by Jeannine DeWald, General Manager
Greetings Plainfield Co-op Community! It’s February in Vermont, and I think it’s fair to say that the deep freeze we’ve been in since early January is starting to wear on many of us. But the days are slowly getting longer, the light is returning, and this seems like a good time to reflect on the days behind us and to take stock of how far we’ve come together.
This time last year, the Route 2 project was still in its infancy. We were closing the Village Store down, moving our inventory, building vendor relationships, onboarding a new staff, and facing numerous other challenges one after another, from POS system and accounting mergers that took months to resolve, to ongoing building improvements to transform the new space into something the Co-op could work with and make our own. There is still much to be done, but when I think back on where we were a year ago, and how impossible the project felt at times, it’s truly amazing to find ourselves where we are now.
Financials
We’re currently in the process of transitioning to a new bookkeeper, so we do not yet have completed 2025 financials, but we do know our total revenues for the year, and the growth over 2024 is something we should all be proud of. Revenues for 2024, which include the purchase of the Route 2 location in August, totaled $1,228,000. Revenues for 2025, which include the move to Route 2 in February, totaled $2,673,000. This is very significant growth for a business of our size, and we are still learning about the seasonal shifts and rhythms of the new location.
The budget process for 2026 was completed in mid-January, and while we do expect to see continued growth, my approach to the budgeting process leans on the conservative side. For me, it’s always better to set realistic goals and celebrate larger wins when they happen. Total Revenues for 2026 are projected to be $2,878,649, with net profit for the year projected at $58,337. The table below provides summaries for each quarter and the year in total.
| Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income | 534,929 | 908,874 | 720,026 | 714,820 | 2,878,649 |
| Cost of Goods Sold | 330,783 | 539,070 | 440,679 | 437,864 | 1,748,395 |
| Expenses | 231,192 | 320,496 | 215,674 | 273,431 | 1,071,917 |
| Net Profit | -27,046 | 49,308 | 30,220 | 5,855 | 58,337 |
It is important to note that revenues at the Route 2 location are highly seasonal, and that the seasonal rhythms of the hardware store impact the grocery-side as well. While we are overall pleased with 2026 projections, the Co-op still finds itself in a position of financial losses for the first quarter, followed by much stronger second and third quarters, and finally a much leaner fourth quarter. In the early Spring of 2025, the Co-op addressed this issue with a loan we received from Vermont Community Foundation. This year, we will be able to ride out the slow season without any external borrowing, which is a major improvement over 2025 and a great relief to us all! 2026 will be our first full year in the Route 2 location, and some of the projected growth is attributed to that. We also have some exciting new developments and some big plans on the horizon that should bring us increased revenues in 2026!
Lower Food Prices
In December of this past year, Plainfield Co-op was approved for membership with INFRA (Independent Natural Foods Retailers Association), a cooperative of natural foods stores that leverages their collective buying power to negotiate wholesale pricing on organic and natural foods, supplements, and more! Since our approval, we have seen a significant decrease in our wholesale pricing through our primary supplier, KeHe distributors. Prices on many items throughout the store have been coming down steadily since January, and we are now able to offer significantly lower prices on over 100 Cadia brand organic and natural pantry items — everything from peanut butter to canned beans, broths, pastas, tomato products, and cleaning essentials! Cadia price list here.
In addition to our new everyday low prices on the Cadia line, beginning February 11th we will be offering bi-weekly sale pricing on dozens of additional grocery-side items. This is a major win for the Co-op and our shoppers. As a small store with limited buying power, we have always struggled with affordability, and despite years of valiant efforts at the Village Store location to keep prices down, our precarious financial position precluded us from joining larger cooperatives like INFRA or National Cooperative Grocers. Now, because of our growth at the new location, we have finally been able to make this leap, and it feels amazing. We are so grateful to our customers for helping us get here, and we are so excited to provide our expanded offerings at new, lower prices!
Your Support Matters
I’ll leave you all with my deep gratitude for your support and continued patronage. We love seeing all of you in the store, and hope that our efforts toward a more affordable shopping experience will help all of you to keep that support going long into the future. We encourage you to share our exciting new developments with your friends and neighbors so that we may continue to expand our community and make access to healthy, affordable food available to all!