September GM Report
by Kenna S. Eaton
Each month, I report to the board on what is happening in the store as well as our progress on our long-term goals, which we call our Ends. These Ends reflect our aspirations—what we want to accomplish—and they are part of 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.
Our Ends
The general manager strives to provide these benefits to our member-owners and community while operating a strong grocery store:
Strengthen and advocate for our local food system, with a vibrant culture of appreciation and support for local farms and producers.
Treat people well, increasing equity and access by providing a safe, welcoming, and educational environment.
Treat the planet well, by modeling environmental stewardship and regularly sharing our accomplishments and challenges with member-owners.
September Update on Store and Progress on Ends
Working Together to Nourish our Community
Store Update
The idea of a store center re-set has been in the works for almost a year—but a date has finally been set for mid-October of this year, and we are moving forward with preparations. Customers may notice small changes as we reduce some of our housewares, wine, nut butters, and jellies in preparation for the changes. In the reset, we’ll be relocating dry grocery products to places that make more sense, as well as bringing related items closer together. The intention is to make shopping at the Co-op more intuitive and inclusive, and we are also excited to freshen up the aisles.
This will be our Assistant Store Manager Estelle’s last month with us, as she has decided to “pursue opportunities aligned with her long-term goals.” 😊 We are so grateful for all the many contributions she has made during her time here and wish her all the best in this next chapter. At this time, we will not be filling the assistant store manager role.
During July, we refreshed our chocolate selection, adding a dozen new choices, and we have 13 new Co-op Basics that just arrived, a selection of Field Day packaged seeds and nuts.
Ends Update
Local
We have six new lavender essential oils and hydrosols from Wilderbee Farm. Wilderbee’s lavender production is now large enough that they have begun to offer these items wholesale. These will replace some of the local lavender products from Oasis Naturals, which we can no longer get, as the owner of Oasis has retired.
We have two more local WA canned fish options on our shelves from Lummi Island Wild—coho salmon and coho with jalapenos. Lummi Island Wild is a co-op using traditional reefnet fishing to harvest their catch. Reefnetting uses only the flood tide to bring salmon into the net. Any unwanted bycatch is released unharmed back into the sea. They recently became solar powered, making them one of the ten most sustainable fisheries in the world. See https://lummiislandwild.com/.
Kat Murphy, owner of local favorite Katfish Salmon Co., spends the summer months fishing for salmon in Alaska using traditional hook and line methods before returning south to process her catch. This method of fishing ensures sustainability and quality. We will be restocking Katfish cans at the beginning of October. See https://www.katfishsalmonco.com/.
During September, we will celebrate both of these vendors and our other local fish providers. September is known as Fishtember in the meat/seafood department!
People
We had a great turnout for the staff appreciation party in early August. Organized by a staff committee and held at RainCoast Farms, the party treated staff to awesome food from Planted, great beats from Doghouse Studios, and a hilarious skit from our front-end teammates. Our hostess Margaret, also a substitute cashier at the Co-op, served her award-winning wine—altogether it was a great recipe for a late summer evening.
Last year, we received a cash prize from National Cooperative Grocers (a co-op of grocery co-ops) to help pay for developing a customer service training video for staff. We’ve refreshed our basic internal guidance for providing great customer service—and hired local videographers to develop a fun and engaging training video.
Speaking of training videos, I’ve been working with Kevin Henry, our inclusivity consultant, on developing a series of brief (5-7 mins) videos for our staff to help build our cultural competency. The current thinking is to use them first for new employee training and then have them become annual trainings.
One of the accountability items asked for by staff this year was a way to provide feedback on their managers. Starting in September, staff will be offered the opportunity to fill out a bi-annual feedback survey on their manager. Information gathered will be used to identify trends and issues, as well as measure improvement.
Keith, our Director of Facilities & Safety, has been working to ensure our SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures), policies, and guidelines are up to date and easy to find. He’s improved systems for tracking incidents, near misses, and minor injuries, and completed four safety work orders (staff submit safety issues for repair) . These are all items in our Safety workplan for 2025/2026.
Planet
This month we celebrated with our cyclists by installing Fixit!, a bicycle repair stand. Located on the south side of the store, it gives cyclists access to critical tools and a tire pump—24 hours a day.
Yours in community,
Kenna