A Healthy Deli, Part 2: Evaluating the food service department
Tomlin’s on-site evaluation of the deli department and the existing conditions helps to set a baseline for what is working and what systems need to be adjusted or created. Her experience both in kitchens and as a general manager (GM) herself gives her the ability to translate what she sees to what the GM needs to learn to see. “It can be small things that tell you big things. Is silverware stocked? If not, that means the deli (staff) hasn’t come out to refresh the salad bar in a while,” Tomlin explains.
Caring and Connection: Examples from history show the heart of cooperatives
The feeling of safety and belonging are also common needs and aspirations. It is why solidarity is a core cooperative value. A cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and/or cultural needs and/or aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise. —International Cooperative Alliance Statement of the Cooperative Identity
Retail Grocery Trends Facing Leaders Right Now
Heading into 2024, grocery retailers need to understand the trends they face in today's marketplace. Being a leader in an independent grocery store has always been difficult. Our business model itself is brutal, and the competitive landscape is fierce. Adding to the difficult business climate, the pandemic brought with it additional crises—many of which we are still navigating as business leaders—that intensified the pressure on independent grocers’ performance.
General Manager Support for Deli Departments
Columinate consultant Dana Tomlin specializes in supporting deli departments and making sure general managers have the knowledge and confidence to oversee successful programs and systems long-term. Learning the complexities, language, rhythms, and pitfalls within your deli can make a huge difference in performance and consistency. Deli departments need to put out product in abundance and quality that meets customer expectations across staffing changes, daily chaos, and product availability.
Columinate Learn: Applying Principle 5 in the Digital Divide
Ready for digital literacy Co-ops have a lot of teaching to do. To build a cooperative ecosystem with knowledgeable and invested stakeholders aware of what it is they have become a part of, it takes a lot of orienting, sharing, demonstrating, and educating. A cooperative can fail if it does not consistently apply Co-op Principle 5: Education, Training, and Information. Lack of strong education systems within a co-op culture can slowly erode its core.
What We’ve Been Learning About Creative Destruction
Within our organizations, we spend much time trying to do more and add on to things, in an effort to feel like we’re making progress. We have more money, let’s hire more staff! Not enough people from the neighborhood are shopping, let’s offer a new benefit. We got in trouble for not carrying an East African staple in our grocery store, now we have so many that we are a new competitor to the East African market on the other side of town. We add, add, and add.
Board Training Evolves: Enter CBLD Academy
This fall, consultants at Columinate will launch CBLD Academy, an on-demand learning loaded with revitalized and accessible content. Cooperators can expect three courses within the “Foundation Series” at the outset, with more courses planned to round out this base of co-op training. “It's a natural and a march towards progress in how we provide a framework for learning about the co-op business model,” said Leslie Watson, governance at Columinate.
Manager on Contract: A Fit for Co-ops and for Chris Morris
Chris Morris, manager on contract with Columinate, emanates traveling energy. Decades of experience with neighborhood grocery stores and a zest for adventure guides him to co-op communities in transition. Morris currently shares his operational expertise near the coastal waves of Ocean Beach in San Diego, California, as Interim Store Manager. With this engagement, he's supporting the co-op's general manager, Sarela Bonilla, to bridge leadership gaps, navigate the high-volume holiday season, and assist with some exciting store updates they’ve been working toward. Where his road may wind next is open for discussion, keeping energetic and optimistic Morris content.
Providing Management Leadership When Help Is Needed: Matt Hartz at People’s Food Co-op Rochester
As a long-time general manager, Matt Hartz felt the support and guidance of those who believed and invested in him. Mentorship and support of other leaders is often the unseen, but critical, work of the cooperative movement. We can run grocery stores and collect retail and owner-engagement experiences. But what underpins and perpetuates purpose-based organizations such as co-ops? A commitment to the professional development of those with whom we surround ourselves. Helping other cooperative leaders grow and develop truly makes Hartz thrive, and it is his key focus in his new role at Columinate.
Providing Management Leadership When Help Is Needed: Chris Dilley at Detroit People’s Food Co-op
The Detroit People's Food Co-op is getting ready to open and has contracted with Columinate's Chris Dilley as Manager on Contract. Build-out in the co-op's new facility is nearing completion, with opening now planned for early 2024. The new Detroit Food Commons facility, a partnership between Detroit Black Food Security Network and Develop Detroit, will house the Detroit People's Food Co-op as well as a community kitchen operated by the Black Food Security Network.