Beginning Saturday, September 21, Raleigh residents will no longer have to trek to the far corners of the Triangle to support their neighborhood community-owned and locally-sourced co-op, as Weaver Street Market opens in The Dillon building in downtown Raleigh.
The Warehouse District is the fourth Weaver Street Market location—with others in Carrboro, Chapel Hill, and Hillsborough—and will offer many of the same local provisions—farm-fresh produce, a full kitchen and bakery, a hot bar and salad bar, local coffee roasters, an extensive beer and wine selection—that have made the thirty-year-old co-op a top Triangle destination among shoppers.
Similar to other Weavers, the Raleigh location will also have a dedicated space for community events and cooking demos. But setting it apart, The Dillon store features an Asian noodle bar and fresh sushi made in-house, as well as a sleek wraparound mezzanine with outdoor seating for twenty-five overlooking Hargett Street, an attractive draw for lunch crowds and visitors, in addition to co-op members. There’s also a parking deck with entrance on West Street, which Weaver will validate for one hour.
Several hundred of Weaver Street’s twenty thousand current owners (that’s co-op speak for member) already live in Raleigh, and that number is expected to grow. As the INDY reported back in December 2017 when plans for the new store were first announced, you don’t have to be a member to shop at Weaver Street. Yet the benefits of signing up with the one-time fee of $75 per household make regular visits worthwhile, gaining you access to members-only benefits like coupons and other specials, as well as a vote for the board of directors, and a direct line to volunteer opportunities. Weaver Street emphasizes community engagement and is known for its charitable contributions. Sustainability is also a main priority—the co-op began phasing out single-use bags earlier this year on Earth Day.
Opening day at Weaver will also include a number of festivities. The first one hundred shoppers will receive free baguettes, and the first five hundred to purchase an owner share will get a free Raleigh Weaver Street t-shirt. There will also be a number of samples available for shoppers to try throughout the first week—which means you might actually want to shop while hungry, for once.
For the next twelve months, the Raleigh location has partnered exclusively with A Place at the Table, a pay-what-you-can cafe that’s been making healthy meals more accessible to patrons, despite their means. Shoppers can opt to round up their grocery bill to the nearest dollar, which goes directly toward A Place at the Table’s initiative to provide free meals to patrons who need them—which they do at an average of fifty times a day. (Round up your grocery bill on opening day, and you’ll receive a free Weaver Street Market reusable bag).
Each free meal at A Place at the Table is generated by a token valued at ten dollars apiece. The goal of the campaign is to raise a year’s worth of meals, which is 12,500 meal tokens. Cindy Bolden, the board chair for the restaurant, agrees the partnership is an ideal one, given Weaver’s reputation for giving back—a core value that she says is shared by both A Place at the Table and the co-op. In a rapidly-growing city like Raleigh that’s bursting with new restaurants and not-so-affordable meal options, the collaboration feels like an appropriate and timely one.
In 2018, Weaver customers raised $281,708 by rounding up their grocery bills more than 635,000 times—an average of about forty-four cents per grocery bill. The funds provided fresh produce to low-income families, stocked food pantries with fresh produce in Carrboro and Hillsborough, and provided fresh fruits and vegetables to students in select Orange County schools.
Given North Carolina ranks among the top ten food-insecure states in the country, with food insecurity at 13.8 percent in Wake County alone, Weaver Street’s Raleigh location is a welcomed addition to the city’s diverse demographic.
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Thought I’d see “sponsored content” under the title or something.