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INUVIK
Northern Industrial Sales recently celebrated its fifth anniversary of joining the NorTerra group of companies.

From left, Dave Balicki, president, and Wade Midgett, Inuvik manager, at the new Northern Industrial Sales location on Navy Road. - photo courtesy of Laura Worsley-Brown

The new Inuvik showroom opened in February and it's a lot better, according to manager Wade Midgett.

"This is just a better location," said Midgett.

The previous location was located right next to the Royal Canadian Legion on Veterans Way.

"The old location was built back in the 1950s," said Midgett.

"It was hard to heat and hard to keep electricity going."

The building was 90 per cent cold storage, with 10 per cent used as the front showroom.

Extra stock was kept in the unheated 90 per cent.

"If you had to go back there you would try not to do it in the early morning," said Midgett.

Although Midgett said the store has lost some foot and walk-in traffic since moving to the new location, overall feedback has been pretty positive.

"It hasn't been too bad," he said.

"It was kind of slow at first but it's picked up since then."

It's not the first time Midgett has worked at the Navy Road site.

"I worked in this building when I was with Mackenzie Range," he said.

"When I was hired by (Northern Industrial Sales) I mentioned the building was vacant. It might be new to everybody else but it's not for me."

Midgett said the new location has a much better atmosphere. For example, the floors are level as opposed to the warped plywood that covered the floors of the old warehouse.

"It's just that, it's fine as a warehouse but it didn't work as well as a showroom," he said.

"A lot of people like it better."

Unfortunately, new showroom or not, businesses are still struggling in Inuvik, said Midgett. The Canadian Forces helped a bit when they were in town.

"They actually did bring in a lot of revenue," he said. "But it's starting to scale down and it's really getting slower."

Midgett has been in the same field since 1989.

"Hopefully something happens and business picks up," he said. "If not, businesses start to close and people lose their jobs."

Northern Industrial Sales is 50 per cent owned by Inuvialuit beneficiaries through the Inuvialuit Development Corporation.

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