We did it! After weeks of non-stop construction, unexpected store closures, reduced hours, and lots and lots of work, we have refreshed, renewed, and repaired the Co-op’s floors! What a journey it’s been.
The Co-op’s floors have long been a sore spot for owners, employees, and vendors. Years of hard use and temporary fixes had made them an unreliable and unattractive, and the time had come to get down and fix them up.
As you can see, our old floors went beyond “having character”—they were a decaying mess that actually impeded our ability to work efficiently (pushing heavily-loaded carts of groceries over those gaps wasn’t fun!). It required a huge amount of labor, from Co-op staff as well as our floor repair crew, to get everything fixed up.
The weekend before June 13th kicked off the real beginning of this process. Of course, months of preparation and planning had preceded this eventful weekend. But on June 10th, we got ready to repair the back of the store. It may not have been obvious to customers, but a lot went into this: Co-op staff had to remove everything from our backstock area. Computers and desks, cases of drinks, boxes of groceries, even our ceiling-high shelves were disassembled and put into storage! We didn’t have a moving crew do this: it was all done by Co-op employees.
Our usually crammed-full backstock area, emptied for repairs.
The backstock floor repairs went quickly and actually wrapped up a little ahead of schedule! With the concrete floors of the back of the store now cleaned, ground-down to be wonderfully smooth and level, and coated with a fresh new finish, we were ready to start on the front of the store!
(Of course, we had to start rebuilding and restocking the rear of the store while also preparing the front. It’s been a long month.)
Beneath the floors…is the sub-floor. And the sub-floor needed work. (This photo takes place AFTER the sub-floors had been repaired)
Our carefully laid plans for remodeling the sales floor needed revision once we came face-to-face with the sub-floors.
Another photo showing where the sub-floor had been replaced by our repair crew.
Decades of under-investment had left the sub-floors of the Co-op in sorry shape. We gave the go-ahead to the floor repair crew to replace everything necessary to make sure that the Co-op’s sub-floors, and everything that relies on them, were in the best-possible condition.
Good work takes time. Our original plan called for the Co-op to be closed for two days, while we fixed up the front of the store. We were closed for four. We had originally expected the entire front of the store to be finished in about a week—it actually took two weeks. The delays were unexpected but necessary. The floor crew worked hard, six days a week, to tackle a job that had suddenly ballooned in scale. Co-op staff gamely adjusted their sleep and work schedules to adjust to the new reality.
And the new reality sure did impact those sleep and work schedules. The employees of your Co-op were incredible during these weeks of construction! Some folks came in extra early, many hours before the store opened, to prepare for the floor crews by boxing up product, disassembling shelving, and clearing space.
The front of the store, cleared of shelves and product by Co-op employees for repairs.
During the days we were open, Co-op employees worked through the noise and distraction of construction, stocking (the remaining) shelves, fetching products from the back, and keeping the store running during these totally unique circumstances.
After the construction crews finished a section of the floors, another shift of Co-op staff would come in overnight to rebuild those shelves and restock that product for the next day. Schedules sometimes shifted on short notice, as certain sections of the floor unexpectedly took even longer to finish—everyone had to stay fluid and flexible as the situation demanded. Through it all, though, everyone kept a good attitude. And, at long last, the floor project was finished!
We get goofy after midnight.
Everyone at the Co-op is delighted to have new, clean, fully functional floors. Just walking into the Co-op feels different—lighter, brighter, and refreshed. We want to thank all of our customers and owners who were patient and gracious with us through unexpected closures, late openings, early closings, and unplanned out-of-stocks. We especially want to celebrate and recognize our Co-op staff who stayed up late, woke up early, hauled heavy objects, worked through the noise and dirt of construction while still offering amazing customer service, and tore down and rebuilt our sales floor over the last couple weeks. The Chico Natural Foods Cooperative couldn’t exist without everyone, owners, shoppers, and staff, working together. And we’re so excited to just keep on getting better at serving our community.