It was a week of change for a 100-year-old Petersburg institution: The Trading Union was officially renamed Petersburg IGA on Feb. 20, as new owners Mike Ward, his daughter Caroline Bangs and her husband Travis Bangs took over the grocery store.
“I got crew over from Wrangell, crew over from Haines, and we’re power-stocking this place,” Ward said last week.
The family also owns Wrangell IGA and Ward is the majority owner of Howsers IGA in Haines.
Ward, who is in his 44th year actively managing grocery stores, was born in Haines and as a young man managed his grandparents’ grocery store, eventually buying it when he was 27.
Caroline started working when she was 14 at a clothing store in Haines that her father had named for her, Caroline’s Closet, and after graduating high school in Wrangell began working at the grocery store in Haines while Travis Bangs got his start as a commercial fisherman.
“She’s got my entrepreneurial bug,” Ward said.
In 2018 Ward, Caroline and Travis Bangs bought Bob’s IGA in Wrangell, renaming it Wrangell IGA, and over the past four years Caroline and Travis have lived in Wrangell, managing the business.
The conversation around them potentially buying the Trading Union started last year after the Bangs and their daughter came to Petersburg for Mayfest and saw how understocked the store was.
Ward met with Trading Union general manager Barry Morrison in January and said their discussions were “pretty quick.”
“I shared my observations with him and we came to some agreements that time was of essence because you got to pay the bills and if you don’t have something on the shelves to sell then you don’t have cash to pay the bills and so something’s got to change one way or the other, and so I felt that we needed to act quickly,” Ward said.
With the deal fast-tracked, Ward said they are taking care of what they have to one day at a time and are focusing on getting the shelves restocked and getting the staff adjusted before moving forward with any long-term plans.
“We’re just doing some quick renovations right now and trying to get this place rolling along, we’ll worry about the other stuff later, right now we just want to get some stock in here,” Ward said.
Ward and the Bangs plan to be in Petersburg regularly to help guide the transition.
Like Wrangell, Petersburg has two grocery stores — the other one is Hammer & Wikan.
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