Amanda Eecherk, a mother from Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, is concerned about the impact on her grocery bills after Canada Post closed a loophole that allowed people in Nunavut to receive free deliveries from Amazon Prime. The closure of this loophole means that residents in all other Nunavut communities, aside from Iqaluit, are now excluded from the free delivery service. This is significant because Nunavut has some of the highest food costs and rates of food insecurity in Canada. Statistics Canada data from 2020 shows that 57% of households in the territory experienced food insecurity in 2017-18. A food price survey in March 2018 found that Nunavummiut paid over twice as much for groceries compared to Ottawa shoppers.
Eecherk was able to save money on groceries by using a simple postal code scheme when ordering items from Amazon. By changing the local postal code to a fake one during the checkout process, she was able to receive free delivery to Rankin Inlet. This allowed her to save money, which she could then allocate to more essential items like gas and fresh produce. However, this loophole was closed after Canada Post increased enforcement of their policy to return items with incorrect addresses in Nunavut. This decision was made to prevent the additional processing required for items with wrong addresses, which slows down the entire system for everyone.
Shipping charges through Canada Post are typically paid by the user or by the online retailer who then decides how much to pass on to customers. Eecherk and other Nunavummiut are not asking for free shipping, but rather for reasonable prices that reflect the high cost of living in the North. Eecherk did a comparison on Amazon to see how much $100 of groceries would cost, and the result was an additional $167 in shipping fees. Krista Matthews has started an online petition calling for Amazon Prime to extend its free shipping services to all communities in the North. Matthews, a mental health and crisis response coordinator, believes that access to affordable goods should not be limited by geography and that reasonable shipping costs are crucial for survival in the North.
Despite the petition and calls for Amazon Prime to expand free shipping services to the North, the company has not responded to the requests. Matthews expressed a desire for someone from the corporation to visit the region to see firsthand why reasonable shipping costs are so important. She emphasized that the realities of living in the North, including high food costs and limited access to affordable goods, need to be understood by businesses like Amazon. The closure of the postal code loophole has had a significant impact on residents in Nunavut, who relied on the free deliveries from Amazon Prime to help offset the high cost of groceries in the region.
Overall, the closure of the loophole that allowed residents in Nunavut to receive free deliveries from Amazon Prime has had a major impact on individuals like Amanda Eecherk and Krista Matthews. The high cost of groceries and limited access to affordable goods in the North make reasonable shipping costs crucial for residents’ survival. The calls for Amazon Prime to extend their free shipping services to all communities in the North reflect the ongoing struggles faced by Nunavummiut in accessing basic necessities. It remains to be seen whether Amazon will respond to these requests and work towards providing more equitable shipping options for residents in the North.
