I may have mentioned this before, but pop (or as some of my friends in the States refer to it: Soda) is like crack cocaine up here. Seriously. The stores in Arctic Bay ran out of the pop that came up on Sealift in May, which basically means the community is out of pop for 1/3 of the year. For a while they were flying it in, but that seems to have stopped.
Now, I have never run a retail store and I don't have the sharpest business mind around (in fact the arguement can be easily made that when it comes to business my mind is pretty dull, but I digress) but it seems to me that there wouldn't be a great mystery when it comes to ordering pop for the year. How much pop did you sell last year? When did you run out? At that rate how much would you sell from sealift to sealift? Order more than that.
Pop is expensive here, and I'm pretty sure that both stores turn a profit from the sale of it, and thus wouldn't be turning that profit when those shelves and coolers sit empty. Normally it sells for $2.00 a can, and when they fly it in – $5.00 per. And people willingly pay that. With barely a grumble.
A short time ago, Leah decided that she had more than enough pop from our sealift to last, and decided to sell the excess. She was making a nice little profit on it and kept selling stuff she wasn't planning on it because people were clambering for more. It started feeling like a crack house here, there were desperate calls in the dead of night "You guys got any pop for sale?", my facebook chat would light up from time to time "Still selling?" that sort of stuff. I'd just refer them to Leah, the advantage of the few cans of Spruce Beer I have is I'm pretty much the only person in town with tastes that warped, and no one is clambering for my pop.
Just how desperate did it get? Or rather just how desperate is it? After Leah decided not to sell any more, people were offering her $10 a can. Yes, ten dollars for a 355 ml (12 oz) can of pop. And I'm sure she could name a higher price if she so desired. I'm in the wrong business.
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You know, on the upside, if you sell enough pop you could finally afford a few plane tickets down south.
That’s true Craig, ten cases and I’d almost have enough for one ticket to Iqaluit. I should point out though that even though Leah was offered $10/can she didn’t take it. That just seemed far too excessive.
Having just sold a retail business here maybe I should consider emigration, the only slight problem is that my wife doesn’t do cold too well.
If you need the pot sweetened at all Alan I’ve two words – Ivory Gull.
This entry made me laugh a lot… the comparison with a crack house was great. The stores here fly in pop all the time and sell it for $1.50 a can, so I’m certain at five bucks, the stores in Arctic Bay are doing okay with it.
When I was in New Orleans last month, I was thinking that I could get the whole of Rankin Inlet addicted to french-quarter style beignets. Sweet, deep fried dough smothered in icing sugar (to absorb the excess grease) would undoubtedly be popular here.
I think we live in the same town…different country, different name.
🙂
I can certainly relate to this post. I find I don’t drink that much pop when I’m South (more options I suppose). I know a 4 and 5 year old here that don’t much care for it because it tastes “too spicey.”
Thanks Jeff. Even more interesting from a behaviour point of view, but of much less interest to me personally was that the stores have run out of cigarettes a couple of times lately. I wonder what a cigarette was going for?
That is very possible Kimberlee
Yeah Darcy, I’ve decided that I was too caught up in the pop drinking thing and have almost stopped. I sold my Coca-cola quite a while back (but should have waited until the stores ran out – poor planning on my part). I’m very proud of the fact that neither Travis or Hilary have ever drank pop. You would do well to bring some cases of pop with you when you come back Darcy, you could turn a tidy profit.
Too funny. Here in some places in the south, it’s just called coke, not soda or pop. As in, “What kind of coke do you want?” “Give me a Dr Pepper.”
One reason I couldn’t live up there! I’ve cut back on my soda drinking considerably, but still have about one can a day. But I’m too cheap to pay that much for it. I have to wait until it goes on sale to buy it, as I just can’t bear paying more than $3 for a 12-pack.
It’s all relative, I guess.
I recall I had a conversation with a blogger from the real Mayberry, (which was along the name of his blog). He and his wife both had called soft drinks by different names and were from slightly different localities. I gathered it was unusual to hear pop. Your generic “coke” is much like several other things up here… all snowmobiles are “skidoos” regardless of make, all ATVs are “Hondas”. What kind of skidoo do you own? A Polaris.
Wow Grant! 25cents a can? I can just imagine the consumption up here at that price. It would be interesting to see what the per capita consumption is up here.