Natural Food Retailers Association

Ron Sjoquist, the General Manager for Good Harvest Market in Pewaukee, MI, has used financial comparison tools for years in previous positions with Whole Foods and conventional grocery. Good Harvest Market was one of three INFRA members that elected to be part of the CoopMetrics (CM) pilot group when we were preparing to launch the program, along with New Leaf and Good Food Store. I recently interviewed Ron on the program to get a better understanding of how he uses it in his store.

Who in your association looks at CM data? 

Myself, our owner Joe Nolan, and I’ve used it with department heads as well. I try to get everyone in my company involved in looking at data. I’m used to Whole Foods where we had 140 stores to compare to and pricing points were pretty much the same. When Good Harvest Market first started with the program there were only a few stores involved in CM. INFRA member participation has grown since and this has made the program more useful. The more stores that get involved, the better for everyone.

Can you comment on what CM does to create standardized reporting and like comparisons when working with a diverse group of retailers like INFRA that isn’t as standardized as Whole Foods, for example?

Chains, like Whole Foods, use this type of data all the time. This is a major tool for large chains. When I was training grocery managers, I could point out to them right away that their margin was 1.5 % lower than other locations. I believe CM will do for all of us as well. When you see an INFRA store that has great margins you can identify and talk to that store about how they are hitting this margin and what they are doing differently from your store to achieve it. When you’re only comparing internally you really don’t know if your hitting all of the little things that make money in your department. We’ve got a lot of young people in our stores who can’t identify that on their own, who don’t have the experience.  This program can help with supply costs, bank fees, credit card fees, etc. It can put you in touch with your fellow peers and help you identify whom you might want to learn more from.

Would you say you use CM as an educational tool in your store?

I use it mostly with staff that has not had experience in financial analysis.

What did you do for financial analysis before CM?

Well, I would compare our company to Whole Foods because I knew what the standard was for them and I knew what it was in the conventional world, so I used that experience and made adjustments according to our store.

Does CM offer benefits that you weren’t getting comparing to Whole Foods and conventional? 

Yes, the biggest one is the real financial data of your peers, obviously Whole Foods and conventional do not share that information. We, as INFRA Members, can look at the whole picture with CM, real sales, etc.

Is CM worth the cost to participate?

If you can find one mistake or one thing to improve on in your store you’ve easily paid for it for the year. When I first got on to CM, we identified some stores in INFRA who were getting much lower credit card fees. I called up those members and asked them how they did it, who they were working with, and we made the change. Same with food stamps, we started accepting food stamps because of the effect we saw in CM and now that’s between 1-2% of our business. 

What sort of approach do you take to CM when you sit down to use the company cube? Do you have an idea of what you’re looking for or do you just dive into the data? 

I usually have a plan. If I have an issue with a department, than I’m going to go look at their data specifically. I often use it to plan out my week, what am I going to do. Where am I having an issue right now? Where are supplies costs getting high? Is this comparable with other INFRA members?

How have you implemented what you’ve learned from CM in your store?

We’re in constant communication with each other in our store amongst our departments, whether it be about customer service or about making money. Making money is a huge part of our job and our department manager’s jobs. CM provides us with the support to improve that part of our jobs.

One of the big things I look at is sales trends. When people get their new data in I look at how we’re doing in comparison. Last year, that was a big thing to be paying attention to. I could quickly go into CM and see if our sales were down as much as everyone else’s or if we weren’t reflecting the trends of the industry. Now this year we’re sky rocketed in sales and I like to see if that’s the case for everyone else or if we’re doing something unique.

How has working with the CM company been for you?

It’s been great for us. We didn’t have any issues. It’s a great tool, we just need to get more stores on it.

Can you comment on the time you spend using this program? Many members are concerned about it wasting their time. 

You have to have a specific purpose when you sit down use the tools. When I have a specific purpose I can stay concentrated and then it’s not a big deal. There is so much information available through these tools it’s easy to get overwhelmed by it. Have a plan and don’t spend more than 15-30 minutes on it at a time. You’re looking for trends, that is the most important thing to remember. It has made us perform better as a company, therefore it’s worth the time spent. It makes us a better retailer and keeps us from remaining isolated and assuming we’re doing everything right.