by Anya Firszt, General Manager
Hello December; hello winter
December has lots of holidays to celebrate including Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Eve, and, my favorite, the Winter Solstice when we can celebrate the return of warmer longer days and shorter nights. I imagine whichever holiday you traditionally celebrate, you have been challenged in ways you never expected and are having to rethink your holiday festivities with an added twist in order to maintain the recommended social distancing. In this issue, we share some ideas for Nifty Gifties that you can find in our stores. If you’d rather limit your shopping inside the store, you can also order Gift Boxes for curbside pick-up at any of our stores, and some can also be shipped. See pages
14-15 for Nifty Gifties and visit willystreet.coop/boxes to learn more about the Gift Boxes. If you are interested in ordering five or more Boxes, we may be able to accommodate you! Gift Box orders are due by December 8.
Financial update
Recently, we have shared with you our financial update, which is that last fiscal year and this fiscal year our sales have been under budget and our expenses have been greater than our budget, both due to the pandemic. I don’t know one business that is not struggling in some manner because of COVID-19. Buying local never meant as much as it does today.
Thank you, staff
The pandemic has been extremely challenging, and continues to be a challenge for everyone from a mental, physical, and emotional standpoint including our staff. Our staff has done a tremendous job keeping the Co-op open for business for these last nine months during the outbreak. They have navigated countless but necessary operational changes within our organization to provide and maintain a safe place to shop and work due to the coronavirus. We owe them a debt of gratitude, and I want to offer my sincere thanks and appreciation to them for all they do!
Thank you, customers
I also want to thank all of you who have continued to support the Co-op and for wearing masks and practicing social distancing to help not only you but our staff to stay healthy. Who knew these protocols would become second nature?! Thanks again for looking out for our staff, their health depends on you!
Security Guard No Longer Needed at Willy North
When we opened Willy North in 2016, the store was twice the size of our other two locations and operated by the same number of people, the parking lot was poorly lit, there were many vacancies on the property, and we were seeing higher rates of theft and property damage than we had seen at our other locations. For these reasons, we utilized an outside security service. Since then, we have been able to add more staffing, the outside lighting has improved, there are more tenants in the mall, and the landlord has added security for the entire property. Due to these changes as well as feedback from employees and customers, we have found that we no longer need these outside services to manage security and loss at North.
Loss prevention practices
As we are making this change we are also taking an opportunity to review our existing loss prevention practices at all of our stores, and will do so with an eye on recognizing and better addressing biases, in particular, systemic racial biases that we are aware exist within our organization and have the continued potential to do harm in our community.
HOLIDAY hours
December 24: Stores close at 6:00pm
December 25: Closed
December 31: Regular hours
January 1, 2021: Closed
Goodbye 2020; Hello 2021
As calendar year 2020 comes to a close, may the time you spend with family and friends this holiday season whether in person or virtually be filled with joy and happiness. Whether you make New Year resolutions or not, may the New Year be warm, safe and healthy. Happy New Year.
Until next year, stay healthy.