Northern Food Services the New CK's

Apart from the obvious temperature differences, I am finding living in Yellowknife is similar to living in St. George’s Grenada. Lots of walking (mainly up hills), loving the local library and grocery shopping, lots of grocery shopping.

In Yellowknife, like Grenada, there are lots of little catch all stores, some high end stores for tourists, a few large chain stores for furniture and groceries, and then there is CK’s in Grenada and Northern Food Service in Yellowknife.

Anyone with teenagers understands the value of being able to buy things like salsa, rice or in Owen’s case oatmeal, in bulk. CK’s in Grenada sold pantry items and some frozen foods in bulk. Northern Food Service does the same thing. Unlike CK's which was open daily to the public Northern Food Service is only open 10-5 on a Saturday. For the rest of the week the company services mining camps, restaurants and the many aurora viewing resorts in Yellowknife.

In the south Costco is a big draw for, it seems, everyone. I never really liked the place. It seemed like you would go in for one or two items and come out $500 poorer with 5-10 items you wanted but didn’t need. The other challenge was figuring out whether it really was a good deal. It is sometimes hard to figure out if $12.00 for 2 kilos of peanut butter is better than $3.79 for the smaller containers. Plus, you need to think about where you will store the giant containers. I saw lots of people buying lots of stuff but wondered if they really needed it, or if it just seemed like a good deal. Shopping, any kind of shopping, seems to be an addiction in North America as people mindlessly buy, sometimes just for the sake of buying. Having said that-

We did buy two items when we were there. Alaskan Pollock burgers and hamburger buns. Lunch was a very yummy BBQed fish burger that averaged about $2.00 a person.

After taking pictures and doing the math it seems I would save between $0.30-$8.00 on bulk items. The challenge then becomes; will they have those items next week and are they things I need or just want?

Comments

Ups and downs of day one

Today was the first day of school for the boys and work for me. By noon Aiden was back at the hotel, feeling sad about not already making friends. He was also frustrated that his English class was going to be studying the same books he had done in grade nine. I came back to the apartment to check on him. It was actually really nice to be able to see Aiden at lunch! So after a couple of hugs (and letting us know Jay had messaged him to say Aiden would always have him as a friend) he was off. Brent gave me a lift back to work, and to my surprise and delight Jay was crossing the street in front of us. It was such a nice surprise. At my work, my manager had been unexpectedly been called to Toronto and my colleague Sarah was off. So my Director ended up dong my orientation. The good news is there is lots of work that needs to be done, and fairly short timelines to get it done. I share an office with two others - which after working in my own office for 10 years is quite a change- but a...

The Next Chapter

Double rainbow from our hotel in Yellowknife Three years ago I started a blog called "Sara in Grenada" chronicling my time as a volunteer with Cuso International on the Spice Island. At the time a dear friend, Jay, was working in Iqaluit and while our climates were radically different the challenges faced by our respective communities were very similar. I loved almost everything about living and working in Grenada although, I was not a fan of my mini-bus ride. When I came back from Grenada I felt invigorated, being able to contribute is really important to me. While I wanted to find another opportunity to contribute for family reasons had decided to stay put in Ontario after our return in 2015. In her book Transitions, Gail Sheeshy talks about a time in your life when you look around and start to wonder "Is this really all there is"? I was definitely in that place. Having done the same job for 10 years, I wasn't learning anything new. I wasn...

Goodie Day

I work in a building called Lahm Ridge Tower, which is a 3 story (four floors) building that houses a good chunk of the Education, Culture and Employment staff (ECE). Every payday the 3rd floor hosts "goodie day". Here's how it works: Each small unit of ECE is assigned a payday. Usually three units cover one pay day. My unit's turn was this past Friday. The units assigned that particular payday bake goodies for the staff of ECE. Usually that means about 20 people baking, cooking or bringing fruit or chocolate for about 100 people. Some units organize themes and sometimes it is just a random mix. I baked about 3 dozen biscotti seen near Benoit's creme brulle!! He had a draw for the creme brulle- which everyone loved! He also dressed the part in a full chef's outfit- now that's commitment! While I am not overly social, I love the idea of a shared coffee break. It gives everyone a chance to get together to share food and talk about what is going on ...

Sara in NWT

Search This Blog