Greetings From The Aisles of HPC - February, 2010

—by Matt Hass, General Manager

Mayfest

Winter always seems to bring strong opinions out from folks; people either love it or hate it. If you are in the latter camp, it should be good news to you that we have already ordered our plants for the Mayfest sale. Surely spring can’t be that far away!

Quarterly Inventory

New Year’s Eve we had our second try at quarterly inventory. It was harder to line up volunteers, but we got a crew to come in, and finished everything aside from a few odds and ends. We are still fine tuning our process, but we are becoming more comfortable with this change in our operations. A big “THANK YOU” to everyone who came in to help out.

New Space Heater

In cold-related news, the space heater for the back stockroom quit working in December. We had many employees and volunteers working in the back room with their winter coats on! The old heater was estimated to be fifty years old, but we now have a brand new unit to carry us through the cold months.

Gluten-free Products

In store news, Marcia Hanson has been having fun putting together a gluten-free area next to the bulk coffee bins. You won’t find every gluten-free product that we carry in this section; they just wouldn’t all fit! Gluten-free crackers remain in the cracker section; other items require refrigeration or are frozen. We hope this helps customers with gluten tolerance problems.

Plastic Bag Recycling

As you enter the store, you will notice our new plastic bag recycling station. The bin was donated by volunteer members Ann and Kevin Commers. We appreciate their generous gift.

PPL Industries picks up the bags and takes them to Trex Inc., which makes deck lumber out of recycled plastic and wood. Please take note of the material guidelines posted. More information can be found at www.itsinthebagmn.org.

Cafe Para La Vida Digna

For folks who enjoy the coffee from Cafe Para La Vida Digna, they are working on a project that might interest you. In an effort to provide more money up front to the growing communities in Chiapas, they are starting a coffee CSA. Join the CSA and pick up your coffee monthly at the co-op, just as you would a box of veggies from a local CSA farm. Find out how to join at www.zapatistacoffee.com. This is a volunteer organization and all of the money goes to fund education and medical projects in Chiapas.

Financial Data

December sales were very strong. Our net income for December was $31,616.18, which was outstanding because we had been operating at a negative for October/November. We finished the second quarter with a net operating income of –$6998.56. It’s hard to not emphasize the effect that the Raymond Ave. closure had on us as a business.