Laurence John Carr, a visionary grocer who transformed the retail food business in Alaska during the post-World War II boom years, died Thursday in Anchorage. He was 81.
"Larry" Carr was born in Albuquerque, N.M. on July 28, 1929. While he was an infant, his family moved to San Bernadino, Calif., where he began working at food markets when he was 12 years old.
In 1947 he flew to Anchorage in a DC-3 and went to work unloading trucks, then in the commissary warehouse of the Alaska Railroad, then working two jobs -- at a Mountain View grocery store and a pharmacy -- and saving every dime he could.
"I wanted to start a grocery store and Alaska looked like a good place," he told the press, some years later.
When a failing store in a Quonset hut on the edge of town, at 14th Avenue and Gambell Street, came up for sale for $15,000 in February of 1950, he was able to buy it with help from family and friends. The staff of the Carrs Brothers store included Carr, his brother and his brother's wife, two part-time high school helpers and one part-time adult employee, Wilma Moseley.
In June of that year, Carr and Moseley married.
There were perhaps half a dozen food stores within a mile of Anchorage City Hall. Carr was convinced that the success of his business lay in innovation. At a time when other local grocers were content to publicize their names and addresses, he bought prominent newspaper ads that announced prices and used eye-catching imagery of products.
He gave buyers good reasons to read those ads by introducing coupons for discounts and becoming the first grocer to fly in fresh produce. For the first time, fresh peaches became a menu option for Anchorage residents, even in the winter.
By 1952, the little store was doing $700,000 a year in business. The Quonset hut was rickety and often robbed. "You just couldn't lock the place," Carr recalled. Anyone with a wrench could remove a piece of wall.
He built a new store that was grand for the time. When that store burned in 1957, it was rebuilt in 90 days, a project that marked the first time a concrete building had been constructed in the winter in Anchorage.
That same year Carr's was recognized as the "Name Brand Retailer-of-the-Year" by the national Name Brands Foundation. The industry group praised his use of display advertising and product placement.
Forming a partnership with food wholesaler Barney Gottstein, he methodically expanded his interests from groceries to property and general shopping facilities. In 1965, he built Aurora Village at Minnesota Drive and Northern Lights Boulevard. In 1968, he opened what is considered Alaska's first real mall -- called simply "The Mall" at the time, now The Mall at Sears -- at Northern Lights and the Seward Highway.
He acquired outlets in Fairbanks, Kenai and other cities. As the pipeline boom brought round-the-clock activity to town, he had his stores stay open 24 hours a day -- a convenience that repeatedly stunned visitors from out of state.
By the time of his retirement, it was said that 60 percent of Alaska's population lived within three miles of a Carrs store.
In 1990, Carr and Gottstein sold the retail stores to an investor group headed by two of their managers. But Carr's fingerprints were still evident in the continuing innovations and quality of the stores, which had things like hot deli counters, stand-up freezer cases and large gourmet and ethnic sections. While much had changed in Anchorage since 1950, the craving for a touch of luxury among those transplanted to Alaska from more comfortable climates in the lower 48 was still powerful.
The chain thrived, but management became concerned that buyers were also perceiving Carrs as more expensive than the competition. They also noticed declining use of coupons.
So the company introduced the Carrs Plus card, described as an "electronic coupon system," in 1995. Customers ran courtesy cards through a scanning machine at checkout and discounts were applied to purchases. Carr's son Greg, who was by this point the company's senior vice president of sales and marketing, saw the cards as a way to separate the store from the "noise level" of heavy advertising among competing supermarket chains.
Some customers rejected the cards as an invasion of privacy but they caught on quickly and Alaska became the first market where they became a fixture. Today most major retailers in America use something like the Carrs Plus cards.
In 1998, Safeway bought out the chain, though the Carrs name remained on stores in Anchorage. The property division of the Carr- Gottstein partnership continues to manage retail, wholesale and warehouse space in Southcentral Alaska.
On a visit to Alaska to visit his son, Carr's father, Bernard Joseph Carr Sr., decided to move here himself. "Pop" Carr would later serve in the state Legislature.
Larry Carr, too, was interested in politics. In 1970 he ran for governor in the Democratic primary. He was beaten by Bill Egan, who went on to win that year. But he remained an active participant and major donor to campaigns for the rest of his life. Among his many philanthropies, he made significant contributions to the United Way, the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts and Alaska Pacific University, where he served as a trustee.
Among several honors received over the course of his life, he received the Freedom Award from the NAACP in 1969 and an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 1992.
Carr is survived by his wife, Wilma, son Greg, daughter Jacqueline and her husband, Shawn Beck, all of Anchorage, sisters Mary Piaskowski of Anchorage and LaMoine Oppelt of Apopka, Fla., brother-in-law Paul Moseley and his wife, Sharon, numerous grandchildren, great- grandchildren, nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his son Brian.
Reach Mike Dunham at mdunham@adn.com or 257-4332.
By MIKE DUNHAM
mdunham@adn.com