Weavers Way Co-op is a member-owned consumers' cooperative with stores open to everyone, based in Northwest Philadelphia. Founded in 1973 as a neighborhood food buying club in a church basement in Philadelphia's West Mt. Airy section, Weavers Way has grown to more than 5,200 member households, with annual sales of nearly $20 million. After moving to its location at 559 Carpenter Lane, Weavers Way expanded, purchasing the adjacent building and consolidating the two buildings. Subsequent expansions included the purchase of other buildings in the neighborhood, which house a pet supply store, health and wellness store and offices. In 2010, Weavers Way underwent a major expansion, adding a second grocery store in Chestnut Hill, at 8424 Germantown Ave., at the former Caruso's grocery store site. Then, in 2013, Weavers Way opened a health and beauty specialty store, also in Chestnut Hill. For several years, Weavers Way also ran a smaller store in the West Oak Lane section of Philadelphia, but that closed in September 2011. The Co-op rents warehouse space in the SHARE food pantry complex in the Nicetown neighborhood. Two farm operations comprise 5.5 acres, one at Awbury Arboretum in Germantown and one on the grounds of Saul Agricultural High School in Roxborough. Weavers Way has participated in such events and organizations as Mt. Airy Day, Mt. Airy ArtJam, Mt. Airy YouthWorks, Mt. Airy Business Association, Mt. Airy USA (MAUSA), Mt. Airy Village Fair, Chestnut Hill's Fall for the Arts Festival and the XPoNential Music Fest.
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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. All 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 a discount on all their purchases.
Community activities
Weavers Way is active in the community, primarily through its nonprofit arm, Weavers Way Community Programs (WWCP), which administers the Co-op's educational programs. WWCP partners with elementary 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 community supported agriculture (CSA) farm at Saul Agricultural High School, WWCP runs the Hope Garden at Stenton Family Manor, a shelter for homeless families in Germantown.
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. In 2007, Weavers Way moved to transform the mostly volunteer-run farm into a market farm with a structured educational program, a full-time farmer and a farm educator. Since then, the farm program has grown to include several acres at the current locations, with a full-time farm manager, two site managers, two farm educators and apprentices and interns. Hundreds of students come through the farm's education programs each year.
Weavers Way publishes a monthly newspaper, The Shuttle, which is mailed to members and available free at the stores and at numerous drop locations in Northwest Philadelphia. In addition to Co-op businesses, it covers topics of interests to the larger community, including food and food justice, the environment and local issues. Both the Shuttle and Weavers Way's social networking outlets promote community events and publicize neighborhood issues.
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. In 1975, Weavers Way moved into 559 Carpenter Lane and in the next few years grew very quickly. Expansion soon became an issue.
Throughout the 1980s, Weavers Way considered a number of locations for expansion. 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, apparently for years, 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. The crisis exposed the need for Weavers Way to modernize and professionalize its business practices. By 2004, the Co-op emerged a stronger organization, with new management, new accounting and financial controls, and a totally updated computer and cash-register system.
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 (WWCP) 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. With the opening of several new businesses in the area immediately surrounding Greene Street and Carpenter Lane, attracted primarily by proximity to Weavers Way, the area enjoyed an economic renaissance, but traffic and congestion redirected the Co-op’s expansion efforts toward opening a second location that would help draw some of the pressure off the main store.
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 Corporation (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 that are not available at the Mt. Airy location. 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.
Growth
In 2014 and beyond, Weavers Way is still growing in membership and sales and efforts are under way to identify a location for a third Weavers Way grocery store, including a production kitchen and upgraded meeting space.