by Jeannine DeWald, General Manager
Autumn is upon us at the Plainfield Co-op, and with each change of the season come new milestones and challenges. With the arrival of cooler weather, our focus has changed from outdoor barbecues, gatherings, gardening and home improvement projects to selling thousands of pounds of pumpkins, hundreds of mums, and helping our shoppers prepare for the winter ahead.
On the Hardware-side, we’re currently in the midst of the busy season for stovepipe sales; since September, sales of stovepipe and accessories have totaled $39,330. The store is also well-stocked with wood-heating and weatherization supplies, and winter essentials like snow shovels and roof rakes, ice melt, and tube sand. And to keep your feet cozy and dry, we have replenished our large selection of locally made Darn Tough socks in all sizes, colors, and patterns. We are still planning to re-design our space with our hardware vendor, but as with all good things, careful planning and well-thought-out selection and design take time. We have a tentative date set in mid-March to complete the project, which will also include improved shelving and layout for the Grocery-side. Stay-tuned for updates!
On the Grocery-side, local produce is largely done for the season, but we still have some offerings from LePage Farm, Small Axe Farm, and Blackbird Organics, as well as Vermont-grown cranberries from Vermont Cranberry Company. Our shelves are also well stocked with seasonal items like stuffing, cranberry sauce, canned pumpkin, broths and gravies, all of which are on sale through December 31st. We also have a newly expanded Supplements section with local products from Samhain Herbs, Grian Herbs, Maple Minerals, and Peaceful Harvest Mushrooms, as well as a selection of high-quality national brands like Gaia Herbs, Solaray, Source Naturals, Boiron, Hyland’s, and more!
As of November 1st, the Deli has made a transition from made-to-order items to a grab-and-go model, with a rotating selection of hot and cold sandwiches, packaged salads, baked tofu, desserts, Rhapsody eggrolls, and calzones from La Strada Bakery. We also have a rotating selection of hot soups to warm your belly on the chilly days ahead. After much thought, we decided to remove the tables from the deli area. While we loved being able to offer a place for folks to sit and eat, the space is quite small, and shoppers with carts or mobility devices were not able to make the tight turns to get from one grocery aisle to another. As we continue to work on a long-term vision for the store’s layout, providing some form of seating will be an important consideration. Please be patient while we work toward solutions that best serve our entire community.
Looking to the Co-op’s financials, sales for the third quarter (July through September) totaled $703,261. While these numbers are impressive compared with the Co-op’s financial condition in 2024, they are still below the current Q3 budget of $781,732, and considerably lower than the project’s original budget of $869,894. There are many reasons for this. The late start and minimal planning of the move continue to affect our current bottom line. The projections assumed that if the Co-op combined its product line with the Hardware store’s, that we would see an immediate 91% increase in Grocery sales, and a steady 3% increase in Hardware store sales year over year, which has not been the case. It’s important to understand that the village store’s inventory had been largely decimated by the time the move came in February of this year, and that immediately following the purchase, hardware sales dropped off due to a variety of factors, including delivery issues, customer loyalty, and the 2024 flooding which caused a Route 2 closure for a substantial number of weeks. We have steadily been rebuilding our product line and customer base, but it takes time to recover, and factors like the long, narrow shape of the Grocery-side, limited shelf-space, and product pricing have continued to be a challenge.
While sales at $829,570 and profit at $72,230 in the second quarter were strong, since the Greenhouse season ended, revenues have not been adequate to generate a positive net income. Losses for the third quarter totaled $14,593, much of which is represented by a large stovepipe pre-order, as well as other inventory on the shelf that is not turning as quickly as we would like. Having responded to the seasonal shift in revenues with adjustments to staffing and purchasing, we can see improvement when comparing September to August.
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We know that grocery pricing is also a significant factor here, as evidenced by our average basket size of about $27. While we have greatly expanded what the Co-op offers, most customers still shop with us as a place to buy a few extras, rather than a store where they shop their full list. We are working to address this in multiple ways. Most importantly, we have applied for membership with INFRA, a cooperative of independent natural foods retailers that leverages their collective buying power to negotiate better pricing with national vendors. If approved, we will see a significant reduction in our wholesale costs. Much of that savings will be passed on to shoppers, with a specific focus on significantly lowering the prices of staple items like pasta, beans, tomato products, breakfast cereals, nut butters, packaged meals, and more. The approval process takes several months; we expect to have an answer by late December. Assuming we are approved, some prices will come down significantly by mid-January, with more price reductions to follow as we head into spring. We are very excited by this prospect, and are feeling hopeful that our application will be approved, and that we will finally be able to meet the affordability goals laid out for this project. For now, we ask all members who can afford it, to please shop with us as much as possible while we weather these growing pains.
In the meantime, we have also begun using a web-based program called SPINS to identify the best-selling natural foods products in our region, and, where pricing and scale allow, have been upgrading our product selection to ensure we have the selection we need to have a successful store. This is a long and evolving process, but we have made significant improvements over the past few months, expanding our meatless offerings in the refrigerated section, growing our Supplements offerings, and replacing pantry items with the most popular brands with an eye toward affordability. Once we have access to better pricing, we plan to incorporate more of these best-selling items at prices much more affordable than what we are currently able to offer. Ultimately, we see the combination of an improved store layout, improved pricing through INFRA, and improved selection through SPINS to be the way forward in making this a successful co-op. With any luck, we hope to be launching a new model that incorporates all of these elements by early spring.
In other good news, we continue to see our membership numbers growing, with an additional 45 new members joining from July through September, and a total of $4,150 dollars of new equity paid in over the period, all of which has been earmarked as funding for our long list of capital projects, including replacement of the Grocery-side roof, replacement of the loading dock, replacement of the walk-in cooler components, and financing the store reset. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but we know our community is with us, and look forward to working together to meet our goals. As always, we want to thank all of you for your continued support of your Co-op as this project evolves into a more sustainable and successful operation.
All of us at the Co-op are wishing you a warm and peaceful winter, and a joyous Holiday Season.