In Anchorage, April brings familiar Alaskan rites of spring: birds chirping, snow melting and the return of hot dog vendors to downtown.
For a slice of temporary real estate in the city's commercial core, would-be vendors go through the city's bidding process, vying for one of eight spots designated by the municipality.
This year's top bid: $21,050, for the right to operate a hot dog stand at the corner of E street and 4th Avenue.
It's worth it, says Eugenia Buitrago, the owner of Tia's Gourmet Sausages and the winning bidder.
"That's the spot," she says. "Because it's sunny and all the souvenir stores are across the street are across from the park."
Buitrago has been in the business for 14 years.
Spots used to be chosen by a lottery system. For at least four or five years, she says, potential vendors have bid on spots – usually competing for one or two prime locations.
Increasingly, sky-high bids are the only way to guarantee her preferred spot. Last year she was surprised when another vendor bid $18,000 for the spot she'd occupied for several seasons.
"They came and bid so high they knocked us out," she said. "I cried so much."
Buitrago was determined to reclaim the corner for herself this year.
"We knew if we let them get the corner this year, it's the end of us. They're going to keep getting stronger and we're going to keep going down," she said. "So we decided we have to get it. No matter what."
This year, she came to the bidding process with more than $20,000 that her husband withdrew from his IRA fund.
"It was very stressful," she said.
Still, she was initially outbid.
Martin Guarderas of Boss Management LLC bid $22,900 for the spot, but dropped out.
Most spots are less expensive.
Fiorella De Marzo-Chia paid $6,001 for another spot near the log cabin visitor information center.
Christopher Sis, who is returning for a second season selling Smitty's poutine – gravy-covered fries popular in Canada – won the right to sell at the corner of G Street and 5th Avenue, near the Performing Arts Center, for just $929.29.
Vendors won't say how much money it's possible to make in a summer of selling hot dogs downtown.
But Fred Kaltenbach, who heads the Municipality of Anchorage's Purchasing Department, which runs the bidding process for food vendor permit sites, says that vendors aren't obliged to report their earnings to the city, but he's heard that they can be substantial.
"I've heard they make up to $150,000 a summer out there," he says. "And that's from April to September, basically."
Michael Andrews, who owns the popular M.A.'s Gourmet Dogs, even promotes his return to the spot he rents in front of the Old Federal Building (he also has a coffee shop inside the building) with advertisements on the side of buses. He doesn't partake in the city's bidding process because he's on federal property.
He says he doesn’t think the high bidding prices will come down.
"If you want the business and you want to maintain it, you're going to have to do whatever is necessary," he said.
Still, he thinks the high prices are "ridiculous."
Vendors say they wonder where the money they bid -- a total of more than $34,000 this year, even after two people dropped out of the process after bids had closed – ends up.
Kaltenbach says that at least once in the past some of the money has gone to the Anchorage Downtown Partnership in the form of a block grant. The rest of the time, it goes into a general revenue fund.
Anchorage Downtown Partnership marketing director Emily Bolling said that her organization has worked with hot dog vendors in the past to ensure that downtown stays clean when customers leave the stands with a hot dog wrapper, a napkin and condiments.
For Buitrago, who says she works a minimum of 12 hours a day, seven days a week during the busy season, the big upfront price is a worthwhile investment. Her spot is where people expect to see her, and it's in close proximity to Peratrovich Park.
There's nothing people like more, she says, than a hot dog in the park on a sunny day.
"Hot dogs and sunshine go together," she said.
