GM Update: July 2024

I feel like I keep saying it, but time is really rolling by! It’s hard to believe we are halfway through 2024. Last August’s Golden Jubilee feels like it was just yesterday, but also like a lifetime ago.

We’ve accomplished a lot since then, and I’m happy to report that sales through mid-May are up 5.87% over the same period of time in 2023. I feel very fortunate to be the General Manager of a co-op that has strong sales year-over-year and a committed member-owner shopping base.

On May 8, we held our Annual Member-Owner Meeting off site for the first time at WSU’s Northwest Research Extension Center, just down the highway. Turnout and participation were great, and we were able to enjoy good food and drink amongst friends. We gave a short recap of 2023, discussed financial performance, and highlighted our social and environmental accomplishments. Our 2023 annual report is available for you all to pick up a copy at the store or it can be viewed online as well. It is a great publication that highlights the efforts of our Co-op. We also had the privilege of hearing from Carolyn Moulton of Lautenbach Recycling on the work being done at their facilities and elsewhere in the county to reduce, reuse, and recycle waste. The technology and innovation right here in Skagit is impressive. Our sincere thanks to everyone who attended!

As I have mentioned, the former Third Street Café restaurant space has been successfully transformed into an expansion of our Co-op kitchen facility. Almost everything you’ll find in the Deli is being handcrafted in what we now call the Makery, by our food production team. These upgrades and our dynamic prepared foods team will allow us to bring you new food offerings sometime later this summer. You can expect to see hot sandwiches, a wider selection of salads, grain and protein bowls, and more entrées, too. We’ll also be installing a new case to better highlight our amazing in-house baked cakes, pastries, and desserts. In order to make space for all this wonderful new food, we’ve purchased a 20-foot upright case that will be placed against the deli window alongside First Street, where the grab-n-go case is currently. We decided to go with a case that has doors because they reduce energy consumption by up to 40%. But don’t let that stop you from opening them to grab something delicious!

Obviously, there isn’t room for both the new case and the existing grab-n-go case, so once the new case is installed, there’s going to be a bit of shuffling in the store. The grab-n-go case will be relocated near the dairy department, where the chocolate and snack bars are now. (Don’t worry – we’ll point you straight to your favorite chocolate’s new spot.) This move means more room for more dairy products! Co-op products currently in the produce cooler will move behind the big beautiful doors of the new deli case! We’ll also have space to offer cut fruit and veggies from the produce department.

Speaking of produce, let me not forget, for those of you have not yet seen our new fresh squeezed juices, we now have fresh squeezed juices! They are fabulous. We invested in a very cool machine that squeezes grapefruit, oranges, tangerines, limes and lemons, and other citrus fruit. I know what I’ll be sipping on this summer. Definitely give the juices a try, they’re just great.

One more significant upgrade, that I’m sure you’ve noticed if you’ve been in the Co-op recently, is our new floor! After a six-week long project of grinding away the old floor, which in some places was several layers of old tile and other flooring material, we are left with an amazing shiny concrete floor. By choosing to redo the floor in this way, we have established a low maintenance floor that will last for decades. I want to shout out to all the staff that had to repeatedly relocate products every single night to allow the work crew in to grind and finish the floors. It was tedious and demanding work. Thank you all so much! I also appreciate all of our members and shoppers who consistently shopped our store even during this six-week period of dust and construction. For our curious shoppers, please ask a produce staff member to show you the horseshoe that was found under some floor tiles. It is now a permanent part of our floor. Lucky us!

I hope things are well with you all, and we look forward to showcasing our new food offerings in August!

In Cooperation,

Tony White