by Anya Firszt, General Manager

Hello dear Owners,

Welcome to November, the month when many people turn their thoughts to holiday meal planning, list writing, and gift giving. The Co-op can help you with your traditional and not so traditional grocery ingredients, as well as a few ideas to support your gift-giving needs.  

This November, we also have the 2024 general election on November 5, which will determine who will be our next president as well as others who will hold office. Your vote is your voice! Make your vote count. 

Union Cab Also Wants You to Vote!

Speaking of voting, for many years, Union Cab Cooperative of Madison has offered what they call “Democracy In Motion.” As they do for every election day, Union Cab offers free rides to the polls on election day; this month that’s November 5th.  Please call them at 608-242-2000 if you need a ride or have any questions.

Financial Update

As I shared at our Annual Meeting, we had an unexpected loss in FY24, and are forecasting a second year of losses in FY25. Some years our Co-op is profitable, like we were in FY22 and FY23 when we shared patronage with Owners, and some years—like this year we have losses. Our current losses are due to our expenses growing faster than our revenues. Wages and benefits for our staff have increased significantly over the past few years as we have made it a priority to keep up with inflation and ensure staff are paid at the top of the Madison Market for their jobs. We’ll share more information in next month’s budget article.

It will take us two years to get our revenues and expenses in alignment and by FY26 we anticipate we will again be profitable. We realize we have some heavy lifting to do in terms of growing sales and managing expenses in order to achieve profitability by FY26. 

Upcoming Changes

We have been reviewing all of our operations and have determined that our juice production is not financially viable. When we removed the Juice & Coffee Bar counter service at each store, we moved production to Willy West.  Since then, the ingredients and labor costs have increased significantly, which required us to increase our prices and shrink the juice bottle size to try to break even. Not surprisingly, as the prices increased, sales of our Co-op juices decreased.

As we reviewed all aspects of our operations we determined that making and bottling our own juices was no longer a viable option.  It is with some sadness that I have to report that we will end production of all Willy Street juices as of November 15th of this year.  We will continue to make Co-op teas and cold brew.  While nothing can replace our juices, we will be sourcing products to replace our in-house products.

Coffee with the General Manager 

Join me for a cup of coffee in the Willy North Commons and tell me what you like about our North store and what we can do to improve. I’ll be there Tuesday, November 12 from 11–2 and Saturday, November 16 from 2–5.  Can’t make it to one of these sessions? Please email me at a.firszt@willystreet.coop or call 608-237-1210 with your concerns and/or comments. 

Annual Meeting Question Follow-up 

At the Annual Meeting on October 1st, we were asked a couple of questions by Owners that required me to find the correct answer to be shared out later. Here you go: 

One question was about meat (plastic) packaging and glove use. The thought was that meat purchased through the meat counter uses paper as a wrapper, so less/no plastic packaging. BUT, gloves are used to select and wrap the product. Is it possible to not use gloves? Using gloves for meat/seafood handling in the service case is a requirement from the health department. We use nitrile or latex gloves, and unfortunately, there’s really no way around it. We do our best to source meat products that have minimal packaging, or at least recyclable packaging (like Bell & Evans), but with the stringent regulations that meat suppliers face, it’s really a challenge.  

Another Owner asked how frequently are the bulk bins washed?  The standard for all three locations is that once every quarter (3 months) bulk bins are washed.  Additionally, if a scoop or gravity bin is looking gritty or grimy (regardless of when it was last cleaned), the team will run it through the dishwashing machine.

2024 Annual WSC Board Elections 

The 2024 Board Election results were announced at the Special Owner meeting on Wednesday, October 16.  Thank you to the six Owners who decided to run for the Board of Directors.  Congratulations to our newly elected Board members: Tatiana Dennis, Dan Streit, Deb Shapiro, and Sarah Larson. 

To our outgoing Board members, Carol Weidel and Nancy Ranum.  Thank you both for your years of service on the Board, your leadership, and the many contributions you have made to the Co-op. Best to you both in your future endeavors.  

Special store hours: 

November 28 (Thanksgiving Day) closing at 2:30pm.

December 24 (Christmas Eve) closing at 6pm

December 25 (Christmas Day) closed

December 31 (New Year’s Eve) regular hours

January 1 (New Year’s Day) closed

Cheers to you and yours,

Anya


SIGN UP FOR OUR DIGITAL READER