For a lot of small restaurants and stores, taking orders means a phone that won't stop ringing during the rush, or a national delivery app that takes a cut of every sale. TIKT is a new online ordering system built in Bethel for local restaurants and retailers.

What it is

TIKT gives each business its own online ordering page with its own link. Customers open the link on their phone, build their order and pay. The order shows up instantly on the business's orders screen, which rings when something new comes in. Busy kitchens can add a receipt printer so tickets print on their own.

The ordering page carries the business's own name and menu. TIKT is built for restaurants and retailers. Restaurants and coffee shops can offer pickup and delivery, with choices like size, toppings, milk or syrups. Retail stores offer pickup.

Kusko Pizza in Bethel is the first business on TIKT.

How it works for customers

1. Open the business's ordering link.
2. Pick your items and options, then choose pickup or delivery.
3. Pay by card, or choose cash and pay at pickup or on delivery. Add a tip if you'd like.
4. The order rings in at the business, and staff move it from New to Making to Ready.

How it works for businesses

• You run your own menu. Change items, prices, hours and sold-out items yourself, any time.
• You set your own fees. Each business sets its own delivery fee and tax rate.
• Your money goes straight to you. Card payments go into the business's own Stripe account and bank. The business pays Stripe's normal card fee, about 2.9% plus 30¢. TIKT doesn't add a markup.
• Cash is fine. Customers can pay cash at pickup or on delivery.

What it costs

Every order has a $0.75 TIKT service fee, paid by the customer at checkout, so businesses keep their full menu prices. On top of that, businesses pick a plan:

Yearly billing comes with about two months free: Grow is $790 a year and Pro is $1,490 a year. A kitchen receipt printer is sold separately for $549. Grow and Pro also include Quyana Rewards at no extra cost.

Getting started

Plans and sign-up are at tikt.store.

Read about Quyana Rewards →

Big chains have rewards apps. Most small businesses in rural Alaska don't. Quyana Rewards is a rewards program for everyone in town: any local business can join, and anyone can sign up and earn points with one account at every participating business.

Quyana means "thank you" in Yup'ik, and that's the idea: a way for the businesses in town to thank the people who keep coming back.

What it is

Quyana Rewards runs in your phone's web browser at rewards.tikt.store. There's nothing to download from an app store, and you can add it to your home screen like an app. One account works at every business in town that uses Quyana, and you can switch between them to see your points at each one.

Kusko Pizza in Bethel is the first business on Quyana Rewards.

How it works for customers

1. Sign up with your email and link your phone number.
2. Earn 1 point for every $1 you spend. At the counter, staff look you up by phone number. Online orders through TIKT earn points automatically.
3. Unlock rewards as your points grow. Each business picks its own rewards and how many points they take.
4. Show staff your reward and they redeem it at the counter.

The more you visit, the higher your level. There are three levels: Platinum, Emerald and Diamond. Higher levels earn points faster, and Diamond members earn 1.75 points per $1.

• Quests. Businesses can run challenges like "visit 5 times this month" or "visit 3 weeks in a row" for bonus points or a prize. Your progress shows in the app.
• Gifting. Once you reach Emerald, you can send points or an unlocked reward to a friend or family member.
• Expiration. Rewards and gifts last 365 days.

How it works for businesses

• Sign up and set it up yourself. Create a business account, then choose your rewards, quests, levels, signup bonus, birthday reward and double-points days.
• Use the counter screen. Look up a customer by phone number, log a purchase, redeem a reward or adjust points.
• Add your team. Owners invite staff by email and remove them when they leave. Staff can work the counter but can't change rewards or settings.
• Get approved. New businesses are reviewed before they show up to customers.

What it costs

Getting started

Customers and businesses can sign up at rewards.tikt.store.

Read about TIKT online ordering →

Donlin Gold could be the largest private economic engine the Yukon-Kuskokwim region has ever had. It promises thousands of construction jobs, about 800 long-term jobs, and a 27-year stream of revenue to the Alaska Native corporations that own the land.

The YK region covers 56 villages across an area about the size of Oregon. It is one of the poorest regions in the country, and fuel can cost close to $9 a gallon in coastal villages. Steady, year-round jobs close to home are scarce.

What sets Donlin apart is who owns the ground. Calista Corporation selected this land under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and owns the minerals. The Kuskokwim Corporation (TKC) owns the surface. That means the region's own Native corporations sit at the table, not just outside investors.

Jobs

Building the mine is projected to take 3 to 4 years and employ about 3,000 workers, paying roughly $375 million in wages. Once running, Donlin expects to employ about 800 people year-round, with a payroll of more than $100 million a year.

Those are projections, not guarantees. But the project's track record on local hiring is real. During advanced exploration, more than 90% of the roughly 200 workers on site were Calista shareholders or their descendants (2008).

A mine job also builds skills that travel: heavy equipment, electrical, mechanical, environmental monitoring and camp operations. Those trades stay with a worker long after any single project ends.

Economy

Donlin is built to last a generation. The mine is planned for about 27 years and is expected to average more than 1 million ounces of gold a year. Its proven and probable reserves are part of a deposit of roughly 40 million ounces in measured and indicated resources, so the mine life could grow.

A payroll of $100 million a year does not stay at the mine site. Workers spend it at home: on groceries, fuel, boats, snowmachines, housing and family. That spending flows through local stores, air carriers, barge lines, fuel distributors and the small businesses that serve them.

The mine will also buy goods and services for decades. Shipping, catering, maintenance, environmental work and transportation are all contracts that regional and Native-owned firms can compete for. The owners report working with more than 60 communities across the region.

The project is also moving forward on paper. It is federally permitted, all federal and state permits remain in effect, and an updated feasibility study led by Fluor is targeted for 2027.

Shareholder benefits

Because Calista owns the minerals and TKC owns the surface, Donlin pays the region's own corporations to operate on their land. Calista says shareholders will receive economic benefits from project revenues, including distributions. Calista has paid more than $141.6 million in dividends and distributions since it began; a producing gold mine could add a major new source on top of that.

The Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska shows what this can look like. NANA, the regional corporation that owns Red Dog's land, has received about $2 billion in royalties over three decades. About 57% of Red Dog's roughly 600 workers are Alaska Native, with an average wage around $100,000.

Donlin's revenue would also reach far beyond Calista, through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act:

• Section 7(i): Calista must share 70% of its natural resource revenue from Donlin with the other 11 regional corporations. Red Dog alone produced $1.6 billion in 7(i) payments through 2021.
• Section 7(j): Half of the 7(i) money a regional corporation receives must go to the village corporations in its region.

That sharing cuts both ways. Calista keeps 30% of its own Donlin resource revenue, and it also receives its share of other regions' resource revenue. Donlin would turn Calista from a corporation that mostly receives 7(i) money into one that generates it, putting the YK region among Alaska's major resource owners.

The exact royalty rates and payments in Calista's lease and TKC's surface agreement are not spelled out in the public sources reviewed here. Shareholders who want those numbers can ask Calista and TKC directly.

Safeguards and community voice

Donlin needs more than 100 federal and state permits. Most key permits are issued, and the owners say all federal and state permits remain in effect. Supporters point to the project's work with the communities it would affect:

• A Subsistence Community Advisory Committee, with a new Subsistence Plan and a Barge Communication Plan
• Outreach to more than 60 regional communities, including visits to 11 YK villages in May 2026 alongside Calista and TKC
• Support for regional programs such as Clean Up Green Up, the Rural Alaska Honors Institute and school district programs

Calista's position is that resource development and subsistence can coexist under strict regulation and oversight. Supporters also argue that subsistence itself takes cash: for fuel, boats, nets and snowmachines. Steady wages can help families stay in their villages and keep living off the land.

The bottom line

Donlin Gold offers the YK region something it has rarely had: thousands of jobs during construction, about 800 steady jobs for 27 years, a $100 million-plus yearly payroll, and resource revenue flowing to the region's own Native corporations and their shareholders. Done right, it could change what's possible for families who want to build a future at home.