to be gone," he said.
Standing outside the store on Saturday evening, a few hours after Mike Wiley and his daughter announced the closure on social media, was Mike Luft, who said he’s been shopping there since he moved to Juneau in the late 1990s. He said it’s located between his job at Taku Fisheries and his home near the Alaska State Capitol, so he frequents it for regular items such as stationery and hardware, as well as gifts during the holiday season.
"It hasn't really changed for a whole lot that I noticed," he said when asked to compare the store when he first arrived to how it is today.
Mike Wiley said the inventory of the store has changed over the years — and varies by season — but the store itself never went through a major remodeling.
"We kept it pretty much intact the way it was with a few fixture modifications, counter modifications and that kind of thing probably until the mid ‘80s," he said. "Then we shifted more towards seasonal kind of things, but kept the core departments that were the best — the stationery department, the sewing department, housewares, everyday kinds of things."
Like most downtown businesses, Mike Wiley said his store makes most of its money during cruise season and then struggles through money-losing months during the winter.
"You bank it up and then you take out savings," he said when asked how the business has survived amidst plenty of other downtown buildings that have gone through multiple store changes and in some locations are vacant.
Much of the store’s inventory is Alaska- or Juneau-themed souvenir items since that’s what many visiting shoppers are seeking. But other items they won’t find at t-shirt or jewelry stores down the street — or perhaps at their retail shops back home — also are popular, said Jennifer Breidinger, a manager working at the store Monday.
"The toy aisle does get shopped a lot — especially Matchbox, Hot Wheels and little things like that," she said.
Adding hobbyist items also helped keep the store popular among local residents, Mike Wiley said. Several of the remote-controlled planes he built are hanging from the ceiling, while several more were recently acquired by The Hangar On The Wharf restaurant as he and his daughter are beginning the process of emptying the store’s contents.
A giant Ferris wheel built from 9,000 pieces by Fred Wiley decades ago is still revolving in one of the store’s front windows. Mike Wiley said it’s among the things he plans to sell since it’s not ideally suited for the cabin he owns in Haines where he plans to retire.
Discussions with potential buyers for the building are in the early stages, but those don’t involve the possibility of continuing to operate the Ben Franklin store itself, he said.
Mike Wiley and his daughter said they are hoping to keep the store open for one last holiday season for the sake of local residents.
"In reality I think we probably won't make it past Gallery Walk," he said, referring to the annual December First Friday tradition. "That would be the goal."
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
