April • May • June • July • August • September • October • November
General Manager’s Report Board Meeting 4/27/06
We’ve successfully returned to Departmental Scheduling in order to better track labor hours, shorten cashiering shifts, and add additional help in the mornings. So far, no complaints.
Pepper has successfully trained as a floor manager and is now working as an opening Manager on Sunday mornings.
Goldy has agreed to work as the closing manager on Tuesday evenings.
An All-Staff meeting was held to help the staff transition to a new management structure. Transparency in communication was emphasized, as well as encouraging all-staff to take an active role in streamlining productivity and brain-storming problem solving.
An all-cashiers meeting was held to clarify cashiering procedure changes, as well as emphasizing punctuality and productivity during down-times. Cashiers were encouraged to take the initiative to find a project to keep busy when no customers are in line.
Changes to the discounts structure have been discussed at length on all levels with staff. We favor an approach to discount changes that encourage membership at the cost of reducing non-member benefits. The staff has agreed to forgo discounts on beer, wine, and cigarettes.
Membership Equity and Annual Fee invoices are ready for mailing during the week of May 1st. Scripts for cashiers have been written to help facilitate smooth register transactions and excellent customer service in the case that memberships become suspended due to delinquency in payment.
Pepper has a report for us on where our margins stand. They are good!
A fresh approach to training new employees is being developed, including an introduction to co-op philosophy and an orientation to co-opy concepts like whole-foods, special dietary needs, the difference between organic and natural, etc. The idea is that people will already have a bulk of co-op knowledge before they even begin floor training. We are also making an effort to solicit new employees from the pool of people who shop here.
We completed a quarterly inventory at the beginning of March. The results, when measured against the next monthly inventory to be completed April 30th, should help us get an idea of how accurate our POS technology is, where the major problems with theft are, and where departmental margins stand.
We’re sifting through the operations of the finance office. The good news is that the women who staff the office are able to keep the store’s daily functioning in order without a finance officer directing them. John’s tasks are being divided between Tom, Pepper, and willing members from the finance committee. (We hope)
Member comments are being solicited regarding the removal of the castle and alternatives for sustaining a family atmosphere.
KelLee is working with members of IMT to develop position descriptions for each one of our specific tasks. So far, looks like we’ve got most of the duties of a GM covered.
Morale is excellent and shoppers tell us that they feel a very positive spirit hovering in the store.
Department Managers Report 5/25/06
After soliciting member commentary regarding the castle removal, we have determined that the membership wants the castle to stay. We propose that castle removal be postponed until bigger renovations take place and we can put in a “real” member services area.
We successfully completed our April inventory, saving 40 hours on labor over the previous inventory.
Offices have been relocated into the new addition. Phones and computers have been transferred as well and things are running smoothly.
Goldy, Pepper, and Erica attended a supervisory training that was very informative and educational.
Kimalee, HR, also attended a week long Human Resources seminar and will help us asses some of our current protocols to assure we are in compliance with HR law.
Summer staff is training and waiting in the wings for the summer people to hit, and is ready to go at a moments notice.
Equity and Annual Fee invoices have been mailed out, and we have had a decent response a week later in terms of people making payments on their accounts. We are finding that our older “lifetime” members are confused about why they might still owe an annual fee. We are doing a lot of re-iterating the letter that went out with Patronage Refunds. Cashiers received membership and customer service training to facilitate smooth transactions and Nicole is handling all questions and complaints very professionally.
The new discount structure has been implemented for the most part. We’ve had a difficult time trying to get the wines to be ineligible for employee and B.O.D.discounts.
Tom attended Catapult college in N.C.; he learned a great deal and is mapping out how he is going to be training our other employees that utilize Catapult in its multiple functions. We really missed his knowledge while he was away.
We started the first of our wine-tasting-cross-merchandizing extravaganzas. Jim featured cheeses as well as Ducktrap products in an attempt to sell more products that pair with featured wines. We plan to do a wine/chocolate tasting; wine/deli entrée tasting, and a wine/dried fruit and nut tasting.
Duties in the finance office have been streamlined and re-aligned under KelLee’s guidance and recommendation to be more in compliance with the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, and to set up clear standards for work performance.
Due to tight ordering on the part of our department managers, our cash flow situation has improved and we are closing in on our debts owed. Margins appear to be excellent. Pepper will report more on our financials.
General Managers Report 6/22/06
We’ve been enjoying the light and cleanliness of the new office space. The HR office will be painted before we move the safe from the old offices. Sadly, vandals damaged one of the new windows in the finance office and we will wait another week for the glass to be replaced.
Erica and Kimalee have implemented our Customer Service training module (it only took a year!). We’ve been training small and diverse groups of employees and we are not terribly impressed with their level of participation so far, but we keep looking for ways to make it more appealing.
Goldy has certified another forklift operator, with plans to certify two more by the end of July. This helps reduce the burden of needing to be in too many places at one time.
We’ve increased the staff in the meat department for the weekday evenings. We’ve got a great hire that takes her job quite seriously, and we have all been impressed with her performance. Richard Slez is back with us making sausage.
Products in the cheese cooler had to be pulled two consecutive days in a row after cooler temperatures reached a high of 60 degrees. The same cooler broke down again on Wed. 6/21. We’ve been keeping our refrigeration techs busy and well paid.
HR and GM’s have been discussing the implementation of paycaps for staffing positions. Kimalee has also given GM’s interesting literature regarding two models for determining wages—employee centered and budget centered. We utilize elements of both and are feeling a need to have more data at hand when determining wage increases.
Kimalee attended a weeklong HR training at the Samoset. One major tool from her training that she has implemented is an “event record.” This tool allows us to document and have on file both positive and negative employee behaviors. We are discovering that it is crucial (for legal purposes) to have copious amounts of documentation when it comes to performance reviews.
After Erica’s failed attempt to get an employee response regarding how one finds their work to be purposeful, Kimalee engineered a multiple choice “climate survey” to get an idea of not only how people feel about their work, but also about how they view their compensation, benefits packages, and work environment. By attaching the lucrative promise of a gift certificate to be raffled off, we hope to get a better response.
After the power outage two weeks ago left us scratching our heads about how to keep the store functioning in the dark, we are working on writing an emergency action plan and looking to purchase cheap flashlights. We found out that we can run our POS system on the laptop.
General Managers Report 7/27/06
We are beginning our budgetary process for the next fiscal year. We've collected wish lists from each of the department heads and are reviewing the income statements of the past two years to get an idea of trends that will help us project sales figures for next year. We've discussed the possibility of hiring a consultant from CDS in order to help us write a truly educated and accurate document.
We've created and will implement next month a pay scale that includes salary caps for each position in the store (the MOC still needs to select a cap for GM'S). This document will be added to the handbook. We've also developed a document which outlines the process for assigning merit raises and clearly lays out employee performances which get positive kickbacks.
Our Rewards and Recognitions proposal has been finalized and was presented at our All-Staff meeting. We've budgeted so that each employee in the store can receive the maximum yearly reward. The program will be implemented with the beginning of the next fiscal year after funding has been allocated in the budget.
We've experienced a realignment of our departmental personnel. Mike J. is now our Dairy and Frozen Buyer and Finn is acting as the Bulk Assistant Manager. Both departments will align under the grocery department so that staff will have the flexibility to move freely between necessary stocking tasks, and buyers will be able to work more as a team. This re-alignment will allow us to keep a closer eye on margins as well, with three buyers working together to ensure that the numbers are in line with industry standards.
We've held an All-Staff meeting focusing on membership training, introducing the new pay scale documents, and the introduction of our New Staff info packets. This packet, which was distributed to all staff members, contains educational materials on Co-op philosophy, nutritional resources for whole foods diets, the structure of Co-op personnel, and our food-buyer policy. We look forward to doing more educating of new employees before they begin their interactions with customers.
Josh Gamage, our deli manager, has given his notice. The pressures of running two businesses were becoming a little much. Through his mentoring of two other deli line staff, we anticipate that we will be able to make his transition out of the deli less painful. His skills will be missed and we look forward to working with the excellent team that he has fostered as we continue to make improvements to this important department.
General Manager's Report 8/24/06
We have had a changeover in the deli management. We are pleased to announce that Chuck Smith is our new Deli Manager. He has some great plans for keeping the deli workspace clean and inviting and possibly improving on the popular entree selections that Josh had introduced. In this departmental re-alignment, we also created a position for an Assistant Deli Manger, as Carly Paradis, the other candidate that interviewed for the position, showed strong leadership qualities and an ability to keep the deli functioning in the absence of the Deli Manager. The entire deli team has performed with grace and flexibility throughout this difficult time of transition and staffing changes.
Customer Appreciation Weekend was deemed a success. The staff seems disappointed with the sales numbers from the weekend. We speculate that last year's 10% off for members sale was a huge draw for business and the lack of this incentive did bring the sales numbers down. We did, however, draw in business from shoppers who had never set foot inside the store so we were successful in introducing our mission to new people. We signed up 8 new members. The week following, the staff generally seemed tired , overworked, and had mixed emotions regarding the success of this event.
Pepper has been working away at developing a budget spreadsheet. In our discussions, we have been working on brainstorming a way to keep track of the budget's progression as it seems crucial that we have a means of “checking in” on where we are at in our spending. Our Peachtree software might be able to “flag” us when we are getting close to our spending limit if we are able to match the budget to the ledger line for line.
It is hard to believe that we are working on making the changeover to fall scheduling. It's been zooey trying to phase out the college kids in the midst of the busiest couple of weeks and the applicant pool has not looked all that promising. We are not planning on reducing hours until a later date, if at all.
Goldy raised the possibility of developing a “seasonal membership” for our summertime folks. Some members who come for the summer with large extended families would like the benefits of being co-op members without having to invest 5 or 6 adults in their households for just a few weeks of vacation.
Pepper has received at least one phone call from an old time investor inquiring as to how to get her investment and interest back. He is still working to resolve this issue as she called just before he left for vacation and all the data regarding the investments has been extremely challenging to interpret.
General Manager’s Report 9/28/06
KelLee is working with us on an exclusively call-up basis at this point. Her last week of being on the schedule was the last week of August. She is now available to us as an on-call consultant.
We have issued a small summer bonus check to thank our employees for their hard work and flexibility during the challenging summer months and events, especially during Customer Appreciation Weekend. Full time employees received a $50 bonus, and part time employees received a $30 bonus. A thank you letter from the managers was distributed along with the checks.
We have hired a new assistant manager for the produce department. Julie Wight joins us with lots of experience ordering and prepping produce, and brings a specialized knowledge of tropical fruits and veggies from her time in Hawaii. She is also very skilled in conflict management.
Caryn, Rani, and Cheryl will attend the Natural Products Expo East in Baltimore at the beginning of the month. This is the biggest trade show in the natural foods industry and a really excellent opportunity to see the newest products, as well as to make contacts with vendors whose products we carry.
We have completed the end of the fiscal year inventory quite successfully by breaking down departmental inventories over multiple nights during a two-week period. We got great feedback from the staff relaying that it seemed like a much easier experience than it has been in the past.
The final draft of our pay scale (including pay caps for each position) has been incorporated into the employee handbook.
We have received no feedback from employees regarding the changes that were made to the employee health insurance plan on recommendation from the finance committee.
A 6,093.37 check was cut to pay off a co-op investor. 1 down, ???? to go.
Each of us received a copy of the Cooperative Grocer’s Financial Management toolbox. As a training tool, this document has been invaluable for helping us get a better idea of the big picture.
We have scheduled the deli café area to be closed for 3 days for refinishing the floor beginning Oct. 1. The deli production area will also close during this time period in order to scrub the kitchen from top to bottom. The Grab-and-Go cooler will be stocked each morning, and counter service will still be available.
Caryn is spearheading a project to design and print a Co-op bumper sticker. If you haven’t had a chance to write down a suggestion yet at the register, please feel free to do so!
General Manager's Report 10/26/06
● We've experienced a changing of the guard in the Produce Dept. We made a mutual decision with Pati to bring a close to her employment at the Co-op. After advertising in-house for a new produce manager, we had one applicant apply: Julie Wight, who was originally hired as as assistant manager and who was willing to run the department in the interim applied and was given the position. She is making some changes, both in quantities ordered and in aesthetics, and has plans to develop a new pricing structure as well as cutting down the shrink. Come and wish her well in her endeavors.
● Wow, we finished out our fiscal year! We were also successful in completing our end of year inventory. We tried a new system this year, where each department was counted on a separate night of the week, and then closely maintained and monitored for accuracy. The staff really appreciated this lower key effort, as it required most of us to be here only until 9 or 10 o'clock instead of the usual midnight. Inventory remains a continual learning process, and this one was no exception. We are still working out bugs in the technology that we use to aid us in the counting, but all in all, department heads were confident in the accuracy of the numbers.
● Our Education and Outreach program is looking at a couple of exciting new programs to be implemented in the new year. We hope to provide a quarterly discussion group that will focus on the importance of co-operation as a business and community development model through discussion of the Co-operative Principles and Values. We hope to also launch a monthly book club devoted to discussion of issues that affect the health and availability of our food supply. We've got a great new member of our staff, Kate Harris, who comes to us with a lot of experience working with Co-operative Development Services, and she is helping us to facilitate the logistics of these two exciting projects.
● We've got an All-Staff meeting on tap for the second week of November. We are planning to solicit staff interest regarding the implementation of an Employee Assistance Program and to break down any new financial information that might come our way regarding our profitability for last year. There is also talk of scaling down our Holiday Extravaganza Party in order to put money aside for the creation of an employee lounge area.
● Turkey Time is coming up. We are offering both organic and natural birds. One of our Organic Suppliers, Dilly Dally Farms, lost their organic certification and so our supply of natural birds will increase as a result. Last year we did a great amount of business selling turkeys and we look forward to another successful year as the word is out that this is the place to get organic and natural birds.
● Our fiscal year end membership count is 2,217 members in good standing. For the fiscal year 2006, we gained 402 new members. This is an average of 1.1 new members being gained each day. Our most profitable season for selling memberships is definitely the summer months: from June 1st through labor day weekend, we gained 102 new members. This is great news for the strength of our membership!
General Manager's Report 11/16/06
As a follow-up to last month's membership report (402 new members gained for FYE '05, 2,217 members in good standing), we have a report on the members who have been lost since we started invoicing this past May. 23 members have asked for their equity to be refunded, and 46 members have “canceled” their membership, but have not asked for their equity to be refunded. Cancellations of membership can be attributed to a variety of reasons: moved away, live too far away for it to be financially rewarding, lack of interest or ability to continue making membership payments, and even death. It is my understanding that none of the members who have canceled their memberships are angry about any policy changes or problems with their accounts, they have canceled because it is no longer convenient for them to be members; nor are all of the members who have asked for refunds upset: for some of these folks, their reasons for not continuing membership are similar. We have an estimated 200 members who currently have an “inactive” status. These are members that we are waiting for equity payments from to restore them to good standing.
We had our All-Staff meeting, touching on such topics as an FYE report, planning for the holiday party, discussed changes in and ideas about staff benefits, spoke of the need for another staff rep, and solicited interest for a new workshop idea for employee training. The overall tenor of the meeting was one of sincere interest, open discussion, and productive brainstorming. And we finished with the evening session in record time!
More Turkey Drama: the supplier of our organic birds informed us that he had to switch to a conventional feed that may contain GMO's in the last stages of the bird's development. We have posted this info for our prospective turkey buyers, and all customers who ordered turkeys before the notice was mailed have been notified and given the option to order an organic bird instead, or to receive a price break on their standing order. Most customer's seem unflustered and we have looked at this as an opportunity to do some more educating about how our food sources are feed and produced.
We've been taking a hard look at our training procedures with our buyers to determine how we can better structure our training systems to be more beneficial to both the new hire and the store as a whole. We've got a long list of problems to address, and a growing list of ideas to address these issues. With everyone sharing in the discussion, it has been easier for us to more clearly see how our cross-training systems benefit and challenge us, and to see how we need to work as a team to evaluate the way each department does training. This is a project and discussion that we foresee continuing through the winter to get something firm and workable in place for the summer months and beyond.
We've started productive discussions about changing the space in the conference room to support an employee breakroom. We've got a plan, we're all excited, and Phil has begun working on moving stuff out of there! We're looking for microwave and couch donations; we've already located a donated refrigerator for staff, and we've got lots of staff volunteers willing to pitch in to get this project moving.
The buyers are formulating a plan to get some kind of holiday donation project up and running so we can provide less fortunate families with healthy options for supplementing their holiday meals. More on this project in the next report.