General Manager's Report              January 2010

• Well the New Year is upon us and the GMT is cranking on all cylinders.  The store continues to increase slightly in sales year over year, and with a nice cushion in the savings account we should comfortably weather our slow months without a problem.  With lots of exciting events both within our Co-op and in Belfast, we are looking forward to an exciting spring.
  
  
• The Finance Department has finalized the patronage dividends and will be ready for distribution presumably at the end of March.  It has come to our attention that we may not need to distribute the dividends by mail which would translate into quite a bit of savings on postage and time.  The decision has been made to refund the full 2% of member revenue.
  
  
• Along with the HR Department, we issued a new and improved Personnel Manual on January 11th.  This reissue included a new section titled "Employee Expectations" which outlines what is expected of employees in areas of confidentiality, treatment of staff, appropriate language, etc.  We felt it was necessary to have this in place for future disciplinary action and also for new hires to get a sense of what working at the Co-op is all about. 
  
  
• We will be hosting the Downtown Business Group's monthly Business After Hours on March 10th.  It will be in the cafe from 5-7 and is a chance for Belfast business owners to get together and network.  We will be serving some light refreshments.  This event is open to the public so come on down!
  
  
• We have recently upgraded our cold line sandwich case in the Deli kitchen.  The old one was "gettin' on" and so we now have a shiny new one.  The cafe seating issue has been addressed and we have purchased new seating that should be in place this weekend.  As far as projects on the horizon, we will be purchasing our security camera system in the coming weeks.  We feel that this will greatly deter theft which is a major problem in our store.  The police department has been asking for a long time for this as it can greatly aid in the apprehension of shoplifters.  Projects on the horizon include a new doorway into the backroom, improvements to the customer bathroom,  finishing the floor in the Deli kitchen, and new adjustable shelving installed in aisle 3 of the Grocery Department.
  
  
• Our new monthly sales flyer program is up and running and so far the feedback has been positive.  We are doing these completely in house and distributing them throughout the store. 
      
• We finally received our quote for the possibility of solar electric power panels on the roof.  It seems as though this is not really an option for us.  The maximum amount we could put up there would only take care of 1/10th of our annual energy use.  We are presently exploring other options for reducing our electricity usage.
  
  
• We have committed to a City sponsored "Good Life Festival" which will be happening May 8th at the Armory.  This is still in the planning stages so the details are sketchy.  More details when they become available.
  
  
• The GMT feel as though we are settling in to a nice rhythm and after four months of steering the ship we are excited about working to bring the Co-op to the next level.  Cheers.