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The doors of the Extra Foods store on Old Airport Road were open when Audrey Henderson went grocery shopping last Thursday morning.

Audrey Henderson in front of the open door at Extra Foods on Old Airport Road last Thursday. Henderson did not take her parka off when she entered the store to shop earlier that morning; it was too cold inside. - Lauren McKeon/NNSL photo

Outside, it was about -40 C.

Inside, it was so cold Henderson didn't even bother unbundling her layers of winter clothing.

"I'm wearing my parka in there going shopping and I have to wear my mitts because my hands are so cold," she said. "It's just unacceptable."

"The doors don't work going in, the doors don't work going out," Henderson added.

But it's not just the patrons Henderson was worried about.

"There's very little heat in the building. The staff are freezing their asses off," she said.

Henderson described one scene in the adjoining smoke shop, where the door was partially frozen open.

One staffer, she said, was in the shop with a parka, hat, winter boots, snuggled close to the heater.

"I know that the staff can't say anything because they need their jobs, (but) someone has to do something," she said.

The location's manager, Jeff Tonge, agreed the doors were open, but said it wasn't the reason things were so cold.

"(The doors) are working, but there's some problems with other things that we have to keep them open," said Tonge, who added the doors were not actually frozen open.

Tonge said he did not know when the doors would shut again.

"We are in the middle of getting stuff fixed right now. We're working on it as best we can," he said.

Tonge added, however, the heaters were also broken.

"It got so cold so quick, they broke down -- half of them. We're just waiting for some parts," he said.

"These are two separate problems."

Leaving the doors open in -40 C temperatures, however, is bound to let some cold in.

Ecology North member Doug Ritchie said he did not want to criticize the business without speaking to the business himself, adding he had "a lot of sympathy" for trying to get parts in the North, where it's sometimes beyond control.

He did say on general principle it's best to keep doors and windows closed in the winter to conserve energy.

"Things like having doors open are poor (practice) and we discourage it," he said.