Grocery Shopping Week 8: Weaver Street Market (Chapel Hill)
>> Sunday, November 23, 2008
Weaver Street Market scores: As a food co-op, this store gets an A from both Better World Shopper and Co-op America's Responsible Shopper.
Distance from my apartment: 32.1 miles (42 minutes)
Obviously this store is too far away from my house to do my weekly shopping, but I've been hearing how great this place is ever since I moved to Raleigh, so I decided to check it out.
As a food co-op, this store is owned by the people that shop there, and the profits are put back into the community. If you have a food co-op in your area, it's the ideal place to grocery shop because it supports your local economy and you get a discount for shopping there if you have a membership, so it can be affordable as well. Plus, as a member, you usually get some say in the kinds of products they carry.
Weaver Street Market has a great produce section, including local and organic produce. I even found organic fair trade bananas, which I haven't seen anywhere else (not even Whole Foods). Their prices are reasonable, and they carry a large variety of organic and all natural food items. The store itself is pretty small, as grocery stores go, but it has a good open feel. The aisles are nice and wide, so I didn't feel like I had to worry about my kids knocking things off the shelves.
The absolute best part of this store is their candy aisle, where they have a huge variety of organic and fair trade chocolates. Even if you live in Raleigh like me, it would be worth the trip out to Weaver Street Market for Valentines Day or other special occasions.
Weaver Street Market has two locations: one in Chapel Hill and one in Carrboro. I visited the location in Chapel Hill but plan to make a trip out to the Carrboro location in a few weeks. Wish there was a Weaver Street Market in Raleigh! Anyone know how I can get a food co-op in my area?
The bill:
organic cheese (3 cups)
organic juice (1 big bottle)
organic butter
organic milk
organic applesauce
organic baby food
organic baby cereal
organic cereal
organic tortillas
organic yogurt
avocado
organic carrots
organic/fair trade bananas
mushrooms
Total = $67.73
2 comments:
You should contact the owners and see if they are interested in opening one up in Raleigh. You might even consider volunteering your time to help them out. If they already have 2 stores that aren't too far away from each other, they might consider a third.
I tried taking your suggestion and emailing them, but their email link isn't working on my computer. Maybe I'll have to try yours.
I've seen articles from a couple years ago on Google mentioning a Raleigh co-op being planned, but it never panned out for some reason. There's also a co-op in Durham that has been around forever but hasn't been doing well recently. I think Weaver Street Market has an advantage being in the smaller cities of Chapel Hill and Carrboro because they don't have to compete with Whole Foods and the like.
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