Weavers Way Co-op
Weavers Way Co-op is a member-owned consumers' cooperative with stores open to everyone, based in Northwest Philadelphia and Montgomery County. Started by Jules Timerman, with its origins in a food-buying group in West Mt. Airy, Weavers Way is named after the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, a group of weavers and other artisans in Rochdale, England, who, in 1844, got together to purchase food. They developed the Rochdale Principles, a list of operating principles governing their organization. This list formed the basis for what are now known as the International Cooperative Principles.
Weavers Way, starting with a small storefront in Philadelphia's West Mt. Airy neighborhood, has grown, in 2018, to nearly 10,000 member households, with annual sales of nearly $30 million, in three locations — West Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia, and the Montgomery County borough of Ambler. Weavers Way's first major expansion came in 2010, when it added a second grocery store in Chestnut Hill, at 8424 Germantown Ave., at the former Caruso's grocery store site. The Ambler store, at 217 E. Butler Ave., opened in October 2017, and is the Co-op's largest location. The original location, expanded to include several other adjacent buildings, remains in West Mt. Airy, featuring stand-alone specialty pet-supply and health-and-wellness stores. The Co-op rents warehouse space in the SHARE food pantry complex in the Nicetown neighborhood. Two farm operations comprise 6.5 acres, one at Awbury Arboretum in Germantown and one on the grounds of Saul Agricultural High School in Roxborough. Weavers Way publishes a monthly newspaper, The Shuttle, which is mailed to members and available free at the stores. Both the Shuttle and Weavers Way's social networking outlets promote community events and publicize neighborhood issues.
Membership and shopping
Weavers Way stores are open to everyone, and membership is not necessary to shop there. Membership is available to anyone; an equity investment of $30 a year, to a maximum of $400, is required, and members may vote in board elections and on Weavers Way matters and run for the board. Members receive special prices on some goods and services, as well as other benefits, like discounts at many area businesses. Although completing work hours was also required of all members in the past, it is now optional. Working members in good standing get an additional discount on all of their purchases. Members who are over 65 or low-income are eligible for additional discounts through the Senior Tuesday and Food For All programs.
Urban Farms
The Mort Brooks Farm was Weavers Way's first farm, an urban intensive organic plot a few miles from Weavers Way at Awbury Arboretum in Germantown. Named after a member who was instrumental to the Co-op’s early success, the farm was founded in 2000, in large part due to the efforts of Mort's widow, Norma Brooks.[1] In 2007, Weavers Way moved to transform the mostly volunteer-run farm into a market farm with two locations, the second the Henry Got Crops Farm at WB Saul Agricultural High School in Roxborough. Weavers Way has a full-time farm manager and several seasonal farmers, plus apprentices and interns. Hundreds of students come through the farm's education programs each year. In addition, the Saul farm is the site of the Weavers Way-founded Henry Got Compost composting operation.
Food Moxie
The nonprofit Food Moxie, founded by Weavers Way members as Weavers Way Community Programs (WWCP), partners with schools to teach students about farming, health and nutrition, in programs that include tours of the Weavers Way Farms. In addition to programs at Mort Brooks Memorial Farm at Awbury Arboretum and the Henry Got Crops farm at Saul Agricultural High School, Food Moxie runs the Hope Garden at Stenton Family Manor, a shelter for homeless families in Germantown, and Hope Farm, program for students with intellectual disabilities at Martin Luther King High School in Germantown.
History
Originally created as a neighborhood buying club, Weavers Way was originally based on a very informal organizational structure, but soon incorporated with a more formal structure, with a board, bylaws and committees. With success, expansion soon became an issue. Throughout the 1980s, Weavers Way considered a number of locations. In 1989, Weavers Way purchased 551 Carpenter Lane (now the site of Big Blue Marble Bookstore), for use as office space and the Co-op’s first pet-supply store. In 1991, Weavers Way purchased 557 Carpenter Lane. Renovations completed in 1993 joined the two buildings, doubling the size of the main store. Before long, growing membership and increased sales created pressures to expand once again.
In 2002, Weavers Way purchased 608 and 610 Carpenter Lane with the intention of opening a prepared foods take-out store and sit-down café. As plans for this expansion progressed, the revelation of a financial crisis redirected the Co-op’s energies inward to solidify the organization. (The financial crisis of 2002-2003 nearly bankrupted Weavers Way as it was revealed that the bookkeeper had been concealing that Weavers Way had been losing money. Criminal charges against the bookkeeper were later settled, and there was no evidence that the bookkeeper had taken any money or benefited personally.) By 2004, the Co-op emerged a stronger organization, with new management and new accounting and financial controls.
In 2005 Weavers Way purchased 555 Carpenter Lane and converted it to offices and meeting space. In 2006, the Co-op hired its first full-time farmer to expand the Awbury garden to a market production farm. As the farm took off, and with the growth of the Co-op’s educational programs, Weavers Way Community Programs (now Food Moxie) was formed in 2007 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit.
As membership continued to surge, it became clear that Weavers Way was more than ready to undertake some form of expansion. While the search continued for a second main location, Weavers Way opened a smaller satellite store in 2008 in West Oak Lane, offering fresh, healthy and locally grown foods at 2129 72nd Ave., just off Ogontz Avenue, a major thoroughfare. In September, 2011, citing continuing losses, Weavers Way transferred ownership of the West Oak Lane store to the Ogontz Avenue Revitalization Corp.(OARC).
In February 2009, Weavers Way settled on a site for a second main store — the former Caruso’s Market at 8424 Germantown Ave. in Chestnut Hill. After more than a year of fundraising and construction, the new store opened in May 2010. In the larger space, the Co-op was able to offer popular options like a prepared foods hot bar. A major renovation project followed in 2012 in Mt. Airy, with new systems and floors and the installation of a bulk foods department on the revamped second floor. Housewares and HABA moved in with pet supplies at Weavers Way Across the Way at 608-610 Carpenter Lane.
In 2013, Weavers Way opened another health and wellness store, Weavers Way Next Door, at 8426 Germantown Ave., adjacent to the Chestnut Hill store.
In 2012, the National Cooperative Grocers Association convened a weekend workshop at Weavers Way, inviting a dozen local co-ops, both established and aspirational, to talk about the pros and cons of growth. One takeaway: It's far easier to expand on an existing business than start a new one from scratch. By 2015, the Weavers Way Board had moved into a full-fledged search for a likely location to open a third Weavers Way store.
Meanwhile, the Ambler Food Co-op had been working since 2012 to open their own store in Ambler, a borough of about 6,500 in Montgomery County. Ambler had been without a grocery store since 2009, when the local Acme closed; the opening of a Bottom Dollar store was hardly a relief — it shut down after a year.
In Fall 2016, with the blessing of Ambler Borough Council, Weavers Way announced the new store would open in the abandoned Bottom Dollar location at 217 E. Butler Ave. With a member loan campaign bringing in $1.5 million, renovations began May 2017. The new store opened in October 2017.
References
- Packel, Dan. Weaver's Way Co-op Enjoys the Sweet Sounds of Success. Philadelphia Weekly.' 19 June 2009.