GM Report

Looking Back on 2018 & Forward to 2019

Linda Johnson, General Manager

With the New Year upon us, I want to take this opportunity to thank you on behalf of the Wheatsfield Board and Staff for all you did to make 2018 a memorable year for Wheatsfield. The Co-op experienced many challenges over the past year. It is the support of loyal member-owners like yourselves who have continued to shop and even purposefully increased your purchases, who have attended events and classes and participated in the Wheatsfield community that carries the co-op through down times and allows us to see glimpses of light ahead.

From attending the very popular $5 Dinners and Tiny Deck Concerts to your continued support of local producers and local products in the store, you are making a difference for the local economy and community and helping the cooperative fulfill its mission in every facet of our business. Your actions demonstrate that price is not the most important consideration when purchasing food and that you value the effort that Wheatsfield makes to provide high quality food at fair prices, ones that represent the true cost of food for the consumer and the producer.

The turn of the year is often a time for readjusting and making changes. I want to let you know about some adjustments we made to member discounts for 2019. Member discounts are running at 1.61% of sales, well over the benchmark of 1% that we normally follow. This is a large amount and is an expense area that we need to control better. These changes will impact the Wellness Whenever and Member Appreciation discounts and will take effect on January 1, 2019.

First, the 2019 Wellness Whenever discount will now be available once per quarter and is good for 20% off one Wellness shopping trip on regularly priced wellness items. You will have the same freedom to use the coupon whenever you want but the frequency has been reduced to once a quarter instead of twice.

The changes to the March Appreciation Coupon involve a restructuring of the base purchase amount to receive the different tiered discounts of 10%, 15% or 20% off. As you can see from the March coupon on page 5, the 10% discount applies if you spend $149.99 and below, the 15% discount applies for purchases between $150-$299.99, and you will receive 20% off if you spend over $300. The coupon is valid for one shopping trip in March 2019 for member-owners and student members and the discount is applied to regularly priced items.

Finally, we would like to have a discussion with member-owners about continuing to compost in the store. We are committed to composting from an environmental aspect but the expense of composting in the store has gotten out of hand. We are looking for a local company or individuals that we could work with to continue composting at a cost that makes it a sustainable practice for Wheatsfield. Contact me at [email protected] or call me at 515-232-4094 if you have an interest in helping us continue to compost.

Thanks again for all you do to make Wheatsfield work. We look forward to serving you and want to exceed your expectations for what you need in a grocery store. We know you have options and we appreciate that you have stuck with us through the last year!