Company description

Dulce and Michael at Alaska Wild Harvest have been producing and marketing birch syrup for 30 years. As the world's largest birch syrup producer, we market our products worldwide through online sales, wholesale accounts to natural foods and gift shops, and at our own taste-tour-shop. We manufacture value added products using the delicious syrup, we harvest wild berries and chaga to make our other products, and we bottle birch sap as a wonderful beverage. Our taste and tour gift shop is located near the small town of Talkeetna, Alaska at the foot of the Alaska range. We believe in sustainable harvest of all the wild "goods from the woods" that we utilize and have a deep love of our Alaskan boreal forest ecosystem. In the summer we plant our garden beds in the front of the shop with vegetables, herbs, and flowers to make an attractive environment for our guest and ourselves - and for the occasional moose that wanders by (though they are likely to help themselves to more than their share!) We enjoy hiring people who understand and have a passion for the challenges of running a seasonal harvest, a business based on tourism, and share our vision of sustainability. Please check out our website for more information.

Job description

We are looking for several people to help manage/operate our birch syrup taste - tour - gift shop this summer, from May through August or September. The shop is open 7 days a week, 10-6, and our workers work four to five days a week. The job entails guiding tours through the facility , offering tastings of our products, selling products and packaging customers' purchases. Other duties are gardening and grounds-keeping, stocking, cleaning and organizing, preparing samples and beverages, keeping track of inventory and ordering products, creating attractive displays, and communications with customers and owners.

Days can vary considerably between slow and lazy (early and late in the summer) to long and extremely busy (especially at the peak of the summer). We are working primarily with independent travelers and small van tours, but do get full size coaches in on a set schedule. Occasionally a bus of 50 people will show up with a 30 minute notice - or unannounced - and we do the best we can :)

We pay bonuses based on weekly sales - this is not competitive but is a cooperative effort so all can benefit from good sales. We give visitors an opportunity to tip for a great tour, but it is not expected and we pay well so that our workers are not depending on tips.

Qualifications desired are:
Business/sales experience
Basic computer and POS system familiarity (especially for manager position)
Cheerful, helpful, people-oriented person
Tourism experience
Gardening and/or harvesting experience
Understanding of natural and forest ecosystems
If you have harvested maple sap or produced maple syrup it would be a huge help!
Display design and artistic ability
Excel/Spreadsheet proficiency

Other Perks: We have a 26' travel trailer onsite for lodging, and the gardens provide some opportunities for grazing by mid-summer. We have a full kitchen in the facility and a good stash of baking ingredients, rice, pasta, beans, etc. We do not, however, provide all of your food and there is a grocery store just a mile away. Talkeetna is 13 miles up the road and is a beautiful and fun-loving little town that offers music, entertainment, and good beer. The area provides great opportunities for hiking, biking, rafting, fishing and other recreation during your off hours and our long Alaskan days.

Compensation

this position is: hourly, $15/hr +

Application instructions

Deadline

no deadline