Where am I supposed to shop?

These are just the thoughts in my head as I sit staring at my new Fossil purse that I had to pay $14.95 to have shipped from Macy's...

One of the biggest dilemmas I've seemed to be faced with here is that of where to shop. For those of you that don't live in Anchorage, there are two malls and one is pretty sizeable. But there are also only two department stores. JCPenney's and Nordstrom's. There's The Gap, Eddie Bauer, American Eagle, Old Navy, Kohl's, Target, etc., etc. But when it comes to looking for specific items that I know I want or need, sometimes I need more variety than that. For example, I miss Macy's a lot. I didn't buy all of my clothes there, but it was where I shopped for purses, and it was the best option I could think of for a semi-formal dress. Two months ago, when I needed to find a dress for the Army ball, I was brought to tears a couple of times by the lack of shopping here. JCPenney's had nothing that didn't look like either a 14 year-old or 45 year-old should be wearing it. There was no middle ground. Nordstrom's had a few dresses, but I didn't feel like spending the kind of money they were asking on a dress that was just okay and wasn't something I'd actually want to wear and feel good in. I visited David's Bridal (they do have one!) in South Anchorage once, but the customer service in Alaska is the same as it is in Pennsylvania. You PA brides will be happy to know that it is, in fact, not just you! I was quickly reminded why I did not use David's Bridal for my own wedding, and I left the store in a hurry. I actually entertained the thought of going home just to do some shopping (and get a new phone! Verizon phones can't be activated in Alaska because there are no digital towers. It hurts to talk about the ridiculousness of all that though, so another day...). I spent many hours on the Macy's website, credit card in hand, wondering what I should do and if I should order. Then, I visited the Nordstrom's website. They had 500% more dresses on the site than they did in the store here. I found one, thinking I could at least take it back to the store if it didn't work, and that is the dress I ended up wearing to the battalion ball. Accessories were another issue entirely, but I could probably go on about that forever...
Alaska has some wonderful features to it, obviously, and Anchorage is a regular, developed city. There are some things that it does not have and I didn't realize I would miss these until I didn't have them and they were 4,100 miles away (well, technically, I could fly to Washington state if I was desperate, which some people do). No: Victoria's Secret, Boscov's, Bon-ton, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Macy's, Sheetz, Verizon, Panera, TJ Maxx, Staples and I'm sure I can think of more. I probably spend a lot of time thinking about what I miss compared to thinking about what I have. There is Kohl's, Old Navy, Best Buy, Coldstone Creamery, Dairy Queen, Target, Lowe's, Home Depot, Kay Jeweler's and I'm sure I can think of much more. Perhaps the best thing about shopping in Alaska is that there is no sales tax. It's a great place to buy a car!