Like the other residents of Sachs Harbour, Carpenter has just finished her barge order for next year. The Inuvialuit community is one of several Northern settlements blocked by ice in winter that depends on barges to bring supplies, as well as catalogues to bring them items by mail.

"We just order once in a while to get what we need," said Carpenter.

Typically, Northerners order their groceries for the barge from the Grocery People Ltd. out of Hay River, Horne and Pitfield out of Peace River, and Stanton's in Inuvik.

While the annual barge order is the main source of supplies for many Northern communities, catalogue shopping is popular throughout the year as a way to bring in some extras.

"It's a necessity -- though it's good to buy Northern, you can't always get what you need, so we go to southern Canada and if you can't get it there, you go to the States," said Marian Ferguson of Pond Inlet.

The full-time mother who's lived in the community for nine years said she shops by catalogue frequently using outlets in Canada, the U.S, and England, particularly at Christmas.

"Especially for gifts at Christmas," she said. "But our tiny little post office is crowded with parcels from Sears, the Winnipeg Fur Exchange and other catalogues. We shop for things we can't get on the sealift."

She orders through various companies, including Sears, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Eddie Bauer, L.L. Bean and Unicef.

"In our community with two stores, there's few (greeting) cards," she said.

It's a popular way to get things in the communities, she added. "Mainly clothing and gifts -- no food."

Ferguson said that more people are ordering by catalogue in recent years than when she first moved to Baffin Island 16 years ago. She personally spends about $1,000 a year catalogue shopping.

"More and more companies are issuing catalogues -- so they're more accessible," she said.

And catalogues aren't the only way to order items not available in the communities.

Mary Makpah of Chesterfield Inlet said she saves money by phone-ordering from flyers coming out of Yellowknife from Wal-Mart, the Saan store and others.

"We get sales with the flyers through Yellowknife," she said. "We save about 15 to 30 per cent and 40 per cent. We order about twice a month or whenever they have a sale. They have a 1-800 number."

Makpah said that most everyone in the community of 350 orders through the flyers and through Sears catalogue.

"Well, we don't have an outlet here," she said.

Despite the flyers that are sent to the communities via mail, there's more and more catalogues sent to Northern settlements every years, according to Dave Craig, Nunavut sales representative for Canada Post.

"They send a large number of catalogues so they must be doing OK because they keep sending them out," he said. "There's a fair bit of shopping going on -- but I couldn't tell you how much. The number of catalogues going in is amazing."