Gallant's Lounge

Today was jampacked. A early flight and a hiccup with my supervisor’s flight gave me the opportunity to start early on searching for journalistic leads.

Let’s begin with my first adventure, which was simply to walk around town. It is small, as expected. The commune is either by car, or by 4-wheelers. In that stroll, I went to their beach, which is located at the intersection between a river and the Hudson’s bay.

Now this is the shocking part, because after that, I visited the stores. Prior to leaving, I was told again and again that prices are inflated to incredible heights. Even with prior research, I was told to prepare for an unfathomable grocery bill. To my surprise, I was met with a reasonable shopping experience.

Now, these are far from outrageous prices. Kraft Dinner seems to have the most obvious price spike. The rest was quite tame, nothing that stood out too much. Some more niche items like basmati rice or Indian sauces were a bit steeper. But the most amazing part was the price of fresh food. Milk has no price bump. A 2 liter Lactancia milk carton is $2.80. That is pretty much the exact same price as down south.

Now, low prices are swell and all, but is there a good variety of food? Well if you compare to Montreal’s packed grocery stores with 5 different types of cucumber, no, it is not varied. But if you consider that this grocery store has no road connecting it to suppliers, and commodities can only be brought by either plane or boat, this is great.

However, the shelves were not plentiful. I will be on the lookout for when shelves are refilled, as I might have caught the stores at a bad time.

Now, there are two stores, the Coop store, and the Northern store, with a Tim Horton’s and a KFC incrusted in them. These two hold everything, from hunting equipment to clothes to hardware to food, everything is here. But let’s dive deeper into the supplies offered over there.

The electronics section is far from a Best Buy. Although there were quite a few Smart TVs and some game console controllers hinting at the existence of game consoles. A local even told me that there were PS5s once, a very rare sight even for the most connected places in the world. The kid’s section had the minimum. Legos, Barbies, Trucks and various Wal-Mart quality toys, nothing outlandish like Toy R Us. The clothes department is interesting. The choice is not varied, and the layout is very reminiscent of a secondhand clothes store. But, as an alternative, a ludicrous amount of knitting equipment is offered. There were a wide variety of colors with a mix of real fur hunted locally and faux-fur, for people to make their own, probably much better quality clothes. The hardware department has all the basics for personal home projects, but there was a distinct lack of power tools, but just like the food shelves, this needs to be verified at a later date as well. The pharmacy department has the bare minimum for a first aid kit with some vitamin supplements and sorts. This is definitely a lacking department in my opinion, but this may be compensated by the local clinic, and needs future verification.

A city-dweller might say “that isn’t much no?” Well, worry not, because Amazon does deliver to Kuujjuarapik. Meaning all that is lacking can be delivered to a P.O box here. It may get complicated, and there may be a delivery fee and a delay. This may scare away the Prime Shippers out there, but at a certain degree, it gives people here access to the small luxuries that the urbanites have taken for granted.

So, alcohol. The supply chain for alcohol in the north has been dubious at best for a while now. It was either entirely inaccessible, or sold by certain businesses like bars and pubs. Although, mere months ago, alcohol became available in the stores of Kuujjuarapik. However, this may not apply to other villages. Due to the novelty effect, this newly accessible eau-de-vie has brought some issues. Car accidents due to people driving under the influence spiked, sparking a debate locally. According to the Coop Hotel’s receptionist William, the local government has decided to slow down the supply of alcohol to circumvent the problem. This will be followed up on later.

To finish off the day, William invited me to a basketball game at the local gymnasium.

I was outmatched in every single aspect of the game. But I am renowned to be dreadful at basketball. Nevertheless, I was able to strike conversations with many of them. Nothing life-altering yet, but its definitely something. They were kind, yet very competitive. Unlike many of my pickup games back home, they counted every single point. When a team scored, the classic hockey goal alarm roared, priming people to score points over and over. Every Sundays and Wednesdays they meet. The gym is an open community center, where kids and adults alike share the game floor. I will most likely join them again, and speak with the manager of the place, Ryan. (The guy with the number 19 on his red shirt.)

Tomorrow is another packed day. I will be meeting the mayor, and I will start working for Statistics Canada. But I will also be visiting the Social Club, managed by a contact named Kevin Hatt, a long time resident of Kuujjuarapik.

There are plenty of leads to uncover still, and the adventure has only begun. See you tomorrow.