General Managers' Report 4/23/09
● It is finally spring again! Good news for our sales activity. The store feels busier, the staff is more motivated to be here in the evenings when they actually have customers to serve, the outdoor eating area should be installed by the end of the month, and our Bookkeeper reports that it looks like we've “turned the corner,” as each week the need to transfer monies between our savings and our checking accounts in order to prevent overdrafts seems to be diminishing.
● In order to prepare for the summer buis-ey-ness, we'll be holding an All-Staff Meeting at the end of the month. Proposed agenda topics include GMT transition, goal setting for the business plan, Blood Borne Pathogen procedures, Personnel Manual updates, and whatever else staff would like to bring forward to discuss.
● With an eye toward the uncertainty of the stability of the world's finances, we have put more items in the store's inventory into a variable margin pricing structure. With costs and expenses going up, and more an more folks voicing their concern over rising food prices, we're trying to find a way to keep our “basics” more affordable by taking lower margins on these items and trying to make up the loss by increasing margins on luxury items. New, higher prices on wines and prepared foods! On an upside, many of our prices in the HABA department are going down as Rani, our HABA manager, has brokered some great deals.
● Please allow me to draw your attention to the landing strip that has been installed on aisle 3, directing our valued customers to our fine selection of ethnic foods and affordable supplements. I know it looks like just another one of our legendary and creative marketing techniques, but in fact, its an industrial sealant that is helping to keep our co-op asbestos-free for our staff and customers. A couple of customers have expressed concern that our wearing floor tiles may contain asbestos, and until we have the money to put in new floor tiles, sealing the cracks and holes seems to be a quick and safe fix.
● We've bid out our Employee Life and Dental Insurance to new companies this year, which will save us an estimated $1,200 towards the cost of providing these valued benefits to our staff. We're getting comparable coverage under the new plans, and appreciate the hard work that Allen Financial Group, our broker for these benefits, did to find us these deals.
● Members of the GMT held a planning meeting with the Deli's Manager and Assistant Manager to go over departmental goals for menu planning, recipe cost outs, employee training, portion control, and the department's overall financial picture. All managers feel it was a positive and productive meeting, and that there is a good foundation being laid to help improve the deli's profitability.
● Both the Congressional House and Senate are currently scrutinizing proposed legislation to “fix” the nation's broken food regulation system, and there is growing concern that these fixes could negatively affect small-scale growers, and that these bills aren't really addressing all of the factors that should be accounted for in re-designing the food regulation system, ie. use of pesticides and genetic engineering. Our Education department is on top of the conversation happening around these issues, and would like to encourage our membership to contact their congressional representatives to protect small scale and localized food systems in this debate, while advocating for major changes to agribusiness practices. We're not quite clear about the extent to which we should be advocating, on behalf of the membership, for changes to federal policies. Would the Board be able to establish guidelines around this issue? We'd love to be able to mobilize the power of our membership's voice and buying power as a force for good in this conversation.
● For your consideration below is the list of focus questions for long-term planning that GMT member Erica has created to help encourage us to spend more time on this important Board responsibility, and to whet your appetites around the possibility of looking at one question at each monthly meeting and taking 20 minutes to brainstorm and discuss answers and ideas. She's an advocate for the idea that the process of engaging in brainstorming about future plans is equally if not more valuable that hammering out plans themselves. Let's give it a try!
Focus Questions for Long Term Planning, and Board Visioning