Why does the Weavers Way Board of Directors believe so firmly in the value of growing more co-ops in our region? 

Why is growth good?

There are lots of sound business reasons for the value of growth, economies of scale and competitive positioning among them. But the main reason most of us on the Board believe in growing more co-ops is because co-ops are good for communities and good for people. Who wouldn’t want such a store in their community?

• A store rooted in and responsive to the community. 
• A store that follows a set of ethical values in what it purchases and where it sources its food. 
• A store that is owned and controlled by its members. 
• A store that pays a living wage to its employees. 
• A store that is, in many ways, the heart of the community. 

Do you like what Weavers Way offers you and the community you live in? I suspect you do. I don’t just like it. I love it. The farms, the food, the support of local businesses and nonprofits — all of it makes living here much, much richer for me. 

In fact, there are food co-ops around the country that see it as their obligation to ensure that more people in their regions have access to co-ops that serve them, as opposed to national grocery chains that may decide at any time that somewhere else is more profitable. 

Wheatsville Co-op in Austin, TX, pioneered the idea a few years ago with a vision that more co-ops in their city would equal more happy people — and more local food, and more good jobs.

Lexington Co-op in Buffalo, NY, recently expanded to a second store and announced their “BIG Direction”: the promise of a thriving co-op in every community that wants one. Check out their inspiring BIG Direction capital campaign video here: vimeo.com/126635521.

Over time, Weavers Way can help make that happen for the communities in our region. 

Why Weavers Way? It can take seven or more years for a community that commits to opening a co-op to organize, raise money, identify a building, fit it out, set up the IT infrastructure and hire and train staff. And even then, they may do it on a smaller scale and less effectively because of insufficient resources, experience and skill.

Weavers Way, on the other hand, is already experienced at building and sustaining stores. We have the talent, experience, resources and support to do it well, and in a fraction of the time. In fact, Weavers Way is one of the most successful co-ops in the country, with an extraordinary volume of sales per square foot. We’re good enough that National Cooperative Grocers, the national food co-op trade organization, has urged us to help startups build new stores in our region.

Some Weavers Way members have told me that growth scares them a little because they fear it will change the culture of the Co-op. I understand, but would like to point out that my Mt. Airy store is still my store and my community, even though it has a big sister up in Chestnut Hill. Meanwhile, both stores and both staffs share the same cooperative values and commitment to community. In fact, I’ve been to dozens of food co-ops around the country and all of them, despite their uniqueness, share the same basic culture and commitments.

Nine or 10 years ago at a food co-op conference in Atlanta, I heard a speaker from Midlands Co-op in England. Midlands has dozens of stores, plus funeral parlors, gas stations, etc., all cooperatively owned. I asked him whether that made it hard for members to feel as if the store they shopped at was their store. His answer: Members were able to balance in their heads and hearts the value of a larger cooperative economy with a love and passion for their own location, in their own community.

If anyone needs to be reminded of just how privileged we are to have the kind of stores we have, and how important it is to help other communities achieve this same end, I urge you to watch a video made by residents of a primarily African-American neighborhood in Greensboro, NC, titled “We Want a Co-op!” 

This northeast Greensboro neighborhood had been served for years by a Winn Dixie supermarket, but despite the store’s profitability, market decisions led to its closing. The neighborhood had become a food desert. 

The community is now taking matters into its own hands. They’re organizing Renaissance Community Cooperative, and their video movingly captures all the things we’re fortunate enough to have that other communities need and want.

See the video at Renaissance Community Cooperative’s website: www.renaissancecoop.com/we-want-a-coop.