On making culture available

From the "retailers worth supporting" department, Costco will now be stocking Inuit carvings and artwork at some of its Canadian locations:

Ontario salesman Jack Lobos has convinced Costco to erect booths to retail caribou antler, ivory and baleen carvings at 10 locations. At home in London, Ont., Mr. Lobos took the carvings to a local frame shop and had them mounted in shadow boxes. Then he asked Costco's buyers if they would like to go into business. "It's a very unique Canadian art form," he told the CBC. "They realized right away, this is a great way we can help promote -- that's what the buyers told me -- we can help promote this form of Canadian art."

We'll see how much Costco does to follow up. But at the very least Costco deserves credit for making the effort to stock Inuit art - and both the artists and the store have plenty to gain if the arrangement works out.