Financial Report

By Elka Malkis, Financial Manager

Our Sales for the first quarter of fiscal year 09 (July through Sept 08) were $9,878,754. This was more than $900,000 higher than last year. Warehouse sales were up 12.2%; retail sales were up 9.2%; online sales were up 278.6% over last year.

Our average transaction amount per customer (retail) was $30.62 this quarter (up from $29.70 last year) and the average customer count was 2734 (up from 2628 last year). Therefore, in this quarter, basket size accounted for 5% of sales increase and additional customers accounted for 4%.

Take a look at the chart showing Sales and Expenses for the 1st quarter. Sales are shown in the tallest cylinder, the one on the far left. All the other cylinders, if stacked as one, would equal Sales. They represent all our expenses, listed in the order of our Income Statement, until you reach the final two cylinders, which show other income and net income.

Sales represent 100%. Everything else, all our expenses, are shown as a percent of Sales. The Cost of the Goods we sold was our largest expense, at 65.5% of Sales. Next is Payroll (wages, benefits, taxes) coming in at 22.6% this quarter. That leaves 11.9%, or just under 12 cents out of every dollar in Sales to pay for everything else and earn a profit for the store.

Our Building expenses are pretty low; that's because we own the building and have paid off the mortgage. They accounted for 2.4% of Sales.

Operating expenses are 5.3%. One reason this is a bit higher is because this category has the largest number of different expenses. Another reason is that the fuel costs incurred by delivering from our warehouse show up here, and I'm sure you remember that fuel (diesel) was rather costly this summer.

Admin, Governance, and Promotions is the next cylinder, and clocks in at 2.7% of Sales. We show member discounts here, along with the newsletter, the cost of the annual audit, office supplies and more.

We set aside $60,000 for 1st quarter estimated taxes, .6% of Sales.

Other Income shows interest earned and other extras such as delivery and cross docking fees from the warehouse. Since this is money in (income) as opposed to money out (expense), this column extends below the baseline.

Our Net Income this quarter was $95,000. Added to Other Income it comes to 3.7% of Sales.