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How is the new store doing?
Or, why is the parking lot so crowded?
By Kenna S. Eaton, General Manager, from the December
2005 Newsletter
Well, the title tells it all in a nutshell: the store is doing
great and thus the parking lot is full to over flowing! Well, you
probably wanted a little more detail and so here goes. Store sales
have grown 55 percent over the same time period a year ago. This
is great news considering we needed 40 percent by my projections
to repay our debts.
Of course, such an increase brings with it certain
challenges (such as parking) and the staff is working extra hard
to ensure we have enough product on the shelves and enough employees
to make and serve our great food. By the way the kitchen now has
almost 50 employees and the rest of the store 40, up from a total
of 45 employees a year ago. We are definitely running to keep up
with ourselves, so an extra thank you for your patience as we get
things figured out.
While the final tallies are not yet in for the
project, we have some preliminary figures for you. As of November
8th we had raised $1,091,416 in loans, donations and cash on hand.
We used the money as follows:
Equipment: $394,981
Improvements: $626,562
Promotions fundraising: $13,220
Old debts: $72,272
Grand total: $1,107,036
So, the parking lot is full, as you noticed, and many of those
cars do belong to shoppers at the Co-op, however we are still challenged
by folks who think this is an open downtown parking lot! Arggh!
We have added extra signage so it shouldn’t be a mystery
who can park here anymore. We will re-paint the parking lot in
the spring to remind everyone that these spots are for “Co-op
Shoppers Only,” in the meantime, please remember parking
is for while shopping at the Co-op only. We have volunteers monitoring
the lot and plans for improving the boundaries & green space
in the spring to greater instill that sense of “private lot.”
We are also still working on the bike racks.
We wanted to support a local manufacturer and perhaps save some money,
but unforeseen complications have made this take much longer then
we anticipated (much like the water system) so “Thank-you” for
your patience and understanding and for your co-operation.
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