My Turn: Something's fishy, but it's not at Costco
By WIN GRUENING, FOR THE JUNEAU EMPIRE, osted: May 14, 2015
Last week, just as I was searching for a new subject to write about in my bi-weekly column, something was served up on a platter. Literally.
On Sunday, May 3, the Empire Readers Council ran an editorial entitled, “Farmed Atlantic salmon for sale in Juneau – what’s up with that?”
For those of you who missed it, the editorial complimented Costco on its value to the community but then took Costco to the fish shed for daring to sell farmed Atlantic salmon in its Juneau store. The editorial said this “tugs at (our) economic fabric” and is “an affront to the local fishing community.” The Council encouraged Costco to immediately stop selling farmed salmon in Juneau and other stores in Alaska.
First, let me say that I eat fish and have friends and relatives who are fishermen. Furthermore, I have never intentionally bought or eaten any salmon that wasn’t wild from Alaska. But this issue isn’t about my food choices or about what my friends and relatives do for a living. It’s about the merits of free enterprise and the value of competition. It’s about what makes our country great and keeps making it better.
Our country was founded on some very basic principles that make it unique among many countries around the world. One hallmark of our society is market freedom. With some exceptions, everyone must be free to sell anything to anyone at any time or place at any mutually agreeable price. Indeed, without the principles of capitalism and free markets, the United States could never have achieved the standard of living and freedom we enjoy today.
To argue that a private company (Costco) shouldn’t offer a product to the public because it competes with another product, local or otherwise, goes against a fundamental principle upon which our country was founded. And it is a real stretch to imply that merely offering that product in their store is an “absolute threat to Alaska’s commercial fishing industry.”
Clearly, Costco would not offer the product if they did not think there was a demand for it. If, as posited by the editorial, farmed salmon is an inferior product that people won’t buy, then it won’t be sold in enough quantity to make a profit and Costco will no longer carry it. But that is a market decision and, in a free society, markets should respond to the desires of consumers, not to community opinion makers. Selectively picking winners and losers in our economy is a slippery, slimy slope. If you think a fisherman’s products shouldn’t have to compete in the marketplace along with everyone else’s products, what will be next?
Apparently, competition in Juneau is good for airlines (Alaska Airlines vs. Delta), beer (Alaskan vs. dozens of competitors), and grocery stores, to name just a few. So why should we exempt a certain type of fish? The City and Borough of Juneau Assembly and the Juneau Chamber of Commerce can promote “Look Local First” campaigns to raise awareness of the positive impact of locally-made products and spending our money where we make it — and if that’s all the Empire Readers Council editorial meant to do, that would be fine. But it went a lot farther than that.
The Alaska fishermen I know are independent, competitive types that relish a challenge and don’t feel as though they need favorable treatment in order to sell their product in Juneau or anywhere else. They are proud of their profession and the value of the product they sell. I doubt they would argue that competition doesn’t “up their game”. After all, like entrepreneurs competing in other industries, aren’t they incentivized to maintain freshness, handle their product carefully and deliver to vendors at the lowest possible price? Doesn’t that benefit everyone?
Drawing on the inspiration of modern philosophers like John Locke and Adam Smith, our founders argued that trade based on consent and mutual gain was preferable to controlling it through outside forces. There is a big difference between encouraging individuals not to buy a product versus pressuring a store not to sell a product. In the first case, individuals will make their own decision. In the second case, you are trying to make the decision for them.
Nothing good ever comes from this kind of market meddling and I hope most Alaskans would reject it.
• Win Gruening retired as the senior vice president in charge of business banking for Key Bank in 2012. He was born and raised in Juneau and is active in community and statewide organizations.
