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NWT
As the holiday shopping season begins, stores across the Northwest Territories are competing with online shopping for gift buyer's attention.

A pair of men's Caribou hide wrap-around moccasins available at the Tlicho Online Store. While Northwest Territories merchants often lose customers to online shopping, some local manufacturers are also benefiting from online shopping. - courtesy of the Tlicho Online Store

NWT merchants and industry stakeholders, including the Town of Inuvik and its Chamber of Commerce encourage the idea of looking to local businesses for gifts before going online to shop.

"When you buy locally you can actually pick up the item and have it in your hand," acting chamber president John Ritchie said. "You're also helping out friends and neighbours and keeping the money in the community."

However, some enterprising communities, including the Tlicho, are offering the best of both worlds—shopping locally, online.

"We specialize in products from the Northwest Territories," said Tlicho Online Store buyer and manager Giselle Marion. The two-year-old business sells wares online from Tlicho community artisans as well as small-scale manufacturers from further North, including Norman Wells, Deline, Fort Providence, and Fort Liard.

"We state where our products are made and by whom," she said. "It benefits people in the North, it's promoting people in the North and it's promoting traditional arts and crafts," Marion added, noting in addition to traditional products, the store also sells music, paintings, and other locally created products.

With price tags as high as $1,000 for some products, the Tlicho Online Store understands the desire for shoppers to want to feel, touch, or try on products before shelling out big bucks. To accommodate, the business has established a storefront in Yellowknife, where products are on display inside the Tlicho Investment Corp. office.

On Facebook, the Inuvik Buy Sell Trade page has more than 1,600 members and has many posts advertising items for sale that are too small or too big, another reason why merchants say physically purchasing an item trumps Internet shopping.

"What's better than buying directly from the incredible woman who made your slippers?" said Sasha Webb, executive director of the Great Northern Arts Festival.

When it comes to presents and everyday purchases, Inuvik's economic development manager Jackie Challis, thinks Inuvik stores and artists have a lot to offer.

"Honestly, I don't think of the Internet as competition in terms of gifts," Challis said. "The community has great things that are handmade and Northern. "In terms of gifts, people don't have to go far. Everything is here. We have unique things from the Arctic and there's no better place to go."

Boreal Books owner Dave Kaufman sells Northern art and books. He wishes more people would shop retail in Inuvik. His store will have extended hours in December to meet the expectations of customers. He says the Northern books available in his store come straight from the publisher, which means they are mostly the same price as books online or in southern stores.

"I'm always surprised when people don't look local," Kaufman said. "We can order any book that's in print and we try to stay true to Northern topics."

While some people may say it's cheaper to buy items from the south, Mayor Denny Rodgers said the shipping costs bring the prices almost equal.

"If you wait, there are good sales here," Rodgers said. "Internet shopping is crazy here, but I think people would be surprised if they walked around the stores."

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