CoG closing on October 31, 2010

End of an Era
After 3 years, the CoG will close its doors on October 31st, 2010
Since early Spring, when we lost our volume discount and were forced to significantly increase prices (knocking out the “save money” leg of our mission statement and leaving us teetering on a 2-legged stool) the CoG has suffered from 6 months of declining sales and an ever-shrinking number of working members.

Thanks to Rahel’s financial reorganization and Elisa’s hawkish management, we’ve been able to keep vendors paid and orders filled, but we have been unable to pay rent regularly. With the lease expiring on October 31st, the CoG Core Group decided, after much discussion, that it was financially irresponsible to renew the lease. This effectively ends operations of the CoG as of November 1st.

Shopping continues through October
If you’ve been working and/or shopping, please stay involved until the end of October. We will continue placing orders with UNFI, Good Stuff and our local vendors until October 17th. Take advantage of the opportunity to stock up on your favorite items through the online store or CoG-by-the-Case. From Sweet Creek’s amazing tuna to Sweet Earth’s spicy hot chocolate to Angel’s handmade spa products, we have many items that are hard to find elsewhere. And no one makes it easier to order 4 dozen rolls of toilet paper.

Shop the shelves event on October 23rd
In the last few months, we have successfully shifted slow-selling items to case-only status. This has resulted in our shelves being stocked with our most popular items. We invite all our members to come by and shop on Saturday, October 23rd and help us empty those shelves!

The Numbers
A huge part of keeping our members shopping through October is to make sure we maximize our income to pay all our vendors and settle our loans and rent. Any remaining monies will be used to pay member investments (pro-rated, of course). This will be a transparent process. We will provide an accounting statement of our final income and expenditures no later than November 30th.

Moving Forward–”Is this it?”
Some of the CoG Core Group will stay on as caretakers to manage the dissolution of assets. We will not, however, dissolve our co-op status. While October 31st will be an opportunity for everyone to walk away, we invite anyone who is interested to stay on our mailing list. We plan to hold discussions about why the model didn’t work and what might work in the future. We would like to create a presentation regarding the CoG’s closure for next year’s California Cooperative Conference.

This will not be the last communication regarding the closure. We will send updates weekly through October.

Thanks, everyone.

New Ordering Deadline

We’ve managed to shift our delivery day for both distributors to Thursday, which means that CoG members have until Wednesday at 10am to place orders.

Sweet Creek Products In Stock!

New shipment! Blueberry spread, raspberry spread, pickled jalapenos, salsa and tuna-all in eco-friendly glass jars!

Still looking for a used PC for the CoG office

We need a Windows machine to run QuickBooks accounting software.
Finance committee member Rahel Smith is centralizing all our invoicing and payments through QuickBooks, and would like to install a PC in our office. If you have a used PC you are no longer using (needs to be a 2.0 GHz Pentium 4 processor or higher), please email Rahel at accounting@thecog.org.

The CoG will be closed on Saturday July 3rd

Kaki Farms Eggs are in the House!

Kaki Farm's Eggs

$6/dozen Regular, $7.20/dozen Green

Info about the eggs from Kaki Farms:
* The chickens are pasture raised which means that they live free on the farm we don’t cage them.
* The chickens feed themselves with whatever they find on the farm. Whenever there is leftover fruit or vegetables we don’t sell, we give them those as well.
* The farm is certified organic so whatever they find is organic.
* We do not clip wings or beaks.

Coffee and raisins in stock

As of 1pm on Friday, April 23rd all flavors of Equal Exchange are in stock. Delicious raisins from Farmer and the Dale are in as well.

Still working on UNFI account

We are still negotiating with UNFI for a new account (see post below). We hope to have the account set in time for a delivery on March 31st. We’ll let you know as soon as we get the account active, and at that time all the back orders should be filled.

Our shelves are a bit bare, for a short period

Unfortunately, we did not receive the delivery from our biggest distributor (UNFI-United Natural Foods, Inc.) on March 10th and 17th. Since our start, we have been combining buying power with People’s Grocery in Oakland, buying products on their account. For a few reasons, this relationship has come to an end, and we are working with UNFI to establish our own account. Their have been a few snags in this process, leading to our missing two weeks’ of orders. (It should be noted that we have always paid our UNFI bills on time, and the snags have been bureaucratic, not financial.)

So, when will the orders next be delivered? We should have our new account established in order to complete the order for next week (March 25th). Keep your eyes out here, we’ll let you know when our next order is placed.

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry at the COG: A Roman Potluck Feast in Honor of Ceasar’s Last Meal

Beware the Ides of March….but be eat, drink, and be merry the day before! Please join us for a COG Super Second Sunday and a Roman potluck feast!

Sunday, March 14, 5pm to 7pm Come shop starting at 4pm!

Bring:

• An Italian-inspired dish!
• A funny or interesting quote related to Ceasar or the Romans!
• Mosaic-supplies for kids and adults – magazines, paper, scissors, and glue!

COG: The Cooperative Grocery 1450 67th St. (at Hollis), Emeryville