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We give new meaning to the phrase “Co-ops Rock”

Our stores, employees and shoppers survived the great quake of 2010. During the excitement this weekend, you folks all performed admirably, calmly doing the things that needed to be done to keep everyone safe. Both stores suffered loss of product due to the 6.5 trembler that hit on Saturday. As the quake was centered off of Eureka, that store had a larger amount of damage. Also, the Eureka store lost power during the quake, which made clean-up efforts problematic, but a determined crew came in Sunday morning to get the job done. Arcata was able to open on time Sunday morning and Eureka was open around 10:45.

Thankfully there were no injuries and very limited damage to the stores. If you have not yet seen the footage from the Arcata camera, check it out on our website www.northcoastco-op.com. It is also posted on YouTube (7,200 viewings as of this morning) and CNN, shown on several Bay Area TV stations, on the Today Show, locally, etc.

I really want to thank all our workers for their efforts in cleaning up the stores. At both stores it was messy and dangerous work, and we appreciate getting things put back together quickly, efficiently and safely. In Eureka particularly there is still a lot of work getting damaged merchandise sorted, cleaned and back out on the shelves.

 How did the earthquake affect the Co-op financially? Unfortunately it will have a significant effect. We don’t yet have a total estimated loss but there were certainly thousands of dollars worth of merchandise that fell from shelves and were destroyed. The Eureka dairy cooler warmed up to a temperature level that required us to destroy virtually all of our dairy stock (probably about $15,000 at our cost). And we were closed for just about the equivalent of one full day (about 14 hours) between the two stores. While the loss is certainly significant, our sales have been strong the last few months and we will be able to handle the impact reasonably well.

 After an incident like this, it is helpful to look at processes and procedures that could be improved. Overall I think that things went well and everyone handled the situation well. The Management team discussed some ideas that might help, including:

• Reviewing and updating and improving emergency protocol books
• Updated telephone contact lists including managers and service providers
• Add items to emergency kits like “gas sniffers”, headlamps, rechargeable flashlights, transistor radios
• Secure pallet racks with bolts for shelves
• Training for all in emergency procedures
• Have plywood, 2×4, tarps and duct tape on hand in case of broken windows

If you have any ideas based upon your experience this weekend, please let us know and we’ll work on collecting ideas and implementing those that make sense.

 David Lippman, Co-op General Manager

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