Artifact of the Month: February 2021

Shopping at Tatsuda's

For many kids going to Tatsuda's grocery store was an exciting adventure. Admiring the aisles of candy and frozen treats. Visiting with friends in the produce section. Saying hi to Joe in the meat department. Receiving a free cookie from the bakery. And if they were really lucky, they borrowed a little shopping cart to fill up with their own goodies.

While grocery stores are not exactly in the teaching business, allowing children to shop like adults at Tatsuda's was an important educational experience for many Ketchikan kids. Using the child-sized carts taught kids important life skills like how to navigate a store, respecting others' space, and finding the ingredients to prepare a meal. For families, the carts helped keep their little ones entertained and improved their overall customer experience, even if it meant an occasional errant cart strike to the ankles.

During the night of February 27, 2020 a massive rockslide struck Tatsuda's. Dirt, rocks, and trees sloughed off the hillside onto the building, damaging the roof and upending whole aisles of products inside the store. For weeks after the incident, store employees salvaged non-perishable goods and made them available at a temporary location in the Plaza Mall at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This month's featured artifact is a child-size shopping cart from Tatsuda's that is one of three rescued from the rubble. Mud from the rockslide can still be seen inside the basket and on the wheels. The cart is a testament to the Tatsuda family's commitment to this community over the years.

Ketchikan Museums, KM 2020.2.34.2 A&B