LNPK Grocery Store Manager

POSITION SUMMARY

The LNPK Grocery is a small-footprint (1,500 sq. ft.), community-inspired, nonprofit social enterprise with a mission to provide healthy, fresh, and accessible food to the Lincoln Park neighborhood. It is modeled after a mom-and-pop shop of bygone eras, where community connection is paramount. To be successful, the LNPK Grocery needs to fill the gap that has resulted in neighborhood health disparities, while being responsive to its location in the Lincoln Park Craft District.

The Store Manager is the heartbeat of the LNPK Grocery and will lead a lean team to serve Lincoln Park’s dual-demographic by ensuring affordable staples remain in stock for our transit-dependent neighbors, while curating appeal for the Craft District’s visitors and business district lunch crew. The Store Manager will be responsible for leading all aspects of store operations, supervising store clerks, balancing limited storage with high-demand fresh inventory, representing the store and Ecolibrium3 to the public, ensuring health and safety in store operations, and employing an entrepreneurial mindset to grow and sustain operations. This is a hands-on role where time is split between the sales floor, the register, and the manager’s desk.

LNPK Grocery is a social enterprise of Ecolibrium3, a Duluth, MN-based nonprofit whose mission is to lead and inspire change towards an equitable and sustainable future. The organization accomplishes this mission by leading sustainable revitalization initiatives in Duluth’s Lincoln Park neighborhood and community-wide sustainability and resiliency initiatives in energy transition, housing stock improvement, economic security, and health. It has won numerous national awards for excellence in programming and community impact, including the White House Champion of Change for Building Resilient Communities Award, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Seeds of Change Award, and the US Conference of Mayors Outstanding Achievement Award.

IDEAL SKILLS, QUALITIES, AND EXPERIENCE:

• 3+ years in grocery management. Experience with neighborhood income and health disparities and experience in a nonprofit retail environment or a small grocery store is a plus.
• Proven ability to manage inventory ordering, high frequency ordering, and inventory receiving.
• Proven experience managing staff and communicating with customers. ● Experience creating or supporting public facing events or activities.
• Computer skills including Google Sheets and the Google Workplace environment, Asana or other project management tools, Quickbooks Online, and POS systems.
• Ability to unload crates, stock bottom-shelf gondolas, and stand for 8-hour shifts.
• Familiarity with the Lincoln Park multimodal traffic patterns and the unique socio-economics of the neighborhood and surrounding areas.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Operations

• Manage staffing the 1-2 person full-time/part-time/fill-in clerk roster with precision, ensuring peak hours, lunch rushes, delivery times, and weekends are adequately covered.
• Dedicate a minimum of 12 hours per week to primary clerk duties (ringing, bagging, stocking, and cleaning), providing hands-on time at the register and on the sales floor.
• Maintain a "gold standard" of cleanliness and organization that aligns with all MN Department of Agriculture Retail standards.

Explore opportunities to partner with local organizations with purpose focused-volunteers and paid constituents to fill operational gaps. This may include school students, elder/retiree communities or other workplace placement organizations.

Inventory and Logistics

• With limited backroom coolers, leverage retail floor cooler/freezer space using "Just-in-Time" (JIT) ordering. Coordinate frequent, smaller deliveries from vendors and Direct Store Delivery providers to ensure the customer sees abundance, while not overstocked to the point of waste.
• Manage a variety of ordering deadlines and ordering methods, which will arrive at a shared loading zone. Ensure delivery and stocking schedules are optimized related to staff availability, to minimize sidewalk congestion, and to meet all food retail requirements.
• Curate 33 gondolas to feature both value essentials, SNAP and WIC products, organic, diet specifi c, and a small variety of local products to maintain a sustainable business model.
• Continue to develop our start-up effort and relationship with the Eco3 Urban Farm which grows produce and herbs for the Grocery. This unique model supplements our vendor inventory and is a core aspect of our larger mission, to sustainably expand food access in Lincoln Park.

Food Equity & Community Leadership

• Serve as the internal expert on EBT/SNAP programs and transactions. Create opportunities to use the entire property, inside and outside to permit access to SNAP and WIC eligible foods.
• Actively engage with customers and residents of Census Tract 156 to ensure the product mix meets their budget, cultural, and dietary needs, preventing the store from becoming a "boutique" that excludes its original neighbors.
• Maintain a welcoming, safe environment for all patrons, utilizing trauma-informed customer service skills.

Financial & Data Oversight

• Manage in-store financial operations including, price adjustment, Cost of Goods Sold, Profit and Loss (P&L) records, bank deposits, cash drawer oversight, and coordination with the Eco3 accountant to ensure records in POS match those in QuickBooks.
• Coordinate regular POS data review, that may include Eco3 management and accounting team to identify "slow movers" quickly and to pivot floor space to higher-margin or higher-turnover items.
• Work with management and accounting to provide financial and other data.

This is a full-time (40 hours per week), in-person position. The store will be open 11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. weekdays and 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. on weekends. Work hours will be determined to cover store needs.

Ecolibrium3 offers 10 paid holidays and 19 days of PTO, increasing over years of employment. Ecolibrium3 offers an ICHRA plan that allows employees to pay for individual healthcare premiums and establish a health savings account, funded through employee pre-tax dollars, and with an employer contribution. Eligibility for company retirement benefits of 3% company contribution and 2% company match of employee contributions of 2% will occur on the first day of the month following 3 months of employment.