With demand high and air deliveries, Iqaluit's beer and wine store prices set to increase

High demand has led to Iqaluit's beer and wine store bringing in stock by air instead of sealift, which will lead to a price increase,said TrishaMakpah, who is the director of Nunavut Liquor Commission.

"There will a slight increase coming shortly to account for airlift charges and we're in the works right now of updating our pricing regime," Makpah said.

"It's time to update it and it will be being rolled out over the next year or so."

• Iqaluit's beer and wine store sells 10% of its projected yearly sales in first 4 days

Makpahsaid the pricing has been the same for the region since about 2004.

Furthermore, she said the storefront has been busy since it opened in September and she said stock is running low, leading to new stock to be flown in by air, instead of through a slower and cheaper sealift option.

People are required to have an account with the liquor store in order to make a purchase. Currently, there are about7,100 people registered with the store.

Makpahsaid they've sold $3.4 million of product since the opening. Of that, about $1.3 million has been from wine and $1.9 million has been from beer, she said.

There are limits that regulate the amount someone can buy and Makpahsaid some people reach them regularly.

"People do max it out quite often, but the exact numbers, our system doesn't have the capability to pull out that kind of data," she said.

"A lot of customers do max out their daily limits not daily, but regularly about once a week or so."

People can buy a dozen bottles or cans of beer and two bottles of wine per day.