"Alaska consumers don't spend much differently from the rest of the nation, which may seem surprising, as we're often outliers in other economic indicators,"

Why is that surprising? We are merely the lower forty eight anymore except for all the cowboys that think otherwise. Like it or not, there is nothing particularly special about Alaska in terms of demographics. The personal irony for me is that Alaska has become what I ran from. The Anchorage mentality has far and away taken over the State's psyche.