Northern Commercial was a huge company operating in at least Alaska, like Hudson Bay Company in Canada. They traded in almost everything.
Daryl, your comparison to HBC is quite apt. In the eighties, HBC spun off their northern stores division into an independent public company, known as the North West Company. In the early 1990's the North West Company purchased Northern Commercial. I used to do business with the North West Company.
Tom, those stores service very small, very isolated communities all across the north. They sell everything. They are the closest thing left to a general store, hardware, food, clothing, sporting goods, you name it. If the community needs it, they get it. From a business perspective, the best thing about the operation is there is no competition and highly unlikely that someone will try.