Mission Statement

Our aim is to:

• Create a community of actively participating members;
• Foster a healthy connection to the food we eat, the people who grow it, and the other organizations who share our beliefs;
• Co-operatively educate ourselves on environmental issues;
• Exercise political and economic control over our food;

by operating a viable co-operative food store.

Event: Sunday, February 21st 2010, 2–4pm

Come and participate in our Members’ Forum!

The goal of this meeting is to provide a space for Karma members, members of your Karma Board, and members of our committees to come together and continue important discussions from the 2009 AGM. We want to talk about our current membership policies and ideas for the future at Karma. What are your ideas about the membership structure at Karma? Whether you are a long time member or have just recently joined Karma, please join us in this discussion and share you insights and experiences.

When: Sunday, February 21st, 2–4pm
Where: Library of St. Alban’s Boys & Girls Club, 843 Palmerston Ave.

Questions? Email: BoardNews@Karmacoop.org

Ratification of Union Contract

The contract between Karma Coop and CUPE Local 1281 has now been ratified! Thanks to the members of the union, to Ken Godevenos, our negotiator, and to Harry Koster, Margaret Knittl, Arel Agnew, Howard Kaplan, and Sarah Pretty for all of their time and efforts during the negotiation process.

Minutes of the 2009 AGM

Minutes of the 2009 AGM are now available for review.

Karma Board Minutes

Minutes for the last three board meetings (one in October and two in November) have been posted. If you aren't a regular reader, they're a great source of Karma news and updates. Board Minutes

Special Bulletin

An update from the President and the Chronicle committee is contained in the Special Bulletin of the Chronicle - December 2009 [PDF].

Chronicle Deadline

The first issue of The Chronicle for the new year will be in the store on February 3rd, 2010! We welcome your submissions and encourage committees to submit reports.

Deadline for submissions is January 8, 2010.

A Message from the General Manager (19-Nov-2009)

New Cash Registers

Karma Members, we have recently purchased new SHARP cash registers and intend to have them up and running early in the new year. Our current registers, which we got in 1986, have served us well indeed. The new cash registers, however, have many time-saving features, the main one being barcode scanners. We look forward to both reduced wait times at check out and minimizing the time our staff spend using pricing guns – an outdated practice!

An important additional feature is the powerful back-office software which will give us, for the first time, useful sales reports and inventory control tools. What this means for us is more consistent and accurate pricing, and fewer out of stocks.

It is my hope that changing over to these new cash registers will not be too daunting for our member labour cashiers. We will try to keep a similar keyboard layout. Also, many steps of a normal transaction will be replaced by a single touch screen key. And with the addition of barcode scanners the new registers will likely be even easier to use. Cashiers, please look forward to quick retraining sessions in the coming weeks.

Thanks, Justin

An Important Message from the Karma Board (9-Oct-2009)

Markup Changes

Dear Karma Members,

Karma attempts to set its prices as low as possible, consistent with meeting our expenses. Unfortunately, with sales currently lower than in the past, it is necessary to raise the markup slightly. This adjustment, approved by the Board on October 5, will not solve our financial problems, but it will make a contribution towards solving them.

Over the course of October, the staff will be increasing the average markup by about 1.7% of the wholesale cost of goods. Our average markup over wholesale will rise from about 35.1% to about 36.8%. At the retail level, you will see prices rise by about 1.2%.

Some of you may be wondering, "Didn't Karma have a fixed 32.5% markup before this change?". Actually, there were already three markup categories: Karma had a base markup of 32.5%, but the produce markup was higher at 40%, and the nutritional supplements markup was higher at 34.5%. Other adjustments for discounts and roundoff raised the actual average markup to 35.1%. As part of the current change, Karma has adopted a wider range of markups on different categories of goods. The new markups are fixed in the sense that they are predictable within each category, but they are not the same in all categories. If you are interested in seeing a detailed list of the category markups, you may ask any of the staff to show you the new list.

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