Weaver Street Market
About
Weaver Street Market (WSM) is a small chain of grocery co-ops in North Carolina.
According to reports, WSM's management has become (or always was) actively undemocratic and very much in violation of the spirit – if not the actual law – in which a co-operative is supposed to be operated. They have repeatedly suppressed, ignored, or resisted attempts to create an open forum in which workers and management could air their grievances and democratically work out compromises.
As a result of their disinterest in operating co-operatively, they made at least one major business mistake which caused serious financial trouble for WSM without input from half of the ownership (i.e. the employee-owners) and has also resulted in tremendous inefficiencies.
We are still tracking down details on these and other transgressions.
Pages
Links
Reference
Books
- Opportunity Knocks!! by Geoff Gilson: commentary on the 2011 WSM Employee Survey results; Geoff summarizes: "The thrust of my commentary (not very radically, and hardly surprisingly) is that the Survey results demonstrate that too many WSM employees do not feel that their work experience is fulfilling or that their co-op is inclusive. Both are specific requirements of the WSM Mission Statement. In order for WSM not to be in breach of co-op policy, these concerns need to be addressed in action plans that we now formulate consensually."
- Informal Intimacy by Geoff Gilson: "A Co-operative Worker-Owner's Manifesto for improving the business and co-operative performance of Weaver Street Market Co-operative, so that it might better serve its owners, customers and workers."