Shopping Part 2: Arctic survival and more!

When JJ and I lived in Kingston there used to be this great old department store called "S&R Department Store".  The building dated from 1812.  The S&R department store had cheap versions of EVERYTHING: scratchy socks, cheap wooden drying racks for drying your clothes, groceries, craft supplies, kitchen supplies, clothing, etc.  Imagine a giant four-story Biway (not sure what the American equivalent would be, maybe a cheaper version of K-mart?). It even had an elevator man. His job was to stand in the elevator, ask you what floor you wanted to go to, then push the button for you. I think his job was a holdover from the 1800's.......or whenever elevators were invented.

I thought S&R was the craziest store I had ever been in. I didn't think any store could rival it for character.

I was wrong.

Northmart and Arctic Ventures (see previous post on groceries) are amazing.  Northmart is like Walmart, but for the north.  Half grocery store, half "whatever-else" store. And "whatever-else" includes snowmobiles, potted plants, fishing lures, and animal pelts.

Arctic Ventures is 3-ish floors of crazy.  The first floor is mainly groceries, plus what I have dubbed the "magic window".  The magic window is where you can buy fishing licenses, top up your cell phone minutes, submit colouring contest entries, and any number of miscellaneous things. Three-quarters of the way upstairs is another "sort-of" floor, like a mezzanine.  An alarm bings, and you can walk to the right of the stairs through the only electronics store in town. This is also where you will find the only cellular phone dealer.  Continue on through the "appliance" section, and the "furniture" section.

Arctic Ventures' magic window of fun.

View of the grocery section from the furniture/electronics mezzanine.

Ovens, storage trunks, couches, shower curtains, and more.

You can choose to bypass the mezzanine by going left at the top of the first set of stairs. Another alarmed entrance brings you to the clothing section. The clothing section consists mostly of parkas, sweatpants, and the odd ladies top or kids' t-shirt. This "3rd floor" also houses kitchenware, stationary, a children's toy section (the quality is somewhere between china town and the dollar store), lightbulbs, and an extremely limited hardware aisle (its only half an aisle, actually). Oh, and fabric. And animal pelts.

You cannot cross from one alarmed-section of the store to another without first paying for whatever goods you chose from that particular section.  It is a unique shopping experience.

Clothing and false eyelashes at Arctic Ventures.

Fabric and craft supplies.

Sealskin owls and carved polar bears. 

I can't imagine trying to supply an isolated population of 7,700 with all the basics of life to get them through an arctic winter. Without these two stores this city would cease to function. Although the two department stores stock many of the basics, the hunt for "stuff" is still challenging.  The lid for the garbage can in the kitchen broke off our first week here.  To replace it with something appropriate for a kitchen (not a big "Oscar the Grouch" trash can that you would see outside on garbage day), I had to order online.  When hockey season started for CJS I realized we didn't have a rack to hang his gear on to dry it out.  That also had to be ordered online. Captain Jack is currently sleeping on a mattress on the floor--he broke his bunkbed ladder and we are waiting for a new hook to come in via Amazon. 
Another little gem of a store I found within my first couple of weeks here is called "Baffin Electronics". It is AWESOME!  It has a huge selection of ribbon, fabric, sewing machines, yarn, paint, and shoes.  Since I am going to try to learn to knit while I'm up here, I was excited to find it.  You know what it doesn't have? Yup. Electronics.

Baffin Electronics.  Even the store itself is for sale!

Quilting supplies.

Best craft and sewing store in town. 

Arctic Survival Store is great, too.  They sell fishing poles, parkas, boots, outdoor gear, and guns. And pelts.

All your hunting needs.

You know what ALL of these store sell? (Did you catch it in the body of the blog? Or are you just skimming?) Animal pelts.  I have seen them in every store.  They are dyed various colors and ready to add to a parka, or make into mittens, or a scarf, etc.

Conveniently dyed a variety of colours.

Electric blue sealskin is awesome!

Animals pelts aren't just for show, or for tourists, or because the Inuit think they are "trendy".  They are really, really important in the winter up here (more on that later).  The fact that you will never find tomato red (see it peeking out?) or lime green sealskin anywhere else is just bonus.

There are so many things coming up!  Halloween in the snow, Captain Jack's birthday, Family Fun Night at Joamie School....I'm not sure what you'll be reading about next! Any requests?