Northern a “Nunavut carpetbagger?”

I was shocked and outraged as a consumer, when I saw the Northern Stores flyer this week. Corn is listed at a price of $1.87 each. I thought that this was for a package. No, it is in fact $1.87 per cob of corn as I saw when I went to the Northern Store in Iqaluit yesterday. A package of four has a price label of $7.48. This works out to $22.44 a dozen!

I phoned my daughter who is a produce manager with a Super A food store ( now owned by the Co-op), in a small town in Alberta. The store is selling fresh corn for $ 1.99 a dozen. The price difference per dozen between Northern Stores and Super A is $20.45. You can fly in a fair number of cobs (more than 12) of corn for $20.45.

This kind of pricing is so outrageous that it could make Reader’s Digest “That’s Outrageous” article.

Nunavut consumers should come up with a “Nunavut Carpetbaggers” award for merchants that insist on conducting unconscionable transactions.

At the rate they are going, Northern stores would win hands down. Oh for the days when such transaction earned the transactor a public flogging.

Michael T. Balaski
Iqaluit