IQALUIT
It might not be a news flash that groceries are expensive in Iqaluit, but finding someone who is doing something about it is.

Amelie Pelletier and her puppy Manouche in Iqaluit with crated goods she brought into town recently. Through her new company, Nuulift, Pelletier hopes to bring her logistics and cost-savings experience directly to Iqaluit residents. - Susan Mah photo

Since moving to Iqaluit from Montreal seven years ago, Amelie Pelletier’s first-hand experience of the difficulties high food costs can create for local families has shaped her new logistics venture, Nuulift.

Before Nuulift, and before taking up employment with the federal government, Pelletier worked in Iqaluit as a student support assistant. Part of her job included co-ordinating breakfast programs at two schools.

What she experienced there planted the seed for Nuulift’s socially principaled business approach.

“That was eye-opening,” said Pelletier of the experience. “I saw a lot of kids very hungry. That’s not something you forget. You want to do something about it.”

The Canadian Price Index food survey lists 32 common grocery items (33 if you want to count cigarettes) and tracks their cost across Nunavut communities in comparison to the Canadian average.

If you were to purchase every item on that list, not including smokes, the stats show your wallet would be $240.36 lighter in Iqaluit. Those same items would only cost $159.14, on average, elsewhere in Canada outside of Nunavut.

Pelletier’s strategy has been to aim for an item price list that comes in lower than the consumer good price index published by government sources.

“I was very excited to see if I could give better prices than big companies here,” said Pelletier. “It turns out that I was able to.”

“One kilogram of onions is $1.89 with me, and it’s $4.21 (on the index),” said Pelletier.

“So it’s a big saving.”

Other sample prices include $9.28 for 2.5 kg of flour through Nuulift, compared to the Iqaluit average cited by the 2014 Nunavut food price survey of $11.49 for 2.5 kg.

Pelletier also points out that 2-ply toilet paper averages about $22.80 per dozen rolls in local stores, whereas with Nuulift it’s $10.92 per dozen rolls. White rice is $25.11 for 5 kg, compared to the local store average which she pegged at about $32 for the same amount.

Through Nuulift, Pelletier purchases groceries and merchandise items from Canadian suppliers, which will arrive in one of two annual seasonal shipments. Customers can place their orders online, in person or over the phone prior to shipment, and are not bound to any minimum purchase.

Twenty completed orders will arrive on the first sealift later this summer, plus a stock of supplies Pelletier purchased on some items she found good deals on, like dog food and toilet paper.

Her second shipment will include a larger order of organic and non-organic vegetables, packed in insulated containers to avoid possible freezing during an October delivery.

“I grew up in a family where food and good nutrition was always very important,” said Pelletier. “We always had beets, carrots and potatoes in the winter.”

When Pelletier moved to Iqaluit more than seven years ago she brought her frugal-savvy ways with her.

“When I was a student in Montreal, I was always inclined to look for deals,” said Pelletier. “I’ve always bought my food and my perishables at places that were giving good savings.”

But a good nose for value is only one part of organizing complicated sealifts. The bigger part is having the experience to deal with the logistics of connecting southern suppliers, their merchandise and sealift operators.

Managing logistics

Pelletier has been organizing sealifts through her logistics and project management company, Tumiit Solution, for about two years now.

Through Tumiit Solution, Pelletier has done logistic and project management for several Iqaluit organizations, including Carrefour Nunavut, Northwinds Arctic Outfitters, Arctic Kingdom outfitters, Réseau Santé en français au Nunavut and Laurentian University.

“Since I started doing this I’ve developed more of an interest in suppliers,” said Pelletier. “For example, restaurant supply stores, or suppliers that provide food for hospitals or organizations.”

Nuulift is Pelletier’s way of sharing with others in Iqaluit the cost-savings network and experience she’s developed in a few short years.

Pelletier took her lead from Willie Hyndman’s Project Sealift last December after he chose to focus his energies on his Country Food Market and other projects.

She’s been working on the project full-time since February, including long nights of database entry, and database troubleshooting, to build Nuulift’s online catalogue.

Describing Nuulift as a work-in-progress, Pelletier said a major undertaking and innovation Nuulift offers is the online order system she developed with shipping-included pricing.

With no minimum orders, home delivery of manageably-sized orders, the possibility of custom order requests, and temporary storage for clients who may be on vacation when their deliveries arrive, Nuulift promises to live up to Pelletier’s vision of a increasing affordable accessibility to healthy eating and living.

Future plans

In the long-run, she’d like to be able to offer savings year-round, first through climate-controlled warehousing – likely in seacans Nuulift will have purchased for deliveries – and eventually through a staffed store front.

“Sometimes in town we run out of flour,” said Pelletier. “If my financing goes through and we can have an inventory in town, it would be very good to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Pelletier has plans to expand Nuulift beyond a twice per season operation. She has already ordered a stock of supplies at her own cost, like liquids which might freeze if left for the second sealift in the fall.

“I’m a calculated risk-taker, and that’s one of the few risks I took,” said Pelletier.

“In the future if we have a storefront I’d like to be able to offer bulk (goods), where you would use a re-usable container,” said Pelletier.

“We really believe in reducing packaging because we have no recycling system, and also because of what’s going on with the dump here.”

The Iqaluit landfill is on fire and current estimates place the cost of putting it out at over $4 million.

“It just makes sense to reduce the trash we produce,” Pelletier added.

To that end, Pelletier will have this season's bulk product orders packaged in plastic bags and then packed into Rubbermaid-style containers to avoid adding to cardboard packaging already heading for the Iqaluit landfill.

Beyond providing an opportunity to bring goods into Iqaluit at a cost-savings, Pelletier sees Nuulift offering education surrounding food and financial literacy.

For starters, Pelletier will be offering instructions through Nuulift.ca on storing and cooking some of the produce she’ll be bringing in that locals might not be familiar with, like squash.

Eventually she’d like to see Nuulift expand to include not only the storefront mentioned earlier, but community facilities for group cooking of labour intensive products like baby food.

“I believe in social enterprise,” Pelletier said. “We have a lot of great ideas very focused on community involvement and trying to increase availability and accessibility.”

The ‘we’ in Nuulift is not only Pelletier’s manager of communication and social media, Bernita Rebeiro, and her manager of operations (and sister) Charline Pelletier, but individuals like Hyndman who continue to offer advice, plus the supportive community-at-large.

“Their support gives me wings,” said Pelletier.

“What I cherish the most is building a team and learning from others.”

The order window for Nuulift’s fist delivery – scheduled to arrive at the end of August – has already closed. Orders for the second mid-October delivery will be taken until Aug. 2.