We’re still open!

Reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated. We apologize for neglecting our blog and you, dear readers, for so long. In consolation, here is a long entry.

In upcoming posts, I’d like to talk through some numbers and logistics, which are what I (Jered) know best. But right now I want to relate some personal experience of “Open” Produce and address what the “open” part means to me. First the news.

The store has come a long way since March. Foremost, it’s stayed open. But it’s also grown up a lot. Through spring and early summer, we expanded our hours, increased our dry goods selection and continued to refine our eclectic merchandise mix. Through the summer into fall, we tore out the stage at the front and moved the till there, added and re-planned a lot of shelves, completely changed the layout to open up the center of the store, and built our own point-of-sale system with a barcode scanner so we can gather accurate sales data. Recently, a local carpenter rebuilt our stock room shelving to accommodate our expanding inventory. We’ve gotten much better at ordering, and have begun to connect with other local businesses, small distributors and farms. We’re also working on case ordering and gift basket programs which we’re hoping will take off.

Now back to my story.

Just after his last post in March, Open Produce co-founder Steven joined me and some other friends in Rocky Mountain national park for a couple of days’ well-deserved rest. As we hiked through the spring melt, Steven told us about the daily challenges facing the store. We listened in fascination and sometimes horror as he talked through a dizzying litany of permits and regulations, distributors and wholesalers, credit terms, unexpected setbacks and improvements he knew he had to make. All the while, I kept thinking to myself I could hardly believe he was actually doing this.

You know that phase where your friends start to pair off or get married? Or how it feels when the first friend’s kid pops out, or someone buys the first house? It feels like a page turning somewhere on a giant calendar. This is it: this is Real Life. We’ve Grown Up. My crazy friend opened a small storefront grocery store, and half a year in, was stressed out and knee deep in debt… why?

“It’s so close,” he told us. “And I have so many ideas. If I had no ideas left, I’d give up. But it’s so close!”

Now that I’ve been living in Hyde Park and helping with the store directly for a while (since July), I want Open Produce to work because I think it’s a great thing for the neighborhood. Many loyal customers seem to feel the same way, as they’ve dealt with our mistakes and growing pains and keep coming back; I’ve actually seen people change their meal plans to buy something in stock when we’ve messed up and run out of something else. And as a business, it is tough, but the numbers do look viable.

Even though we no longer put wholesale costs on index cards we constantly have to change, I think the “open” part of Open Produce is what I and many customers like so much about it. I see the store as a conversation within Hyde Park. People walk in and know they can talk with us. Mostly we talk about what to eat, but also we talk about how much to pay for it, what kind of transportation to use, and what hours are reasonable to walk around at. The idea of being “open”, to me, is that a business can and should conduct this kind of dialogue directly, honestly, and responsively.

For example, should we sell animal products? Personally, I’m vegan–the kind of vegan who likes to eat plants. But then a lot of vegans in Hyde Park want alternative animal products, so we carry Tofurky, Tofutti, temptation ice cream and so on. Most people want milk and eggs, so we carry the best local, humanely grown milk and eggs we can find for the right price. Some people don’t have much to live on and need cheap options, so we try to carry cheap things that aren’t vile. And many, many people have asked us, time and again, for meat products like tuna fish or deli sliced lunch meat. So sure, we’ll find the best stuff we can get for the right price, and we’ll sell it.

I guess in doing this, we compromise somewhat, but only so far. We’re not proposing to sell Oscar Meyer baloney or Smithfield ham–or at least, I find those revolting and would loudly object. But the dialogue exists.

Personally, my goal as an outside consultant and friend of the business is to help make it sustainable. At the moment, what’s keeping it together is a lot of hard work which frankly deserves more than the business can pay, and that’s not sustainable. Our ordering manager Becca juggles all the requests and ideas, and deals with dozens of distributors to get us the right products and set the right prices. Owner Steven lines up the store’s very complicated finances and operations and also helps with ordering and improvements. Owner Andrew is currently working to reduce some of our debt faster. And clerks Mark, Annie, and David put up with days that are alternately boring and unreasonably chaotic. We all stock a lot of shelves.

I’d like to help get the store to a place where it’s financially more stable by helping it to grow, and to help smooth out some of the operational chaos by building better IT and practical solutions. Hopefully we will get a chance to talk more about it!