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Slater
By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer
Ever since Weaver Street Market announced plans to open a store in Hillsborough and move administrative offices and food preparation out of Carrboro, concerns have been raised about the impact on the Carrboro economy and the workers whose jobs are heading to the county seat.
In a recent interview, Ruffin Slater, general manager of Weaver Street Market, said the decision to move offices and food preparation out of Carrboro and into new facilities in Hillsborough was neither easy nor quick.
Slater said the process took almost a year and a half and included a comprehensive look at the co-op’s structure and strategy. Balancing food production and store space was a key part of the decision.
“What is driving it is our idea of putting small stores in a downtown,†he said. Combined, he said, the new store under construction in Hillsborough, the Southern Village store and the flagship store on Weaver Street equal the size of a typical Harris Teeter.
But while that has served the co-op’s philosophy of being more environmentally friendly by getting food closer to people, it’s also meant dealing with the constraints of higher real estate costs and fewer options.
“Economically, you can’t put a full kitchen and bakery in every store,†Slater said.
Cramped quarters also meant the co-op was missing opportunities in food production, including expansion of its baked goods menu, sausage preparation, more varieties of pesto and the kind of fruit salad offerings you see at other groceries.
“We realized we had big facility gaps,†Slater said.
And then there are the long-running woes of unloading trucks with no loading dock, the lack of break room space and having outdoor walk-in coolers.
So, after surveying workers and reviewing floor plans, Slater said the decision was made to move food production to a separate facility. There was no way that the current 5,000 square feet of kitchen space could fill the needs at all three stores.
“We did a lot of modeling as we looked at expanding,†he said. An expanded kitchen in Carrboro “met some needs, but not others†and so the decision was made to go offsite.
Once that bridge was crossed, the question was “where�
Slater said the effort first concentrated on Carrboro, enlisting James Harris, Carrboro’s economic development director, for help in finding a spot. What they found was that while there’s office and retail space available, large, flexible spaces with loading docks were hard to find.
“There was very little commercial property,†Slater said. “The retail spaces are just not set up for unloading trucks.â€
A site off Lystra Road just over the Chatham County line was considered, but after a look at the possibilities at the Hillsborough Business Center — a converted textile mill that’s been used as a business incubator — the decision was made to build there a 15,000-square-foot facility, dubbed the “Food House.â€
The new facility has a number of advantages, Slater said, not the least of which is a rate of $3.50 per square foot, about one-fifth of the rent at the co-op’s Carrboro location.
Starting from scratch with a new facility means that some of the design flaws of retrofitting a kitchen into the Carr Mill space can be avoided. The Food House will have a much more logical production flow as well as a few environmental innovations like daylighting work areas and using waste heat from the ovens for an absorption chiller for air-conditioning.
The facility will also have a large refrigerated warehouse.
Jobs to Hillsborough
The affect on employees has been a chief concern both inside and outside the market.
Slater said about 60 of the 180 jobs at the Carrboro location will move to the Food House and the new store and administrative offices. Some of that loss will be canceled out by the creation of additional retail jobs in Carrboro once the Weaver Street location is expanded. (The co-op is in the early stages of a review with Carrboro about planned expansion to the rear of the Weaver Street store.)
Slater said that some of the savings from the lower rent for the Food House would be plowed into wages.
“One of the benefits is that we’ll be able to pay better,†he said. “We hope to create fewer $10-11 an hour jobs and more $14-15 an hour jobs.â€
For now, the focus of discussion is on how to deal with transportation issues. While a handful of employees have moved or are planning to move to Hillsborough, about 20 of those whose jobs will travel 12 miles north either walk or bike to work and don’t have the means to get to the new Food House.
Slater said the co-op is working on a shared-ride van or carpool.
“We don’t want transportation to be an issue,†he said.
Who is this Kirk Ross guy, anyway?
Kirk Ross’ recent article about Weaver Street Market’s Food House plans was a timely and clear articulation of Ruffin’s vision for Weaver Street Market. I’m concerned however, as a bread baker whose job is moving to Hillsborough, that an article admitting his plans have raised concerns among workers fails to give any voice to those very workers.
Could this article be followed up with a companion piece based on interviews with workers who disagree with the move? If this sounds like a good idea, I’d like suggest three long-term and loyal employees you might want to speak with—one from each of the three food production departments slated to leave downtown Carrboro:
Claudia Lopez has worked in the market’s kitchen for 12 years. She says that the hands-on creativity of her work has always been of utmost importance to her, but feels this has been encouraged less and less in recent years. As she and others have been required to make larger and larger batches to supply additional demand, she has seen quality and care go down. She fears this will worsen with a move to the Food House and is not sure she will be able to handle it. She thinks introducing “some weird machines†to the process will only distance her further from a real connection to her work.
Camila Redzovic, a Bosnian refugee, has been working in our pastry department for 12 years. In response the push for starting shifts earlier at the Food House, she says flat-out that Weaver Street Market could not pay her enough to work before 4:00 am. She does not want her job to move from her community, where she walks two blocks to work every morning, but she feels she has no choice in the matter. She thinks the new facility will be “like a factory.â€
Emily Buehler has worked as a baker at the store for six years since earning a PhD in Chemistry from UNC. More than any other baker, Emily has opened up our bakery and our craft to the public through Bakery Open House Nights, bread baking classes, and articles in the store’s newsletters. Her recently self-published book, Bread Science, has sold over 600 copies. Emily states that while she agrees with Ruffin’s vision of putting small stores downtown to move people closer to their food, she wonders why this can’t also apply to food workers who wish to work in their own communities. She notes that a move to a commissary model of food production will actually serve to distance customers from the preparation of their food at the same time the store is touting its concept of Authentic Food and the need to close that distance.
I believe giving a voice to the concerns of these and other workers is just as important as hearing more about Ruffin’s plans. At a time when many employees at Weaver Street Market feel their dissent is being glossed over or ignored, it would be good to know our new local paper could serve as a remedy. Without balanced reporting about a contentious issue, such articles could be accused of being more spin control than responsible journalism.
Yes, employee voices, please.
I , for one, would like to see more on this being fleshed out. I understand that there is always that initial fear of change for many and I believe it would be well worth knowing more on what changes, minus location, Weaver Street has planned. Are we looking at a final destination of an assembly line that would cut jobs back with machinery? How much quality is being willingly sacrificed for quantity? Maybe I am incorrect in my assumption because I have always thought people shopped at Weaver Street more than just because of the merchandise but also because it was supporting the community.