Dollars and Sense

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all enjoyed a day of great food and good company. If the most strenuous thing you have to do today is read this blog entry, all the better! This post will be a bit like the Thanksgiving spread I faced at my uncle’s house yesterday; so much good stuff to choose from, so I settled for a little bit of everything. A cornucopia of thoughts, if you will; feel free to chime in, disagree with, or comment on any of them.

We’ve been talking a lot about financial issues lately. This makes sense on any given day—we are a business, after all. It makes even more sense right now, because we need to raise enough money to finance our relocation. What might not make sense are the documents and terms surrounding that discussion: pro formas, cash flow, margins, overhead, profit and loss statements, sources and uses budgets. I majored in Finance at UIUC, and this stuff doesn’t always make sense to me. From the active posting on the blog in recent weeks, it’s clear that it makes sense to some of you, and—even better—that you’re willing to jump in and clarify when it doesn’t.

I would encourage all of you to go to the meeting on December 6th from 6:30 to 8 PM at the IDF. We’re going to discuss the finances of the relocation, including how much it will cost and where the money is going to come from. There will be numbers thrown out there, but you don’t need to be a Finance major to decipher them; Jacqueline makes sure they are presented in a really accessible way. You’ll find that this talk is pretty interesting, and it is vitally important to the relocation…and it actually does make sense.

On a related $$ note: what I do know a lot about is the money I spend, and I’m guessing that most of you keep close tabs on that as well. Happily, in our store, we get to vote with our dollars. Most recently, I’ve decided to say goodbye to my toothpaste (Tom’s of Maine) and lip balm (Burt’s Bees) because those companies were bought out (by Colgate and Clorox, respectively). While part of me dreads the next sad product update in the Bytes, I’m really happy to have that information delivered to my inbox, and it’s important to me to be able to allocate where I spend my money.

I’m thinking about this specifically in response to a recent member comment that we now have many more “highly priced, highly packaged items” in the store than we used to. Ben Galewsky wrote a great response, and you can read both comments here. He posited that a range of products is necessary to meet the needs of the entire co-op community and that any concerns over product selection could be broached to Jacqueline and the staff. I would agree—our staff is incredibly receptive to member comments and suggestions. Don’t leave off talking with Jaqueline, Jessy, Gladys or Tricia, but remember that where we spend our money speaks, too.

I’m also thinking about this with regards to equity and member loans. If I want my dollars to talk, then I want them to say loud and clear that I support the co-op. I’ve worked many a Saturday morning doing outreach at the Urbana Farmer’s Market, and I recently had the privilege of working the co-op booth at the Parkland Community College Health Fair. One of the most common questions I’ve heard is “How much does it cost to be a member?” In most cases, I barely have a chance to say “$30” before the inquirer jumps in with “Per week? Per month? Per year?” They are astounded when I tell them it is a one-time investment. Really, being a member doesn’t cost anything; it’s an investment that is fully refundable. Our equity level is the lowest you will find in any co-op, and it hasn’t been raised in over a decade. I guess I’m willing to pay more in equity, or try to make that minimum member loan, in order to see our co-op through the relocation. Makes sense to me.