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.

August Update on Store and Progress on Ends

Working Together to Nourish our Community

Store Update

With a significant increase in customers at the store, sales are strong, although staff are challenged to keep up with all the extra sales—I hear it’s a good problem to have!

Exterior painting of the entire store began in mid-May and by the end of June, we had made significant progress. The painters are scheduled to return mid-August to finish up the front and sides of the store.

And our parking lot leak has returned—argh! While it has been fixed, it is possible the entire water main will need to be replaced, necessitating a shutdown of the store during the process. We’ll keep you updated. 

Ends Update

Local

Local mushroom growers are sprouting up this season, providing us with shiitake and several varieties of oyster mushrooms. We have three new vendors this season:  Strait Up Shrooms from Chimacum, J. Jennings in Hadlock, and Maddie’s Mushrooms in Port Angeles. We also gained a new local pet food vendor this month, Pan Out Pet Foods from Chimacum. Their pet food, a frozen product, will be sold in the meat department, along with other items that many customers use for pet food. Unfortunately, Swooping Swallows has decided to close their dog treat business, and we are sorry to lose this local vendor.  

Regionally, It has been a phenomenal cherry season. By our last week of farm-direct deliveries from Tonnemakers Farm, we had already purchased five tons of sweet cherries. Now we’re heavy into blueberry and melon season—and they are equally amazing!

People

During July we conducted a member satisfaction survey to find out more about what we are doing well and how we could improve. The survey was emailed to 1500 randomly selected members. One of the questions we asked was “How welcome do you feel at the Co-op?” And because we wanted to hear from more members, we also ran a smaller side survey with just four questions about how welcomed folks feel. If you were one of the people to respond to either survey, thanks for taking the time to fill out the questions—it sure is appreciated.

The Workforce Engagement and Enrichment (WEE) team has been busy organizing another fabulous Summer Staff Party, and on Tuesday, July 30th, the store closed early, allowing us to give our hard-working staff an evening of music, food, and fun at beautiful RainCoast Farms. As last year, staff enjoyed supporting local musicians, artists, food and drink vendors, and we plan to continue that tradition into the future.

This July, we had some exciting events for shoppers at our co-op. Amongst lots of good deals, we gave away a picnic bag and a Woodstock cooler, both perfect for outdoor adventures. We created a new Community Cook pamphlet featuring recipes from across Africa, and we hosted a “Wild Edibles” walk with Nancy Slick, where members learned to forage delicious foods right in our own backyards!

Planet

Our staff green team performed the store’s first waste audit post-pandemic in June. At first blush, our largest contribution to the landfill is contaminated (that is, used) plastic and paper. The committee will be reviewing the results and making a list of their recommendations.

For Plastic Free July, we purchased over 4000 cellophane bags to use both for repackaging bulk and for customers, and we offered a sale during the month on select jars we sell in the bulk department. We ran several short surveys asking how you were participating, and we shared your tips on reducing plastic use at home. On the flip side, we did not have enough Jar Savers to be able to offer them all month and we also briefly ran out of stock of the smallest paper bags. Customer reactions to PFJ were mixed, ranging from loving it and wishing that bulk was plastic free year-round to frustration that the alternatives didn’t meet shoppers’ needs. Thanks to everyone for taking the challenge with us. For now, we have returned the plastic options to the bulk room but hope that everyone is inspired to continue to use less plastic: reduce, reuse, and then recycle.