by Kenna S. Eaton

Each month, I report to the board on how we are progressing on our long-term goals, which we call our Ends. These Ends reflect our aspirations—what we want to accomplish—and they are what makes us different from a regular grocery store. We publish these reports as a blog to keep our member-owners up to date on what we are doing.

The reports are organized by our five Ends, although not all are discussed in every report. Our refreshed Ends say that, as a result of all we do—

- Our community is well-served by a strong cooperative grocery store, integral to the lives of our customers, our farmers, and our producers.

- Our community has a resilient local and regional food economy, supported by our Co-op and our community partners.

- Our staff and board have the knowledge, skills, and passion to make our cooperative thrive.

- Our members and customers are proud to shop at a local cooperative grocery that is working to reduce its impact on the environment.

- Our community is informed, engaged, and empowered to join us in making a difference.

March General Manager’s Report

Working Together to Nourish our Community

Market Relevance

New in February, we did a direct-mail coupon campaign with four weeks of great savings for our members. Coordinating with co-ops across the county made this coupon campaign affordable due to our aggregate purchasing power plus subsidies from our co-op of co-ops, NCG. Still, due to budgetary constraints, only 90% of our members received the coupons.

On the topic of trying to make food as affordable as possible, we recently added a dozen new Co-op Basics items, including Kind Bars and a selection of Wild Harvest pet food, plus three packaged Field Day products (dry beans & rice) that are also on the WIC-approved list, which is really helpful to lower-income families.

During the last week in February and on into the first week of March, we replaced the one remaining old produce case with a spiffy new version. While making the change, we also addressed a lingering issue of a dip in the floor in front of the case. The old case moved out, the floor got repaired, and then we brought the case back in, all in a week. This did mean that there was some creative temporary merchandising in the produce department, and a roped off area while the floor got some love. Hopefully, the problem has been resolved.

Otherwise, sales for the rest of January and the first half of February continued to be strong, following our new pattern of growth in our produce, grocery, and meat departments. In food services, we’re selling lots of cold prepared foods and cheese, but without the hot bar open, we have had to pivot and focus on foods that can be successfully packaged. We continue to maintain our high standards for crowd control and sanitation, while looking forward to Phase 3.

Food System Development

New to the Co-op: Finn River Grain—2 bulk flours (Whole Wheat Pastry and Confluence). This month we brought in a new Local 5 vendor, Olympic Rainshadow Farm (Sequim) with a fun line of shampoo/conditioner bars for great hair care without packaging. Also, we added a new Local WA vendor from Seattle, Deschampsia, who specialize in bath soaks and face masks.

Thriving Workplace

At the end of February, we bade farewell to Dan, who after 10 years as our Chief Financial Officer is retiring. Dan has provided us with calm and consistency during a time when we have grown from $11 to $18 million in sales, enlarged & refreshed our building multiple times, added new services, and generally made sure we were well positioned to be relevant to our members. Dan also served on our board for six years, overseeing the elections process and ensuring that we kept the cooperative spirit alive. We thank Dan for his service and wish him the very best. Happy trails!

And in other key transitions, Julie, our HR manager for the past five years, is leaving us as well. Julie wants everyone to know that while she will be stepping down from this role, she plans to remain an avid Co-op member and supporter. We wish Julie the very best in her next adventure.

Outreach

I’m happy to announce that the Food Bank Farm & Gardens (FBF&G) will be taking on the care of our food bank veggie garden (located on the south side of the store) as well as the ornamental bed. The first work commenced at the end of February with a fence rebuild, and soon we will see volunteers planting, tending, and harvesting all season long. Additionally, there are plans to add signage to these beds talking about the importance of growing groceries and pointing interested people in the right direction if they want to get involved either in growing their own or volunteering with the group.

Our bylaws now require members to keep us informed of their current mailing address or they could lose their voting rights (or any valuable coupons!). During the month of March members updated their contact information online on our web site. Members who didn’t use the portal, please drop by our customer service desk, and ask our friendly staff to help you.