Hi everyone, this is the first newsletter since before Christmas so let’s get going...

1. The freezer
2. Amazon returns
3. 150 Club January winners
4. How are we doing?
5. Special offers – now!
6. You will have noticed that our freezer has packed up. We didn’t lose much stock because we realised it was wrong – we monitor and log all of our equipment temperatures daily. It is the main component that has gone and so it is very expensive to replace. We have looked at replacing the whole thing but the equivalent is not in stock and it is not certain when they will be, so we’ve decided to go ahead with the repair. Now we have to find a new compressor, hopefully this won’t be long and normal service can be resumed...
7. Amazon have been delivering orders to the shop for maybe 9 months now under their Pass the Parcel scheme. The system works but it is still early days. Now they have told us that we can take their returns. However the returns process is a bit complicated so if you need to make a return, please could you hand it to us during the week to one of our regular staff. We won’t be instructing our volunteers to deal with returns.
8. The January 150 Club draw produced winnings for John Keyworth, Di King and Jo Fisher. If anyone wants to join the club, we still have a few numbers left and with only ¾ of the year left, each number now only costs £11.25. Please contact the shop if you’re interested.
9. The shop is doing well. We will report our official figures at the AGM in the summer but we experienced 6% growth in turnover over 2015 vs 2014. This, in times where food inflation is probably less than 0% means we’re doing well in terms of profitability. However, our wages costs are on a fairly steep curve upward as we try to be fair to our staff and keep ahead of the fast rising legal minimums so we need to be vigilant. As you know, we don’t want to make much profit anyway, but we must not make losses. For the moment, we are in good health.
10. Come in quick if you like peppers. We’ve had a donation of fresh yellow peppers, and we are selling them at 30p each. They are quite large so they might not last long. Look out also for our half-price basket where best-by dates have been exceeded,

And we should also wish all our customers a belated Happy New Year.

Kevin, TVSA and the shop staff.