On the morning of Saturday, November 4, members of the Greenbelt Consumer Cooperative, also known as the Greenbelt Co-op Supermarket (GCS), gathered in the Community Center gym for their annual membership meeting. Over 100 members were offered drinks, snacks and other products from the Co-op and its vendors.
Members heard reports from Treasurer Amy Drew, General Manager Dan Gillotte and President Bill Jones. They saw the Jim Cassels award presented to Random Unselfish Acts of Kindness. They took part in a problem-solving exercise and elected three board members, two of whom are continuing and one who is new to the board. The board and general manager then answered member questions.
Drew, Jones and board members Kim Kash, Sarah Rusk, Steven Bernheisel and Joe Timer presided over the meeting.
New Deal Café
A concern of many was GCS’s relationship with the New Deal Café, which came up several times throughout the meeting. GCS signed a two-year contract to run the food and beverage service at the Café in June of 2021 in exchange for a share of the profits. Over two years on, no profits have been earned, although Drew noted that losses have recently been getting smaller. Gillotte said being able to utilize the Café’s kitchen for some deli preparations has been a benefit to GCS. In June 2023, GCS agreed to a six-month extension, but with the Café picking up the rent. A decision about GCS’s involvement with the Café going forward will be made at its December 6 board meeting.
Treasurer’s Report
Drew, replacing longtime treasurer Timer, gave the financial report. She noted that in Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23: August 2022-July 2023) GCS’s total income of $14,262,083 is up 6 percent from last year. However, due to increased expenses, it had a net loss of $150,243 and therefore did not make a payout of dividends to members.
Major expenditures in FY23 included a new point-of-sale system that allows better tracking of individual member purchases, a new accounting system and a new deli cooler.
Three grants were received in FY23 and a fourth came in FY24, a $40,000 grant from the American Rescue Plan Act. Also, a $28,000 donation to GCS has come for FY24.
General Manager’s Report
Gillotte noted that there are monthly promotions for members and a weekly email to members who have signed up for it.
Produce Manager Teddy Lawrence has been growing relations with local farmers, making things like a locally-sourced Thanksgiving dinner possible.
GCS had been investing in physical infrastructure, employee training and employee retention initiatives.
GCS is also taking initiatives to become a better environmental steward. This includes using more sustainable receipt paper that doesn’t have a plastic core and providing handled paper bags in preparation for the municipal plastic bag ban that will go into effect January 1, 2024.
Shoplifting has been an issue prompting a policy to only allow clear backpacks into the store. But Gillotte noted that store shoplifting was mostly done by teenagers and he did not want to use too heavy a hand in responding. In contrast, the three robberies of the pharmacy were done by professionals. The best response to these robberies was to carry smaller supplies of the drugs these professionals look for.
Vested Membership Plan
Board president Jones presented GCS’s plan to move more members to vested status.
Historically, the GCS has identified two broad membership categories: (1) voting members who paid $100 in membership fees and hence can vote at membership meetings and (2) subscribing members who have paid at least $10 but less than $100 in membership fees.
A handout shared with attenders stated: “Virtually all other food co-ops have much more costly memberships than GCS. This is not because they are greedy but because they understand that fundamentally membership is OWNERSHIP, and that part of an owner’s responsibility is to properly capitalize their business. Our board and management feel like an adjustment in our membership policies will be greatly beneficial to GCS now and into the future.”
The plan is to reinforce this concept of full vested membership so that members will either be vested (having paid their full $100 membership fee) or vesting (making $10 monthly payments until they reach their full $100 membership). Only vesting and vested members will receive member rewards. Gillotte said GCS has about 2,100 fully vested voting members and about 5,000 active members total.
Board Election
Three candidates, Sarah Rusk, Steven Bernheisel and Leonard Wallace, ran for and were elected to the three available board seats. Rusk and Bernheisel are continuing members; Wallace is new to the board.
Problem-Solving
Members took part in an activity where they broke into small groups of about 10, brainstormed the biggest problems facing the Co-op in the next 10 to 20 years and then came up with a solution to one of these problems. Solutions presented included: setting aside reserves for equipment replacement, advertising on Greenbelt Road, promoting Roosevelt Center overall as a destination, advertising in the University of Maryland student paper, publishing favorable price comparisons with competing stores and drawing in younger members.
