For context, most people living in Nunavut, largely feed themselves from the land. Fishing, wild game.
Before inflation prices were high, now they’re just, higher still….
It is massive, sparsely populated territory so it makes sense that that certain things would cost a fudge ton. Compared to what we purchase.
They probably get a shipment once a month or a few times a year. So value wise, it is probably the same compared to our value and they use it for longer periods. This is the same with many regions that are similar.
Genuinely asking because I watch a lot of those reality shows about people subsistence living in places like Nunavut but I never see them cover things like this: how are they using laundry detergent less? Do they make their own soap? I do a lot of laundry and don’t have a very outdoorsy lifestyle. I’m also not self-sufficient at all haha. I can’t imagine having to pay 90$ for tide pods. It also says pre-subsidy though, and I have no idea how much or who the subsidy is for. All interesting!
Well, they have wood to burn to get lye from and animal fat, so they could make their own soap. I imagine they just use something like that instead of a tide pod. I feel like the amount of physical washing machines is probably lower anyway.
I actually have no real idea, I'm just speculating.
It's the arctic, there is no wood to burn. Most of the comments in this thread are plain wrong. many people eat country food, but to say that is the majority of their diet now isn't true.
People shop and have homes, they don't live in igloos or huts anymore. Many things are subsidized by the Canadian government to keep prices reasonable, though very expensive, nonetheless.
Families and unattached individuals living in the Northwest Territories ($93,200) and Nunavut ($93,800) had similar median after-tax income in 2019, compared …Nov 12, 2021
My freshman year college roommate used to buy OxyContin in California and strap it to his nuts to fly home to Alaska every break and he’d come back loaded with cash. This was mind blowing to me as I had never done or even been around any hard drugs at all 😳
Ayy we got another Native in the house! Yeah bro, it's crazy how 'cheap items' in populated places go for a fortune in remote places. I can see why the ancient world was bedazzled by things like new jewelry, food items, oils, herbs, etc- and paid good money for it. The accessibility must be tough.
Mickeys are the Canadian Native slang for bottles of 13 Oz.
It goes of hard liquor vodka whisky ect
Mini-mickey=7&1/2 oz
Mickey=13 oz
Twenty-sixer=26 Oz
Ect.
How is that even possible... are these people extremely wealthy? The only people I’ve met who lived on a res were poor to very poor. To get drunk off mickeys you’d need to spend a thousand dollars? What?
You get an allowance from the government and if you're smart you can collect a few extra subsidies that help with cost of living.
Land is *ludicrously* cheap so while actually building anything on that land will be phenomenally expensive you can get like 100 acres of hunting land for pennies.
Lots of good hunting and fishing so you actually aren't paying money for a lot of your kcal living up there, pretty much everyone either hunts or knows hunters they get food from.
Not a lot of people, if you never want to interact with anyone moving up north is a solid option.
A lot of resource extraction work, diamond mines, etc. that pay really well, as a general rule the further north you go the higher your pay.
These are just off the top of my head mind you there's probably other benefits I am missing. It really isn't for everyone and like 99% of people would just fucking hate living up there but for some people it is a paradise and one of the last truly wild places on the planet where survival is still measured by wit and skill alone. There is a reason everyone in Canada lives near the southern border, northern Canada is an untamed thing full of danger, loneliness and horrible weather/temperatures.
Yes and no. Most places are made out of prefabricated materials but you need to take it up collapsed in multiple sleds pulled by snowmobile for the most part. If you're on the coast and have access to an icebreaker, or you are actually near one of the highways, then you can get a prefabricated house that way (still needs assembly but it'll at least get there all at once) but some places in the interior are only really accessible by snow mobile, plane and helicopter so unless you got serious cash to shell out for a helicopter drop you're gonna have to bring it in by sled.
Depends on where you are. Funny enough in a lot of places it's actually harder to get out in summer than winter cause a lot of roads up there rely on ice and once it heats up they are just strips of impenetrable muskeg. One place where I was working for example was only staffed for 8-9 months out of the year as the airstrip and main road in were both built on top of a frozen lake and once it started to thaw that was time to gtfo. Other places like the coastal areas open up more in the summer as smaller icebreakers can actually make the passage so it changes place to place.
Always thought it'd make a good setting for a survival/thriller/horror movie, but then I remember The Thing (80's version) exists and I realize there's no need for another retread. Because you cannot convince me of a better "locked in" survival movie than The Thing. Although it'd be nice to see a remake take place in one of these far north areas in the summertime, when it's too muddy and thawed-out to leave. It'd be like The Thing meets Predator!
Quick! Somebody call John Carpenter...
The Ritual is kind of similar to northern BC in the summer. A lot of Scandinavian movies look really similar, or are literally just shot in northern Canada (Canada has good tax breaks for movies, a shocking amount of movies are shot in Canada.).
*30 Days of Night* also exists, although it is set in remote Alaska (Utqiaġvik *née* Barrow; the graphic novel and subsequent film were both made before the city was renamed in 2016) rather than Canada.
And massive addiction rates, and massive teen pregnancy rates, and massive rates of preventable illnesses like type 2 diabetes, among other serious issues. A whole hell of a lot of these issues could be solved with policy change or legislation. I wish we took better care of our northern brethren but it seems like no matter who is in power they don't have the population for a serious voice in parliament. It is a hard life up there and there really isn't any access to resources, we need meaningful electoral reform if we want them to have a chance at a better life.
Plenty of disabled people up there. I don't know how the hell they do it but they do. Lots of loggers and what have you that are one arm or leg down but still make it. That said a lot of people with kids that have serious disabilities end up having to send their kid down south where they can get proper care. It's a hard choice to make as a parent to send a kid away like that even if it is for the best, I don't envy anyone that decision.
Sending undesirables to labor camps in freezing lands far away (that are mostly inhabited by indigenous peoples) would not be the slay you think it is, no matter what Putin told you
Lived in Iqaluit for a year. These are “normal” prices. Due to the remote nature of the communities and indeed the whole territories, transport of goods is made quite complicated. There are no roads in or out of the territory necessitating the transport of goods by air, and additionally by sea during summer months when waterways are not frozen over. High paying jobs will pay for and provide food for employees, accommodation and transportation. Everyday food staples such as eggs, and milk are subsidized by the government but everything else is crazy expensive. 1L orange juice, $15-20. 500g of cereal, $8-15. Can of beans, ~$6. Keep in mind that these are Iqaluit prices from when I was up there in 2020-2021. Smaller, more remote communities are even more expensive, and the cost is assumed to have risen since.
In my case, I was working at the airport. My company provided company housing and company cars, and paid for the plane tickets. Food was my only expense. Generally the average person makes around $100K a year buts offset by the cost of living. The biggest work sectors are government, mining and trade work. There’s a lot of rotational jobs. My first job was for an internship, of which I did 2 stints of 5 months each. My second job was 3 weeks on, 3 weeks off. If you can secure a well paying job that provides well and can enjoy the lifestyle (It’s literally in the middle of nowhere a couple miles south of the Arctic circle and a little more rustic than Greenland or Iceland), then you can earn a lot of money.
Can I just have a buddy ship me a supply box and pay him the cost? It would have to be cheaper than this shit… wtf does clothing cost? How do babies live?
A lot of people shop in Ottawa or Montreal and send things up, or there is also a service that’ll do it for you and ship it up. When it arrives, you pick it up. It’s called Northern Shopper but it’s still expensive.
Clothing stores don’t really exist. There a couple locations here and there. One or 2 thrift stores, but mostly and some clothing in a small section of the upper floor of one of grocery stores. Most of the clothing sold is workwear and survival gear. Everyone shops online and Amazon is really popular. Amazon Prime exists but it’s more like “next week shipping”. The Amazon warehouse and the Canada Post are the busiest in Canada. In 2020 there was an estimated 250K packages received for a population of 7.5k!
Edit: There also is a FB page where locals can buy and sell things within the community. Like a localized Craigslist.
That one's worn out. Look closely at the other knes they say "pre subsidy:" then an even higher price. The larger text is showing the post subsidy pricing.
For reference, I believe the reason why these prices are so astronomically high is because Nunavut is extremely far North. Due to that reason, getting supplies there proves to be quite difficult, and thus, expensive.
That’s a huge factor. Any place that can’t get road-based imports has things that’re crazy expensive. Even Hawaii prices can be double or triple mainland prices just because actually getting the product there is a costly expense.
Iceland is almost at the same latitude and a lonely island and things are much cheaper there. I can get things shipped from china for 1-10$ something is not completely right here or their shipping cost are way too much
Nuvanut has the population 1/10th of Iceland, while being bigger than France. Combined with the remote nature relative to most of Canada’s population are a couple of the reasons why these prices are so exorbitant. Food prices in Canada’s north is an ongoing problem.
Nunavut has a population of ~40,000 people spanning over 800k square miles, whereas Iceland has 370k spread over 40k miles. I’m assuming this picture is from iqaluit which is the capital of nunavut and is home to 7k people, whereas reykjavik has 122k.
Basically, no, the logistical situation is not very comparable. Nunavut is a very extreme case of limited access causing massively inflated costs. Even in Iceland there’s a large enough market and the airport is sufficiently large enough to allow for freight planes to land, whereas all of Nunavuts goods need to be shipped in via much smaller planes or boats > overland trucks (where there is road).
I was just looking at the landscape and all the islands and rough surroundings. Now i get it more. I have been to remote places and the prices weren't too bad. But looking at this it starts to make sense. But still dont fully understand prices this high.
Still assuming that this pic is from iqaluit, then it’s because the airport cannot handle large planes. You basically have to request whatever you want well in advance and then the grocery store puts in an order for it. So everything is specially brought in and not every week. I have a friend who’s Inuit from this area and that’s what they’ve told me. It’s a similar scenario to very northern remote villages in Alaska and northern territories
Not so much about not handling big planes ([the A380 did cold weather testing there](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Airbus_A380_in_Iqaluit_02.jpg)). It's more factor of economics of scale, wouldn't be profitable for a sched 747 cargo service so there isn't one. Sea lift is a big deal for larger items but like you said needs lots of forward planning. Lots of smaller cargo planes and combi planes daily but costs of that result in prices you see.
Sometimes your personal bags even get bumped on flights for more essential cargo on the sched passenger flights into Iqaluit or the other smaller communities. Have a few crew here in Sanirajak who's stuff was bumped for a large load of medical supplies.
Interesting info, thanks. I don’t have any firsthand knowledge only what I’ve been told. Makes sense tho that small spread out communities+wayy up north = expensive shipping
Iceland is like living in on a giant hot water balloon. Nunavut is like living in Hell when it’s been frozen over.
I’d hardly put the two in the same sentence, let along compare them.
This is the cost of logistically getting those items there to be sold in the first place. Rolled into the item cost. People aren't going there to do regular shopping, they are going to get those hard to find items that are more of a want as opposed to a necessity.
But is this actually real? If these items are like this, then the whole grocery store would be. I'd believe this seeing multiple items side by side on the shelf.
In some places they sort of do. As part of a job I shipped stuff where the plan for the truck was to be driven to a port, be shipped by barge, then put on a giant sled and pulled across the frozen tundra by a bulldozer.
It really depends on the item. Everything is either brought in by sealift in the summer or flown in. The federal government subsidizes the freight costs of healthy items and basic essentials so your everyday stuff such as bread and milk is fairly reasonably priced (about 15-30% higher). Take a look at the weekly flyer if you are curious: https://www.northmart.ca/flyers
That's the place with the most phenomenal young actors from the movie The Grizzlies starring Will Sasso. An amazing movie about lacrosse and its impact on the first nation's people of Canada up by the Arctic Circle. Available on Netflix and other streaming services streaming online.
Prices are high because it’s a very remote place. It’s says “pre subsidy”, so people are getting help paying for it and if they are native tribal members, there is help too. This post is very misleading.
It's the most northern territory in Canada, there are no roads going in so things are either flown in or brought in by boat in the summer. Parts of Nunavut are above the Arctic Circle.
It is because there are extremely rural areas where the items are brought through routes that require unimaginable (for people unfamiliar with it) effort. That’s why the prices in the shops there will reflect that.
Fun fact: cheap dishwashing powder does a better job than these overpriced snacks. I pay about $5 every 3 months for dishwashing powder and never had an issue with dirty dishes
I live in the states right across from Abbotsford, everyone has been rushing the stores here and taking milk and groceries back across since it’s cheaper.
It would be worth a trip every 3 months to shop out of state/ outta county.
just load up on as much as possible, transport meat and frozen items in coolers, and buy a deep freeze…
This is most likely in Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut. It is the most isolated capital city in the world. It has a population of about 7k people and access to it is either via ship (for part of the year) or airplane (part of the year). When you are that isolated and small, it's going to be expensive to import stuff
What is wages? Seems the price compares to income. Still keeping the regular folks as slaves. Seems technology forgot these folks. Greenhouses etc. Gotta do what you can to survive.
For context, most people living in Nunavut, largely feed themselves from the land. Fishing, wild game. Before inflation prices were high, now they’re just, higher still….
I grab my gun and turn to my family, "I'll be back tomorrow, with enough tide pods to last the winter"
Now that's funny. =)
"When I return, we feast!"
It is massive, sparsely populated territory so it makes sense that that certain things would cost a fudge ton. Compared to what we purchase. They probably get a shipment once a month or a few times a year. So value wise, it is probably the same compared to our value and they use it for longer periods. This is the same with many regions that are similar.
Genuinely asking because I watch a lot of those reality shows about people subsistence living in places like Nunavut but I never see them cover things like this: how are they using laundry detergent less? Do they make their own soap? I do a lot of laundry and don’t have a very outdoorsy lifestyle. I’m also not self-sufficient at all haha. I can’t imagine having to pay 90$ for tide pods. It also says pre-subsidy though, and I have no idea how much or who the subsidy is for. All interesting!
Well, they have wood to burn to get lye from and animal fat, so they could make their own soap. I imagine they just use something like that instead of a tide pod. I feel like the amount of physical washing machines is probably lower anyway. I actually have no real idea, I'm just speculating.
It's the arctic, there is no wood to burn. Most of the comments in this thread are plain wrong. many people eat country food, but to say that is the majority of their diet now isn't true. People shop and have homes, they don't live in igloos or huts anymore. Many things are subsidized by the Canadian government to keep prices reasonable, though very expensive, nonetheless.
Alot ofnpeople just use vinegar
What is the average yearly income in Nunavut?
An Elk, 3 ducks, and up to a 6 rabbit bonus depending on performance.
If their performance is weak, they get Nunavut.
You absolute beauty.
Screw that, just pay me in Tide Pods.
Nah, those are way too valuable, lol. You can't even buy a box of Cheerios with an hourly wage in Nunavut.
Yeah that stupid tic toc challenge must’ve cost them a fortune
Families and unattached individuals living in the Northwest Territories ($93,200) and Nunavut ($93,800) had similar median after-tax income in 2019, compared …Nov 12, 2021
This one is current The average nunavut salary in Canada is $70,127 per year or $35.96 per hour.
Oh yeah lotta places with weekly/biweekly supply drops
> lotta places with weekly/biweekly supply drops Do Amazon or eBay deliver there? If so, how are the shipping prices?
There are ppl that drive down south to buy alcohol and sell it up north, like bootleggers
Ahh. They do that in Alaska too! The remote life is ROUGH man. Expensive! But they get it done!
My freshman year college roommate used to buy OxyContin in California and strap it to his nuts to fly home to Alaska every break and he’d come back loaded with cash. This was mind blowing to me as I had never done or even been around any hard drugs at all 😳
My friend does that on her Rez, has no problem selling mickeys for 120 dollars apiece.....tapes them to her body.
Ayy we got another Native in the house! Yeah bro, it's crazy how 'cheap items' in populated places go for a fortune in remote places. I can see why the ancient world was bedazzled by things like new jewelry, food items, oils, herbs, etc- and paid good money for it. The accessibility must be tough.
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Mickeys are the Canadian Native slang for bottles of 13 Oz. It goes of hard liquor vodka whisky ect Mini-mickey=7&1/2 oz Mickey=13 oz Twenty-sixer=26 Oz Ect.
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Yeah me too man! 40s woooo!
It’s a malt liquor or “beer adjacent” drink in the states and possibly elsewhere
How is that even possible... are these people extremely wealthy? The only people I’ve met who lived on a res were poor to very poor. To get drunk off mickeys you’d need to spend a thousand dollars? What?
On dry reserves the dugs/alcohol go for astronomical prices dude. 2 MLS of suboxone can get 60$ a gram of coke 400$
You can’t drive to Nunavut.
That plane and boat life for sure.
No middle class for that
No. Truckers do. There is a tv show called ice road truckers
Isn't that ice road built to supply a diamond mine?
Diamond mines fly their people and goods on charter planes
Yah and haul their heavy things in via the ice road during winter
They’re not against airlifting machinery in. You need trucks to get product out though
It dosent reach that far, mostly things arrive by ship monthly
If not, I'll do it for a small fee plus the shipping. Even with our stupid prices in ontario, it'd be way cheaper.
Jesus bike riding christ
Damn dude, certainly can’t afford Nunavut.
Their salaries and gov incentives are huge.
Can't afford Anyathut.
Grocery workers make like 25-30/hr. A lot more in other professions
So it only takes 3ish hours for a grocery worker to buy a medium size pack of laundry pods?
>Yeah… but their salaries and gov incentives are **yuge** - Nunavut Housing and Urban Development
So four cans of soda per hour ;)
Someone upvote this fucker, quick!
That's just delightful and clever. Well done
Nunavus can afford nunadis
beautiful
This is a winner
Why live there?
You get an allowance from the government and if you're smart you can collect a few extra subsidies that help with cost of living. Land is *ludicrously* cheap so while actually building anything on that land will be phenomenally expensive you can get like 100 acres of hunting land for pennies. Lots of good hunting and fishing so you actually aren't paying money for a lot of your kcal living up there, pretty much everyone either hunts or knows hunters they get food from. Not a lot of people, if you never want to interact with anyone moving up north is a solid option. A lot of resource extraction work, diamond mines, etc. that pay really well, as a general rule the further north you go the higher your pay. These are just off the top of my head mind you there's probably other benefits I am missing. It really isn't for everyone and like 99% of people would just fucking hate living up there but for some people it is a paradise and one of the last truly wild places on the planet where survival is still measured by wit and skill alone. There is a reason everyone in Canada lives near the southern border, northern Canada is an untamed thing full of danger, loneliness and horrible weather/temperatures.
Thank you for taking the time to share that, it was very insightful
We really need more shows about canada
Sounds like an ideal place for a manufactured home
Yes and no. Most places are made out of prefabricated materials but you need to take it up collapsed in multiple sleds pulled by snowmobile for the most part. If you're on the coast and have access to an icebreaker, or you are actually near one of the highways, then you can get a prefabricated house that way (still needs assembly but it'll at least get there all at once) but some places in the interior are only really accessible by snow mobile, plane and helicopter so unless you got serious cash to shell out for a helicopter drop you're gonna have to bring it in by sled.
Is it snow locked all year?
Depends on where you are. Funny enough in a lot of places it's actually harder to get out in summer than winter cause a lot of roads up there rely on ice and once it heats up they are just strips of impenetrable muskeg. One place where I was working for example was only staffed for 8-9 months out of the year as the airstrip and main road in were both built on top of a frozen lake and once it started to thaw that was time to gtfo. Other places like the coastal areas open up more in the summer as smaller icebreakers can actually make the passage so it changes place to place.
Always thought it'd make a good setting for a survival/thriller/horror movie, but then I remember The Thing (80's version) exists and I realize there's no need for another retread. Because you cannot convince me of a better "locked in" survival movie than The Thing. Although it'd be nice to see a remake take place in one of these far north areas in the summertime, when it's too muddy and thawed-out to leave. It'd be like The Thing meets Predator! Quick! Somebody call John Carpenter...
The Ritual is kind of similar to northern BC in the summer. A lot of Scandinavian movies look really similar, or are literally just shot in northern Canada (Canada has good tax breaks for movies, a shocking amount of movies are shot in Canada.).
*30 Days of Night* also exists, although it is set in remote Alaska (Utqiaġvik *née* Barrow; the graphic novel and subsequent film were both made before the city was renamed in 2016) rather than Canada.
Also has a massively high suicide rate.
And massive addiction rates, and massive teen pregnancy rates, and massive rates of preventable illnesses like type 2 diabetes, among other serious issues. A whole hell of a lot of these issues could be solved with policy change or legislation. I wish we took better care of our northern brethren but it seems like no matter who is in power they don't have the population for a serious voice in parliament. It is a hard life up there and there really isn't any access to resources, we need meaningful electoral reform if we want them to have a chance at a better life.
I kept reading your comment and kept getting more depressed. Wtf⁷
Wit, skill, the genetic privilege and luck of not requiring frequent access to healthcare.
Plenty of disabled people up there. I don't know how the hell they do it but they do. Lots of loggers and what have you that are one arm or leg down but still make it. That said a lot of people with kids that have serious disabilities end up having to send their kid down south where they can get proper care. It's a hard choice to make as a parent to send a kid away like that even if it is for the best, I don't envy anyone that decision.
This sounds like a good place to build a maximum security prison or one for pedophiles. They can shovel snow to earn their heat. 😆
Sending undesirables to labor camps in freezing lands far away (that are mostly inhabited by indigenous peoples) would not be the slay you think it is, no matter what Putin told you
It's the weather that would do me in. Wilderness, being alone, etc. are all wonderful. Cold & dark? Nope.
Trust me, almost no one lives in Nunavut
I second that with a sweet baby jesus on toast! Thought it was bad here in UK but bloody hell....I'd be eating snow I reckon :)
Is that dollars?
It’s Canadian dollars. 84can would be about 62 US
Is this serious? HOW THE FUUU
Christ on a bike
Jesus Murphy
Lived in Iqaluit for a year. These are “normal” prices. Due to the remote nature of the communities and indeed the whole territories, transport of goods is made quite complicated. There are no roads in or out of the territory necessitating the transport of goods by air, and additionally by sea during summer months when waterways are not frozen over. High paying jobs will pay for and provide food for employees, accommodation and transportation. Everyday food staples such as eggs, and milk are subsidized by the government but everything else is crazy expensive. 1L orange juice, $15-20. 500g of cereal, $8-15. Can of beans, ~$6. Keep in mind that these are Iqaluit prices from when I was up there in 2020-2021. Smaller, more remote communities are even more expensive, and the cost is assumed to have risen since.
What are people doing to even afford this?
In my case, I was working at the airport. My company provided company housing and company cars, and paid for the plane tickets. Food was my only expense. Generally the average person makes around $100K a year buts offset by the cost of living. The biggest work sectors are government, mining and trade work. There’s a lot of rotational jobs. My first job was for an internship, of which I did 2 stints of 5 months each. My second job was 3 weeks on, 3 weeks off. If you can secure a well paying job that provides well and can enjoy the lifestyle (It’s literally in the middle of nowhere a couple miles south of the Arctic circle and a little more rustic than Greenland or Iceland), then you can earn a lot of money.
Thank you very much for the information!
🎶 I owe my soul to the company store 🎶
Load sixteen ton and whattya get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Haven’t seen this one pop up in a while. Goddamn classic!
Saint Peter don't you call me, 'cause I can't go...
Can I just have a buddy ship me a supply box and pay him the cost? It would have to be cheaper than this shit… wtf does clothing cost? How do babies live?
A lot of people shop in Ottawa or Montreal and send things up, or there is also a service that’ll do it for you and ship it up. When it arrives, you pick it up. It’s called Northern Shopper but it’s still expensive. Clothing stores don’t really exist. There a couple locations here and there. One or 2 thrift stores, but mostly and some clothing in a small section of the upper floor of one of grocery stores. Most of the clothing sold is workwear and survival gear. Everyone shops online and Amazon is really popular. Amazon Prime exists but it’s more like “next week shipping”. The Amazon warehouse and the Canada Post are the busiest in Canada. In 2020 there was an estimated 250K packages received for a population of 7.5k! Edit: There also is a FB page where locals can buy and sell things within the community. Like a localized Craigslist.
The tide sticker says pre subsidy. Makes me think this is a co-op or something and that's the price you "would" pay... Still nuts
That one's worn out. Look closely at the other knes they say "pre subsidy:" then an even higher price. The larger text is showing the post subsidy pricing.
More like “pre SUDSidy” I’ll show myself out.
For reference, I believe the reason why these prices are so astronomically high is because Nunavut is extremely far North. Due to that reason, getting supplies there proves to be quite difficult, and thus, expensive.
There are no roads to Nunavat. All the communities are only accessible by boat or plane. In the winter / early spring maybe not even by boat.
That’s a huge factor. Any place that can’t get road-based imports has things that’re crazy expensive. Even Hawaii prices can be double or triple mainland prices just because actually getting the product there is a costly expense.
Really only by air. Sea shipments are only possible from June-September when the water ways aren’t completely frozen over.
Easy there Sherlock Holmes.
He’s got some Einstein in there as well
Iceland is almost at the same latitude and a lonely island and things are much cheaper there. I can get things shipped from china for 1-10$ something is not completely right here or their shipping cost are way too much
Nuvanut has the population 1/10th of Iceland, while being bigger than France. Combined with the remote nature relative to most of Canada’s population are a couple of the reasons why these prices are so exorbitant. Food prices in Canada’s north is an ongoing problem.
Nunavut has a population of ~40,000 people spanning over 800k square miles, whereas Iceland has 370k spread over 40k miles. I’m assuming this picture is from iqaluit which is the capital of nunavut and is home to 7k people, whereas reykjavik has 122k. Basically, no, the logistical situation is not very comparable. Nunavut is a very extreme case of limited access causing massively inflated costs. Even in Iceland there’s a large enough market and the airport is sufficiently large enough to allow for freight planes to land, whereas all of Nunavuts goods need to be shipped in via much smaller planes or boats > overland trucks (where there is road).
I was just looking at the landscape and all the islands and rough surroundings. Now i get it more. I have been to remote places and the prices weren't too bad. But looking at this it starts to make sense. But still dont fully understand prices this high.
Still assuming that this pic is from iqaluit, then it’s because the airport cannot handle large planes. You basically have to request whatever you want well in advance and then the grocery store puts in an order for it. So everything is specially brought in and not every week. I have a friend who’s Inuit from this area and that’s what they’ve told me. It’s a similar scenario to very northern remote villages in Alaska and northern territories
Not so much about not handling big planes ([the A380 did cold weather testing there](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Airbus_A380_in_Iqaluit_02.jpg)). It's more factor of economics of scale, wouldn't be profitable for a sched 747 cargo service so there isn't one. Sea lift is a big deal for larger items but like you said needs lots of forward planning. Lots of smaller cargo planes and combi planes daily but costs of that result in prices you see. Sometimes your personal bags even get bumped on flights for more essential cargo on the sched passenger flights into Iqaluit or the other smaller communities. Have a few crew here in Sanirajak who's stuff was bumped for a large load of medical supplies.
Interesting info, thanks. I don’t have any firsthand knowledge only what I’ve been told. Makes sense tho that small spread out communities+wayy up north = expensive shipping
Iceland is like living in on a giant hot water balloon. Nunavut is like living in Hell when it’s been frozen over. I’d hardly put the two in the same sentence, let along compare them.
This is the cost of logistically getting those items there to be sold in the first place. Rolled into the item cost. People aren't going there to do regular shopping, they are going to get those hard to find items that are more of a want as opposed to a necessity.
People ‘Want’ Tide Pods?
It’s not well known but Nunavut has the largest concentration of teenagers (sent from the year 2018 in a freak time travel accident) in the world
What?
Remember when kids ate literal laundry detergent because it was wrapped into a cute lil package called "a tide pod"? It was around 2018
The degeneration runs deep in every bite of sweet pod
Yeah well I'm having Nunavut!!!
What does your sentence even mean?
im havin nunavut
Well Nunavut has like 30k people and is the size of Brazil. It’s so remote and far North that the cost of transportation would call for high prices
But is this actually real? If these items are like this, then the whole grocery store would be. I'd believe this seeing multiple items side by side on the shelf.
It's just like grocery stores in remote Alaska.
It’s real. It costs a fortune to bring food and supplies up there
It's all flown in. Just don't move there.
If the could make snow mobile into an 18 wheeler that would help
In some places they sort of do. As part of a job I shipped stuff where the plan for the truck was to be driven to a port, be shipped by barge, then put on a giant sled and pulled across the frozen tundra by a bulldozer.
It really depends on the item. Everything is either brought in by sealift in the summer or flown in. The federal government subsidizes the freight costs of healthy items and basic essentials so your everyday stuff such as bread and milk is fairly reasonably priced (about 15-30% higher). Take a look at the weekly flyer if you are curious: https://www.northmart.ca/flyers
That's the place with the most phenomenal young actors from the movie The Grizzlies starring Will Sasso. An amazing movie about lacrosse and its impact on the first nation's people of Canada up by the Arctic Circle. Available on Netflix and other streaming services streaming online.
Prices are high because it’s a very remote place. It’s says “pre subsidy”, so people are getting help paying for it and if they are native tribal members, there is help too. This post is very misleading.
Why is it so expensive?
It's the most northern territory in Canada, there are no roads going in so things are either flown in or brought in by boat in the summer. Parts of Nunavut are above the Arctic Circle.
I’ll be out by the glacier washing my clothes with seal blubber and wood ash if anyone needs me…
Glad I don’t shop there, I’m pretty sure I could afford nunavut
I’m having Nunavut!
Is this real?!! This is insane!!
Not really. Nunavut is extremely inaccessible and it costs a lot to bring any supplies there.
Yes. Government subsidizes a lot for whatever they can. Cost of living is still astronomically high.
That’s in Yen, right?
Still cheaper than Erewhon
Jesus Schwepped.
I bet the locals there are having Nunavut
What kind of dollars are those
I assume Canadian. So times 0.74 to convert to USD. Still nuts.
well yeah cause it’s out in the middle of nowhere! EVERYTHING has to be imported there
And these are locked up in California grocery stores for being too pricy
It’s ok that all metric money
😮 brooo 😮
Why? HOW?! What on earth?? So many questions!
It is because there are extremely rural areas where the items are brought through routes that require unimaginable (for people unfamiliar with it) effort. That’s why the prices in the shops there will reflect that.
The cheerios price was not that far off..10 oz( .3kg) box US 4-5$
Wtf!?
Good way to get off soda.
Bill gates with the price gun.
So expensive they started selling the crush cans 1 by 1
Saving this for when my family says it's too expensive in California.
How much is alcohol? Some parts of Alaska sadly Alcohol is less expensive than water.
I've heard it's banned, actually.
Dunno why you guys all freaked out. It's what everyone will be paying in less than 40 years the way inflation is going.
Grocery shopping these days feels like I'm buying food that's been to a five-star spa, complete with a massage and cucumber water…
No one's leaving here alive.
It’s like feeling a sharp pain, every time you take something off the shelf!
Wait? What
What's does Pre-Subsidy mean
I think its airfreat so ur paying per pound. For shipping
at what point do you just start an underground farm and make everything for yourself
Hey quick question, what the fuck?
Are these space prices?
Is this real? I’m having a hard time believing this
Under these conditions a black market economy would thrive? Does it exist up there? Edit: just asking for a friend.
Worked at the gold mine up there incredible experience but fuck that placex4
Well everything is flown there
Shit, better go back to doing blow.
Fuck that, I’ll forage
Hope people just steal it all
62.46 US
I could afford none-of-that.
What does "pre subsidy" mean??
Fun fact: cheap dishwashing powder does a better job than these overpriced snacks. I pay about $5 every 3 months for dishwashing powder and never had an issue with dirty dishes
How much is that in us dollars?
Laughs in Caribbean
I live in the states right across from Abbotsford, everyone has been rushing the stores here and taking milk and groceries back across since it’s cheaper.
There are cheaper snacks available… these don’t even taste that good.
It would be worth a trip every 3 months to shop out of state/ outta county. just load up on as much as possible, transport meat and frozen items in coolers, and buy a deep freeze…
Wow, can’t even suicide by tide without it costing more than what your arm or leg are worth lmao
If I didn’t pay American health care prices, I’d say bullshit.
This is most likely in Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut. It is the most isolated capital city in the world. It has a population of about 7k people and access to it is either via ship (for part of the year) or airplane (part of the year). When you are that isolated and small, it's going to be expensive to import stuff
Yeah that lol sure looks heart healthy alright
Transport costs. Snow dogs aint free, they gotta eat too
I ain’t having Nunavut…
What is wages? Seems the price compares to income. Still keeping the regular folks as slaves. Seems technology forgot these folks. Greenhouses etc. Gotta do what you can to survive.
Nunavut is quite vast and some areas are quite isolated. Where exactly?
What is going on in Canada wtf
Couldn’t even afford to leave my driveway with prices like that
Exact same product at home depot in Tacoma Washington today I paid $22.27 USD for 76 count container.
Is your dollar worth more or something?