President’s Report July 2024

Rose Paul

by Rose Paul, Board President

Our hearts are with our extended community as neighbors struggle to clean out their homes or find new housing, replace their belongings, grab a meal and get a shower. We honor the dozens of volunteers from near and far who have helped in so many ways. Some Co-op staff have been affected by the storm damage, and this has led to a lot of scrambling to cover shifts at the store. Thanks to all our loyal Co-op staff for being flexible and adapting to a changing situation. We love our substitutes!

We are in the final days of preparing for the purchase of Plainfield Hardware and General Store. Our new purchase date is August 7. We’ve applied for 3 State permits and we’ve obtained a comprehensive building inspection and the Fire Marshall’s inspection. 

We’ve raised about $460,000 toward our goal of $500,000 by August 7. Please help us reach this goal if you can—every contribution is meaningful! If you’d like to make a loan to the Co-op, please contact board@plainfieldcoop.com. You can also make a donation, and it can be tax deductible if written to our nonprofit fiscal sponsor, Cooperative Development Institute. 

The transition from the old Co-op building will take some weeks. We appreciate offers from many of you to lend a vehicle and help move boxes—thank you! We’ll let you know when we’re ready for that. Plainfield Hardware won’t look any different right away, but we will gradually expand the grocery area to offer more variety. We’ve received a lot of positive feedback about the idea of stocking both clean conventional and organic groceries, at a range of prices, to meet the needs of the whole community.

We’re exploring a relationship with a new grocery supplier. Fingers crossed that we can obtain a volume discount since we will increase our sales. However, nothing can take the place of our local farmers, bakers, cheese makers, prepared foods businesses and crafters! Local will always come first at Plainfield Co-op.

EmpowR-Transformation

Co-op staff will soon be trained on the Point-of-Sale System currently in use at the Hardware Store. This POS was purchased a year ago by the Christiansens and it will replace the outdated, DOS-based system the Co-op has used for years. Yes, there will be a learning curve but this will be better for us in the long run. 

As we head into the first few months of running the new store, we will need your feedback. Please tell us what you like, and what could be better. Use the comment boxes that we’ll place at each register.

During this time of transition, we will be focusing on developing some new standard practices at the village Co-op and with the current village staff team focusing on consistency, getting current on our outstanding accounts, and developing and reinvesting in our supplier relationships. Members can look forward to more consistency with core products and basics on the shelves; however the focus will definitely be on preparing for relocating the current Co-op operations to the new Route 2 location.

Our Annual Meeting is Sunday August 25 from 4-6 at the Plainfield Recreation Field. Please come to celebrate our Co-op’s next chapter! Part of the agenda will be an open forum to hear what folks would like to see for the future of the 153 Main Street building after operations move to Route 2.

And we are looking for volunteer board members—could it be you? Interested in food, or hardware, or how a retail store operates? Do you have some knowledge in these areas? Do you have a passion for co-ops? We are ready to welcome you as new members of our friendly, co-operative board! Contact board@plainfieldcoop.com to find out more and let us know if we can vote you in at the Annual Meeting.


Skip to content