Spring is just around the corner! What an exciting time to feel refresh and rebirth. If you’ve fallen off the wagon for those New Year’s resolutions you made, now is a great time to revisit your goals. Spring is a much more suitable time for cleansing, be it of our bodies or our homes. Many of us will find ourselves in “spring cleaning” mode, sifting through our belongings and making choices about what is really important to keep in our lives. If you need some motivation, check out our spring cleaning tips on pages 11 & 12 and be sure to attend our free DIY Green Cleaning class hosted by Women for a Healthy Environment on April 3rd (more info is on the back page).

At the co-op, we found ourselves in cleaning mode as we adapted to changes in available space in The Factory building. In the past few weeks, we vacated some admin office space on the second floor of the building and removed back stock and storage items from the former Gemini Theater. We are working hard to find creative solutions to the ever-present squeeze we feel in our available footprint here at 7516 Meade Street, and hope these changes do not disrupt our ability to serve you, our members and customers. And speaking of serving you, we’d like to say thank you to the many co-op members who took the time to complete our bi-annual member survey. Results will be available in the coming weeks, and we are truly looking forward to evaluating your feedback so we can learn how to best meet your needs.

We are also thrilled that we got online shopping and home delivery service off the ground in mid-February. If you are pressed for time, not really in the mood for our parking lot, or maybe want to send a few of your favorite healthy foods to a friend, check out the online store at www.mercato.com.

At the end of February, we participated in the TRUE Zero Waste Symposium hosted by PA Resources Council at Phipp’s Conservatory. It was an enlightening day-long session that challenged us to rethink waste in terms of resources and find ways to close the loop on waste streams.

The co-op’s financial position remains strong, with second quarter sales growth of 5.3%. In accordance with the co-op’s agreed upon gain share memorandum, we were able to issue a gain share to co-op staff based on earning for the quarter ending December 2018.

We hope to see you at our popular Bulk Sale on April 14th. Normally we host this sale on the Sunday before Earth Day; this year, that date happens to be Easter Sunday, so we’ve moved the sale up by one week. We love this celebration of zero waste shopping. It is typically one of our biggest sale dates of the year!