TALOYOAK/SPENCE BAY - Taloyoak residents will enjoy a larger selection of frozen food, dry goods, produce, hardware, deli and bakery when they shop at the new Paleajook Co-Op.

The recently-opened 6,000 square-foot grocery store tripled its frozen food, produce, bakery and deli sections, and expanded its variety of dry goods and hardware as well as its health and beauty items, said store manager Norm Coates.

"Our business has increased over the last couple of years. We needed to expand to a bigger location," said Coates, adding the old store was about 3,500 square feet.

"We wanted to give the residents of Taloyoak more variety and a better place to shop, so we built a new store and it's attached to the old store. We're using our old store now as a warehouse and we can walk back and forth from the old store to the new store."

Construction of the new store took about five months, said Coates, and residents are excited about it.

"Some residents come in and we take them for a tour of the new store and they're really, really, really excited about having more variety to choose from and brighter store, newer store," the manager said. "They just can't wait for Friday (May 21) for the grand opening.

"It's an exciting time for the people that are in Taloyoak and we're quite happy that we can offer them a bright new brand new store with more variety and more items to choose from."

The hamlet's senior administrative officer Chris Dickson said he was impressed by the exterior of the new building.

"We're very excited about having the new facility. It was long overdue for a renovation or a retrofit," said Dickson.

"This being a brand new store, it's going to bring a lot more product lines to the community, increase variety and better services to the local public. We're very happing to see the Co-op expanding and showing growth, and we're here to support them."