We have ignition!
Prepare for countdown

by Lynne Lekakis

It’s finally happened. We have been talking about it for years! We have identified a place for our new home, and are moving ahead with planning for a new store and the future of HWFC.

At our September membership meeting (9/23), we’ll give you a sneak preview of the site with a pretty basic building on it. If all goes well as far as zoning, environmental testing, financing, business planning and professional site evaluation, in October we’ll be making the case for the purchase and asking you to vote Yes to buy the space. If we keep to the schedule, the closing will be on Halloween. Looking forward, after the proposal to purchase is approved, we’d plan to begin construction in September of ’08 with perhaps a soft opening upon completion in spring or early summer of ’09, depending on our remodeling goals, and an official kickoff for our busy season a few months later.

Concurrently, we are revisiting what we learned you’d like in a new store a few years ago, and beginning to open up the Strategic Planning process again.

What we have done so far this summer:

• Drafted a survey. We’ll be asking you for your input on what we carry and other business-related issues to help inform the new store. As of this writing, many committees are reviewing it so that we can be sure to get all the information we need. Please take the time to fill it out.

• Scheduled Quickie Marketing surveys (3 seconds in person at the store) to ensure our customer base hasn’t changed too drastically and still comes from the same 14 zip codes we identified in a previous survey.

• Preparing a business plan. The Collective Management Team (CMT) has been consulting with national coop folks for help with the financial pro forma and other financial planning issues, in connection with the Finance committee.

• Planning focus groups and public meetings. We’ll need your help, and we’d like to give everyone the opportunity to participate as much as s/he can. We have identified several issues we need to explore further. One is our meat department. The membership voted to carry only regional meat products, sustainably raised, organic if possible. Our meat currently arrives fresh and frozen. Our fish, with its own rules, is frozen or canned. We carry no meaty broths on the sales floor (although we did just hear of a regional chicken broth maker). Having a bigger store forces us to decide if we want to continue as we have been and increase the volume, or expand our offerings to national high quality brands. We’ll need to address the question of including national products that contain meat (chicken enchiladas, for example). Cooking meat in the store will also have to be addressed. Many of these decisions will not only impact “the vibe” of our store and sales, but our store layout, equipment requirements, etc. More than a few members would like us to carry microbrews and organic regional beers, which we also haven’t discussed.

Please be on the lookout for signs and emails about meetings. Try to attend, or email us if you wish to comment.

• Hired 3t Architects for the “program” (predesign) phase of our move. With our cooperation, their work will be completed by the beginning of 2008. They will deliver a document that outlines space needs, equipment needs, adjacencies, etc., including non-income generating space. A discovery retreat is part of their contract. Our Strategic Planning committee (40+/- participants, including the CMT and Board of Directors) will bring them up to speed on the work that we have done so far, and they’ll help us focus to begin looking ahead. If you would like to participate and are available on October 6, we can put you on the waiting list if an opening occurs. (Email KandL@capital.net  — we have a few openings right now, and someone always cancels if the date doesn’t work.)

• Completed Member Loan program. The Finance committee is working with the Membership committee to finalize our Member Loan materials. Not only are we going to need your opinions, we will need your financial support as well. Many co-ops around the country have flabbergasted their lenders by providing subordinate loans from members totaling over $500,000. Our goal is to provide a program in which everyone can participate. We hope that you will consider a generous loan to help us evolve into our next form.

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