Business - Business News

POSTED: Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009

After tough start with second store, Community Food Co-op optimistic about future

Opening a second grocery store during the recession turned out to be a difficult period for the Community Food Co-op, but store officials are optimistic they have survived the worst.

The co-op opened its Cordata store in January, a time when business communities across the country were feeling the aftershock of the financial meltdown the previous fall. Not long after the opening, the co-op starting scaling back its sales expectations, adjusting for both stores, including its downtown store at Holly and Forest streets.

In the most recent co-op newsletter, board chair Steven Harper noted they had to reduce staff throughout the organization by 40 positions, or about 15 percent of the workforce. They also enlisted the help of the National Cooperative Grocers Association Development Cooperative to develop better business practices to adjust to the current climate.

With expense reductions in place, sales at both stores have been improving the past five weeks, said Jon Edholm, the co-op's interim general manager. One factor has been the students returning to Whatcom Community College and Western Washington University, helping both the downtown and Cordata stores.

Through normal attrition, the co-op has been able to offer most of the laid-off employees a position in the organization.

"It is encouraging to see sales doing better while becoming more efficient," Edholm said. "We've been through a lot, but I feel we're at a good level from an operations standpoint."

With permit delays, which included a building moratorium in that area, the Cordata store took longer than expected to open. Once it did, sales did not hit original projections. The recession was one factor, but Harper said they noticed some trends that were different from surveys they took before the store opened.

"We expected more of our current members that shop at our downtown store to move over to Cordata, but that didn't happen right away," he said.

Along with the slow start at the Cordata store, the downtown store had to adjust to road construction taking place along Forest Street. Edholm estimates the downtown store saw a 5 percent drop in sales because of the challenge getting to the store during construction.

Reflecting on what's been done to adjust, Harper said one difference a cooperative has from conventional stores is balancing the needs of its member-owners. In making changes, they wanted to make sure it didn't affect efforts to serve the community, while continuing to be a viable business.

"We felt it was important to be upfront about this (financial situation), so we addressed it in the newsletter," Harper said. "We did that hoping members would step up and support us, and the response has been good."

The co-op is now heading into its 40th year, and Harper and Edholm expect slow, steady growth in the coming months as they work on adding new members.

"One thing we don't want to do is take our eyes off the ball," Harper said. "We'll still continue to reach out to the community, while continuing to hone our business practices."

OTHER TIDBITS

• At 310 W. Holly St., near Rocket Donuts, a permit has been approved by the city to convert a former antique store into a hair salon.

• The Sugar Shack will have a grand opening celebration at its new space at 3201 Northwest Ave., Suite 4. The Sugar Shack offers a variety of skin and body care services, including facials, massages, manicures and pedicures. The celebration will be from noon to 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5.