When you shop the Co-op, the Co-op pays you back!
By Bill Bickford, General Manager
I am very excited to announce that your Board of Directors has approved a patronage rebate for our fiscal year ending in May 2022. This was announced in person at our Annual Owner’s Meeting in late October, and the stores began distributing rebates to eligible owners on Monday, December 5.
This is the first patronage rebate we have been in a position to pay since 2013, which means even folks who have been co-op owners for a good stretch of time may not be familiar with how they work. Patronage rebates are a unique tax privilege available only to cooperatives, wherein we can return a portion of our profits to owners rather than treat it as taxable income. This is one of the many ways co-ops benefit our local economies by ensuring more of our collective wealth stays within and prospers our own communities.
Your board approved the maximum allowable rebate of $388,000 based on our profitability last fiscal year. Of that amount, 80% will be retained by the co-op to ensure our ongoing financial sustainability and potential growth, while the remaining $77,600 is being distributed back to owners in proportion to their purchases during the fiscal year. We have set a minimum rebate of $1.00 to minimize the administrative burden of rebate distribution, which results in 9,181 owners receiving a rebate!
Eligible owners who have a valid email address in our owner database received notice of their rebate via email on the first day of distribution. However, there are several eligible owners who do not have a valid email address on file. So for those folks, this article may be your first notice of the rebate. If you are unsure if you qualify for the patronage rebate, any cashier should be able to tell you whether a rebate is available for you at checkout.
There are a few issues that tend to pop up whenever we issue patronage rebates. And because it has been nine years since we last did so, we’re all likely a bit rusty. So I would like to take a moment to address those issues here:
First, we have a number of customers who shop using their partner’s or another household member’s co-op ownership. And while we are very happy to welcome and serve each owner’s entire household, our legal and fiduciary responsibilities lie with the owner on record—the person who signed the ownership agreement upon enrollment. As such, rebates must be issued to that person, even when another person may do the majority of the actual shopping. This can cause some confusion or even frustration when a person other than the owner—most often their partner—wants to redeem the rebate.
We are obligated to ensure rebates are redeemed according to the actual owner’s wishes. And while we fully trust that the vast majority of folks in this situation are acting in good faith, our responsibility to the owner requires that we perform due diligence prior to redeeming a rebate to someone other than the named owner.
But fret not—we have created a process for owners to duly authorize another person to redeem their rebate at checkout. The owner on record can simply email patronage@wheatsville.com, and we will be happy to issue the rebate to their authorized individual at the next opportunity. This does create an extra step that may seem unnecessary; please keep in mind that we are simply seeking to fulfill our obligation to our owners. While the overwhelming majority of these situations are perfectly innocent, we have also seen situations where someone the owner did NOT wish to redeem the rebate was attempting to. Those are the situations that this due diligence is intended to avoid.
Second, as noted above, there are a number of owners without valid email addresses in our system and probably many more with outdated information. If this article is the first time you are hearing about the rebate, it is likely we have either no email address or an old or invalid email on your account. Because it is important for us to be able to communicate with co-op owners in a variety of situations, we would love it if folks in this situation would take a moment to update their email address. You can either email our Ownership & Outreach Coordinator, Julia Barron, at julia@wheatsville.com, or you can provide the email address at the Hospitality Desk at your store of choice.
And finally, there is a deadline for redemption of rebates. Under IRS regulations, we must redeem rebates by February 15. Because this is a government-mandated deadline, I have no ability to be flexible with it. Any rebates not redeemed by February 15 must be cancelled and taken back into taxable income. This should be plenty of time for folks to redeem their rebate, but I would encourage you not to wait until the last minute. You can redeem your rebate any time you check out, so please come and see us at your next opportunity!
Thank you so very much for your patronage of the co-op! Patronage rebates are not possible without strong financial performance, which ultimately results from the loyalty and support of our co-op owners.