Financial Report

By Elka Malkis, Financial Manager

The third quarter of Fiscal Year 2005 (January through March) is over and what a wonderful time it was. Once more I can report recordbreaking sales, stable expenses, and healthy profits. Sales for the quarter were $7,676,629, an increase of almost 14% over last year. Perhaps due to the mild winter, we had on average more customers per day in the store than we have seen since the summer of 2003.

Our Gross Margin for the third quarter was 36.6%. This, and all other percentages rattled off here, refer to the number in question as a percent of total Sales. In this case, Sales are 100%, and the Gross Margin is just over a third of that, at 36.6%. Gross Margin is retailspeak for the money we have left after paying our suppliers for the groceries on the shelves. From this Gross Margin, we pay all other expenses of running the store.

Our Payroll expense was 24.4% of Sales, or $1,868,916. Our Building costs were 2.3% of Sales. Other expense categories are Operating (4.2%), Administration (.7%), Governance (1.4%), and Promotions (.7%). We ended the quarter with 5.1% profit or $391,131.

Our Balance Sheet is also very strong. We have a comfortable cushion of money to cover our daily cash flow. We have been able to replace equipment as it gets old and worn out, including a new telephone system, some new cases in the Produce Department, a new pastry case, and a much needed remodeling of one of our upstairs offices. We have no long-term debt. Members can look forward to another patronage refund this fall. If by chance anyone reading this report is not yet a member, I'll let you in on something that should not be a secret: last year members got a refund averaging 96.9% of their one-time $80.00 stock purchase. So why haven't you joined yet?