Łútsël K’é is set to get a new store with more space and amenities.
Joe Yatkowski is general manager of the Łútsël K’é Co-op, the only store in the community of more than 300 people on the East Arm of Great Slave Lake.
He said the new, bigger building will be “a gamechanger for how we can operate.”
Yatkowski said the community’s current Co-op has about 2,600 square feet of space. The new store, now under construction next door, will be around 7,000 square feet.
Alongside having more space, he said the new building will have a walk-in fridge and freezer, a preparation area, a proper receiving area and more storage space for goods.
Advertisement.
Advertisement.
Yatkowski said that means staff will be able to cut fresh fruit and vegetables in store and prepare other foods, which will reduce food waste and costs. He said the new store will also be able to offer a wider variety of items.
“I think it’s about eight times more general merchandise,” he said. “So we can carry more basics that people need without having to get it in Yellowknife, as well as just expanding the assortment of food available.”
Yatkowski said having space for overstock – surplus goods held in reserve – will prevent the store from running out of food. Last summer, when Yellowknife was evacuated for three weeks and supply lines were consequently cut off, shelves in Łútsël K’é ran bare as the Co-op struggled to get food into the community.
There will also be shelf space in the new store for local artisans to sell their work.
Advertisement.
Advertisement.
“That’ll be, I think, something that’ll be nice for the community, especially the people making the arts and crafts,” Yatkowski said, adding the Co-op wants to encourage guests from the nearby Frontier Lodge to buy locally made items.
“It’s an exciting little thing we’ll have going on.”
Other features of the new store include offices, new post office boxes, a customer service desk and windows.
“That’s pretty exciting to just have windows in the building, which you see a lot more [in the] south but you don’t see a whole lot in the Arctic,” Yatkowski said.
The new store is expected to open in 2025. Plans for the building that houses the existing store are still in the works.
