Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Shopping in Barrow






On Friday we spent some time shopping at the AC Arctic Corporation Store, the only grocery store in Barrow... It seems like a booming town of 4000 should have one store... how they corner the market?

I Never thought I would see produce like this in the Arctic. We did not have produce this nice in the Adirondacks!!

Some how they can even get flowers up here...

And in the freezer isle... a Brand new Snowmobile!

Look, you CAN sell ice to Eskimos...

Vermont's Finest!

hand made parkas, some with fur trim.
detail of Embroidery:
Last week I realized how lucky I am to be in this Village. All of the other villages in this district use Barrow as a hub. Food prices in Barrow are about double of what they are in the lower 48. So people using Barrow as a hub shop in Barrow and they have to have their food flown out to their villages. I guess they could place Barge orders... but the boats can't come in when it is iced in.


Food Prices in Fairbanks are comparable to what I would pay in the lower 48. I can get produce, meat and even Ice cream if I so desired... I can place an on-line order for 10% they will package my food and drive it to the airport where it will be flown directly to my village. The Plane comes in around 2:3o in the afternoon. There are actually several planes a day... but I think that is the one I will use. I pay $0.85/ lb to have food flown in so for about $140 I got 5 lbs of meat, fresh strawberries, celery, taco shells, various toiletries, 5 lbs of Carrots, two bags of lettuce, a cucumber and an lb of Organic Bananas flow in. I am not sure what would have happened to my boxes if I did not meet them at the airport. I guess it is possible someone could have take off with my goodies....
Thank you Fred Myers Bush Orders!!!

1 comment:

kscott said...

So did you get any weird looks taking pictures in a grocery store?