Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (July 11/01) - Humans are lucky when it comes to food. Unlike most animals stuck forever munching tundra flowers with no spices or some other one-dimensional food preference with no sugar added, humans get to eat almost anything.

Eunice Natar rings in another KFC dinner at the Snack Bar beside the Northern store. - Jorge Barrera/NNSL photo

And Rankin Inlet residents choose from a wide spectrum. From raw seal to fried chicken, from goose broth to coffee, people in this community have carved out their own food patterns.

And it begins with the coffee parade every morning at the Sikatarvik dining room, where the coffee flows from a bottomless fountain to perk up sleepy eyes.

Doris Edison, a server in the dining room, says she serves between 10 to 15 pots of coffee every morning.

Each pot pours eight cups, meaning customers drink between 80 to 120 cups every morning.

"People love coffee," says Edison.

But it's not just coffee that Rankin Inlet residents guzzle.

Pepsi is the taster's choice here.

According to MacCallum, acting grocery manager at the Northern Store, Pepsi sells at a ratio of two to one against any other drink sold in the store.

MacCallum himself is a Pepsi convert. "Pepsi just tastes better," he says.

When it comes to food, MacCallum said Pizza Pops and ready-made pizzas fly off the shelves, but he couldn't give the exact amount sold every week.

Brian Clements, general manger of the Rankin Co-op, says pop and chips sell quickly in his small store, regardless of brand.

Clements said his store sells between 50 to 60 cases of pop a week.

Each case contains 12 cans of pop, which means the store sells between 600 and 720 cans of pop a week.

The store also sells between 30 to 40 cases of chip bags a week. Each case carries 24 bags, so the store sells between 720 to 960 bags of chips a week.

"That's quite a bit for this small store," says Clements.

At the local Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet beside the Northern store, Norm Elliot, Quick Stop manager, says they sell between 54 to 90 kilograms of chicken a week.

He says the bestselling meal is the twister -- two chicken fingers in a tortilla wrap, which go for around $3.49 each. They sell around 150 a week.

"It's the batter," says Elliot, explaining the popularity.