General Managers' Report 10/23/2008

● Happy National Co-op Month everyone! Hope you had a chance to check out our in-store display and read our articles in the Republican Journal. It's such an important time for co-ops to be promoting ourselves as viable, free-market investment alternatives, with our mainstream investment institutions in such a pickle. It's ironic, but serendipitous that the stock market crash and National Co-op Month happened to co-incide this century.

● We are finally closing in on a resolution to the concerns raised by members about how we can create a more friendly environment for sufferers of peanut allergies. The final consensus was to highlight the shelf tags of items containing peanuts and peanut products in a consistent color to draw visual attention to them as potentially dangerous; we've designated one checkout as “peanut-free” with signage requesting customers making purchases of peanut products to please use another register if possible; and we've posted signage on the front door and in the deli alerting customers that we sell and produce goods containing ingredients derived from the 8 major allergen groups. We've been thanked by the peanut committee for making the Co-op a life affirming place to shop. While the GMT has achieved consensus on these decisions, not all staff members are in agreement that these are the appropriate actions to take, citing worries that people with this deadly allergy might trust us too much and fail to take responsibility for avoiding exposure into their own hands. We're willing to see how these actions will be received by our community.

● Inventory went well. We get better and better at it every year. Thanks to the many staff members who offered their time that evening, we were able to get most of the items counted in just over 4 hours, allowing many of us to get to bed at a reasonable time. And in case you weren't aware, Belfast Variety has pretty good pizza!

● We've wrapped up our Farmers' Market obligation for the season, by participating in the last of the markets that will be held on Main St. this year. It became pretty obvious that the Market in no way needed our help to promote itself to our local community, which was one of the primary reasons that we became involved. They are a beloved and vibrant community institution. Customers enjoyed the recipes that we supplied, but weren't too interested in what we had to sell. It also seemed to be an added source of stress for deli staff members, who had the primary responsibility for supplying us with goods to sell. We would like to find a way to continue to be involved in the Market somehow; can anyone offer any creative ideas?

● The store is gearing up for it's second annual Eat Local Challenge, to be offered to our community again during the month of November. We are again partnering with Food For Maine's Future and the UU Church Green Sanctuary committee to encourage people to think about the many and delicious benefits of eating locally. New this time around, FFMF will be developing a tool to measure the number of participants and meals eaten, and they'll be using their extensive peer network to encourage people throughout the state to set aside the week of Thanksgiving to participate. We are working to encourage the other co-ops in the state to host a harvest challenge as well, and so far the folks up in Blue Hill have agreed to host the Challenge in their community. Co-ops helping co-ops: it's a beautiful thing.

● New record: we haven't been in the position to have to hire anyone new in the past 3 weeks. Wa-hoo! The available shifts list is empty at the moment.

● Look for the Co-op's community television cooking show debut, coming to a local cable access channel near you. Member Ned Lightner filmed Education Co-ordinator, Fran Clemetson, and GM Team member, Erica, preparing Julia Child's French Potato Salad and Indian Potato soup in conjunction with our Eating Healthy on a Budget series. We'll soon have the link up on the website, so be sure to check it out!