Natural Food Retailers Association

For me the best measurement of success for INFRA is in member participation. The annual east regional share group meeting held at the end of June in Northampton, MA, gave me a great sense that we are moving in the right direction as an organization.  Bud Stockwell and his team at Cornucopia Natural Foods did a fabulous job of hosting 20 individuals representing 14 member stores, of which five were first time attendees.At the opening of our time together members shared their desired outcomes:

• Knowledge of people here – peer review; best practices
• Learn more about the POS systems w/tech support, integration, & reports that stores are using
• Workflow Process
• New Ideas for Business
• Best Practices – incentives, staff rewards – motivate, reward, communication
• New Ways of doing new things – staff care
• Collaborative relationships – community and therapy
• Explore technology options
• Industry/ Product Standards – issues and influence
• Training

This group of members spent two days together in lively conversation on these operational topics and with in-depth presentations on our focus topic of employee benefits and incentives. Members presented what they each do in their organizations to provide creative incentives for employees along with how they evaluate and measure employee performance, wage scales and benefits. John Pittari and Patricia Rector from New Morning presented an extensive objective-based employee evaluation and wage scale package they have recently completed in their operations. This provided an excellent paradigm for many of the members attending. Other inspiring employee incentive ideas included sustainability points/bonus systems, articulation and illustration to staff from management of what the true value of their compensation package is with the business and using CoopMetrics as an objective goal setting tool for the team.
We spent time reviewing all INFRA’s programs, viewed a draft version of a training video on GMO’s and touched on CoopMetrics. Taking advantage of having this group of members together and in preparation for the board of directors upcoming planning session, I asked the question, “What is INFRA to you?” Members responded with:

•A voice in the industry
• Retaining our value in the marginalization of the industry
• Platform for helping with structure, sustainable operations and competitive positioning
• Influence on important issues like fair trade and sustainability, taking new ownership in shaping the industry we founded
• Price advantage; leveraging purchasing

These sessions along with an extensive peer review of Cornucopia Natural Foods filled our time. A new exercise that we incorporated at the end was for each attending member to state one idea or best practice they would be taking back to their own operations. When we meet next, members will report back to the group the successes, challenges and outcomes of implementing their identified best practice.

To me, the measure of a successful share group was illustrated by the group’s desire to meet again in six months versus a year and, upon everyone’s return to their individual operations, the uptick in the use of the listserv. This surge indicated an increased knowledge and trust built directly between members. The e-mail I received from Bud Stockwell really nicely summed up members’ satisfaction of our two days in Northampton, MA.
“I real feel so pumped by last week. It was a great session. I had hoped to get one good idea and instead I have about 10. I have been dreaming about just such a group as INFRA for over 25 years. One that includes best practice sharing, operational support and pooling our purchasing power. But most of all, a group that captures the spirit of why many of us got into the business. It's so great to see this group so strong and growing."