A short while ago I had a couple of people, who stumbled upon YkOnline through Google, ask me about food prices here in Yellowknife, so I thought I would write up this post on the matter.
Having grown up here in Yellowknife, I wasn’t to sure as to how food prices actually compared to down south. I started to ask around to get an idea.
Without going into to much depth about it, yes Yellowknife food prices are slightly more than down south, but not as much as you might think. The areas you would see the biggest difference would be areas that are closest to where most foods are prepared. The one thing that I did hear a lot about was the variety and selection and the freshness of produce. Yellowknife is obviously a long way away from anything, being 1500km north of Edmonton, AB, so when it comes to trucking food up here not only does it take time. Which wastes the “fresh” period of certain foods, but it also means there can only be a certain amount of food because of limited space.
Many people have also told me that, no prices are not that much different and I would agree with them. It depends on where you are coming from. I know the prices and quality of food in Northern BC is very much the same as it is in Yellowknife, but most people who would normally ask the question wouldn’t be from that area. They would generally be from bigger places where quality and quantity are taken for granted.
So what I have done to help those wondering about prices here in Yellowknife is taken photos of basic food items from our 3 grocery stores. This is not to compare the prices between the 3, just to compare with prices south of Yellowknife. If enough people request it, I will go back and get the prices of some fruits and vegetables.
Bread
Cheese
Margarine
4L Jug Milk
Eggs
Case of Pop
UPDATE:
There have been a couple questions about vegetables in the north and their prices so while out at the Grocery Store today I took a few more photos. Remember you can click on them to see a large image.
Readers it is your turn. How do you find the price of food in Yellowknife, compared to when you’ve gone shopping in a southern city. Did you even notice the difference? And to those currently south of Yellowknife, do you see a difference? Could you manage with the above prices? Keep in mind Yellowknife(NWT) doesn’t have a territorial/provincial sales tax.
Hey Yellowknifers, I shot this video while going grocery store to grocery store. I was not comparing the prices, I was only collecting prices to give those people from the south who are thinking of moving up an idea as to our food prices. The post should be up with in a couple days.
UPDATE: Find full details about Yellowknife’s Float Plane Fly In HERE
This weekend, like the last, is going to be another fun one. This time we are going to look up, waaaaay up. That’s right it is the Midnight Sun Float Plane Fly-in. Bush planes and their daring pilots were some of the first to explore the vast northern frontier we call home. Come out for fun in the skies and great northern hospitality. This is always a spectacular event no matter how many planes show up. Years past planes from as far south as southern USA have come all the way up to Yellowknife to participate in this event.
Unlike the Folk on the Rocks posts I’m going to keep all these details for the Fly In here in this post. So here is the schedule of events.
Saturday July 25, 2009
Pancake breakfast down on the docks.
Where: Wardair Floatbase
When: 8am – 10am
Model Airplane Demonstration by Roy Williams
Where: Wardair Floatbase
When: 10am
Buffalo Airways Tour
Where: Buffalo Hanger – Airport
When: 10am
Aviation Art Show – Wally Wolfe’s Art
Where: Northern Frontier Visitor Center
When: All weekend
Douglas DC-3 Rides
Register Friday and Saturday 10am – 4pm
Where: Register at Wardair Floatbase, leave from Buffalo Airways Airport
When: 10am
BBQ on the Docks
When: 6pm
What’s Happening: Live music by Rick & the Relics, BBQ catered by Chef Pierre, followed by a live auction. Tickets are $45 and can be bought at Northern Frontier Visitor Center or by calling Yvonne Quick @ 873-4036
Sunday Sunday Sunday, July 26, 2009
Bush Pilot Memorial
When: 11am
Where: Bush Pilot Monument
MLA BBQ
When: 12noon
Where Wardair Docks
Story Telling
Join in the fun and listen to some stories and tall tales of Aviation.
When: 1:30pm
Where: Wardair Docks
Wind-up Banquet
Where: Dinner at the Prospector by Chef Pierre
When: 6pm
For more information about tickets call Yvonne Quick @ 873-4036
There you go, another fun filled weekend. Unfortunately because of work and preparation to move I wont be there. But if you attend and take lots of picture please consider writing up a recap of the event right here on YkOnline.
Not often I write about the weather because I think it is a pretty blunt subject but as I am actually sitting on my deck basking in the sun, writing about it only feels necessary.
This spring has been a long and taunting one. Every time it got remotely warm mother nature would strike back with a patch of cool weather. I have heard many people talk, complain or rant about it but something I have tried to do is refrain from any of that. To me anyways, I have come to realize that I indeed live in the north and can not expect a fabulous spring. Some would say we are having a late spring and maybe we are but I think spring in the north shouldn’t be compare to a “normal” spring. Maybe if we didn’t compare it to a “normal” spring we wouldn’t be depressed every time we get a week of below “average” temperatures.
With talk of global warming and how spring use to be or how it is in the south how do we know what normal is anyways. Maybe this is the new normal?
One of the big determinations of spring is the ice on the lake and up until June 1st it seemed still very intact but it was as if a switch was flicked. Within only a couple of days the ice was gone and most of the lakes opened up.
Is it safe to say that spring is here and summer is close by? What are your thoughts on our spring this year?
You know as much as I enjoy reading all the blogs and articles online I enjoy sitting down and picking up a newspaper. New Media may be taking over but old media still has something about it I like.
Now although some people have there “opinions” on the Yellowknifer and sometimes I do too, I still enjoy reading our little local paper. Today was no different, there were many articles in the paper today that were of interest. Mr. Humphries shared his thoughts on how we can avoid a recession by opening all dumps nation wide to salvagers. Shelagh Montgomery wants to takedown the oil sands and make everyone walk everywhere let Alberta know that Yellowknife wants to halt the oil sands production with out thinking about all the jobs and money that would be lost. Then we had a bunch of other things, Rock & Ice Ultra, Headframe discussions, Caribou drinking Beer Caribou Carnivals Beer Garden and so on.
The one thing I love reading in a paper is the columns and opinions of people. I guess that just comes from being a blogger and doing the same thing. Reading someones views on something is not only informative but it give you a different perspective on the topic. Whether I agree with them or not I think about it. I go back to the quote I had in my last post. I write to not only entertain but to engage readers in discussion and make them think. That is what I want to be able to do as a writer blogger.
As I finished the paper and thought about all the things I had just read and who wrote them I only wondered what happened to the “South of 20″ column. The weekly article that was write by a student or a person under the age of 20 hence the name South of 20. I said that I loved reading peoples columns and if there is one thing I love reading more than that it would be articles writen by young people. I think young people have more to offer than most think, I just think they don’t get the chance to say it. This is also why I try and encourage my friends to blog and vioce their opnions. Everyone has something to say they just need to find the right place to say it.
You know what they say about a small town. You can never keep a secret for very long.
I want to share with you what I’m guessing not many know yet. The owner and operator of Yktrader is moving out of Yellowknife and going onto bigger and better things. What does that mean for Yktrader, well as far as I’m aware nothing. He and his wife will still be running it but from down south, although I’m sure they will have someone here in Yellowknife to deal with the money coming in from advertisers and sellers. I would personally like to congratulate them on their success with the site, I remember years ago when they came around handing out fliers when it was first starting out. It has now grown to a full time job.
So where are they going, what are they doing. First of all if they (the owners) are reading this, I know you are moving because I know your house is being advertised for sale on your own site. With a little bit of digging and quick asking of questions to some people I found out that they are moving too Red Deer. After finding that out I started doing my own digging online here.
Good classified sites are hard to come by that are directed to just one community. I mean Craigslist and Kijiji are great but they are to broad for a small town. So only naturally did I try and type redeertrader.com in to my address bar only to find a Coming Soon post. At that point I was pretty certain as to what was happening but a quick Whois check confirmed it.
Now you know! Yktrader onto Red Deer Trader, soon it will be on Edmonton and Calgary.
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