The Latest News from Wheatsville

State of the Co-op

By Bill Bickford - General Manager

Among the most basic responsibilities we hold in common as Wheatsville owners is to remain informed regarding the state and health of our shared community asset. As we wrap up our annual audit and finalize financial statements for our 2021-2022 fiscal year, it seems an appropriate time for a general update on where your co-op stands and where we may be headed in the future.

Strong Financial Year
As Board Treasurer Stephanie Wong notes within the Audit & Review Committee’s report, Wheatsville produced very favorable financial results in our 2021-2022 fiscal year. We generated our strongest net income in many years, increased our cash balance, and reduced our liabilities. This could not be said in recent previous years, so we are very pleased to be in a much stronger financial position today.

It’s important to recognize that co-ops do not exist for the purpose of generating profit. It is also true, however, that operating profitably is a necessary prerequisite to increasing the positive impact we can have on our community. What ultimately sets co-ops apart from other businesses is how we use our profit.

I was delighted this past summer to pay our first staff bonus since 2015. We were also able to increase both our starting wage scales and available raise ranges. Our staff have persevered through some challenging years to work in the grocery business, so it has been gratifying to share our success with the folks who helped make it possible.

In addition to taking care of staff, we were also able to raise $130,580.10  for our Community Action partners, invest in needed fixtures and equipment, and have our first real conversations about patronage rebates to owners in several years. I’ll definitely take that as a win!

Caution: Bumpy Road Ahead
Despite the many positives of last fiscal year, we are nonetheless likely to face tough headwinds in the year ahead. Sales remain in decline at both stores, a trend your co-op has now contended with for several years running. With wages increased and pressure to raise them further likely in the future, profitability in the current fiscal year is far from guaranteed. In fact, your co-op posted a loss in our first quarter (June through August), consistently our most challenging quarter of the year.

Need for Growth
Our most critical challenge moving forward is to grow store sales. We must not only reverse the current negative sales trends; we must grow sales at a rate that can outpace current wage and cost inflation, which is no easy task. We are currently developing and implementing a variety of strategies to do so, perhaps the most important of which is improving our food service operations, discussed elsewhere in this newsletter.

That said, improving our current store operations—while critically important—is not the only avenue to increased market share and sales volume. As I shared with owners during a recent GM Connect event, your co-op is actively exploring growth opportunities for the first time since opening our Lamar store in 2013. Despite sales decline and wage pressures, our balance sheet is in its strongest position in several years. We have a higher cash balance and lower debt-to-equity ratio today than at any point since opening South Lamar, which may present an opportunity to grow our organization beyond the current locations.

Any plan to add locations would require the support and engagement of our community of more than 27,000 Wheatsville owners. We quite literally cannot do it without you! While there is not yet one specific opportunity we are committed to pursuing, your board and management do hope to reach alignment on a feasible growth opportunity over the next several months. When that time comes, I look forward to earning your support in furthering our founders’ vision of a robust community “that will grow and promote a transformation of society toward cooperation, justice, and non-exploitation” 

After 23 years connected to this co-op, I truly believe that Wheatsville sits at the heart of this Austin community. It is that community’s support that has sustained and nurtured the co-op to this point; and it will be your support again that ultimately sets our course moving forward. We shall endeavor to earn that support each

2023 Wheatsville Community Action Partner Nominees

Annual Owner Election 

It’s that time of year again!  Our Annual Owner Election commenced on September 7th and runs until November 8th, and we need the participation of our ownership to seat Wheatsville’s nine-member 2023 Board of Directors, as well as select our 10 nonprofit Community Action Partners.  

You must be an owner to vote in Wheatsville’s annual election.  To vote, check your email (don’t forget to search your spam folders!) for an email from our SimplyVoting software, complete with a link to the digital ballot and your unique elector ID and password.  Additionally, there are paper ballots and election info packets located at the hospitality desk at both locations.  

If you have questions or need to be resent your digital voting information, please email [email protected].   

Community Action Partners

Each winning organization will receive register round-up donations, Wheatsville staff volunteer time, and our advocacy for one month during 2023! Our community never ceases to impress us with all the efforts that are made in order to improve the lives of Austinites, and this year’s applicant pool is no exception. We can only accept 10 nominees in the running that will join our Let’s Feed Austin and Cooperative Community Fund programs next year. Please read more about the incredible organizations in the running & the work that we would support them in, if voted in:

Austin Cooperative Business Foundation 

Austin Humane Society

Austin Parks Foundation

Austin Wildlife Rescue

CASA of Travis County

Caritas of Austin

Central Texas Food Bank

Central Texas Pig Rescue

Creative Action

Engineers Without Borders Greater Austin

Every Dog Austin

Explore Austin

Farmshare Austin

Good Work Austin

Herding Home Animal Rescue

I Live Here I Give Here

IMPACT Austin

Mary Lee Foundation

Meals on Wheels of Central Texas

MEASURE Austin

Multicultural Refugee Coalition

Our Shared Kitchen

People’s Community Clinic

Rainbow Connections ATX

Red Salmon Arts

SAGE Studio and Gallery

Seedling

Shoal Creek Conservancy

Solar Austin

Sustainable Food Center

The Foundation of the Austin Sanctuary Network

The SAFE Alliance

Thinkery

Urban Roots

Workers Defense Project

Local Vendor of the Month: Austin Natural Soap

Each month, we highlight a different Vendor of the Month in our stores. Please join me in celebrating our October Vendor of the Month, Austin Natural Soap!  Austin Natural Soap’s mission is to help clean up the world, one bar of eco-friendly soap at a time. Austin Natural Soap encourages everyone to give back to and help protect and conserve our soil, water, air, flora, and fauna because it is all interconnected!

Austin Natural Soap was founded by Annette Mayfield in 2000 with a mission to serve the local community by providing natural, homemade, and vegan soaps.  These unique, non-chemical-based soaps have drawn a dedicated customer base in Austin, Texas and have grown into other Southwest retailers. What started as a hobby turned into a thriving small, local business with the support of a loyal customer base. 

Support this local business by stocking up on their soaps both in the Wellness Departments at each of Wheatsville’s locations or by visiting their location in South Austin.  Let’s make the world a little greener and cleaner one bar of soap at a time!

A message from the General Manager: Proposed Bylaws Change

Howdy fellow Wheatsvillagers!

Our annual co-op election begins September 7, and I encourage each of you to vote at your earliest convenience! As usual, we have an excellent slate of board candidates for three rotating open seats as well as an impactful group of non-profit organizations hoping to be selected as our monthly Community Action recipients for the 2023 calendar year. Democratic Member Control is one of the International Cooperative Principles upon which all co-ops are founded, and voting for your board and Community Action groups is the primary way Wheatsville’s owners help to set the direction of our shared cooperative endeavor.

In addition to the usual candidate statements and non-profit groups, there is also another, less common item on the ballot this year—a bylaws change. It has been roughly a decade since we last modified our bylaws, so this is an unusual occurrence. As such, further explanation is both appropriate and necessary to help owners understand what your co-op’s board and management are hoping to accomplish with this change.

The change itself is quite simple. We would like to strike the word “natural” from the phrase “natural person” in section 2.2, which outlines eligibility to become an owner the co-op. This would allow the legal definition of “person” to be eligible to join the co-op as opposed to what you or I might normally think of as a person. This means that trusts, self-directed IRAs, non-profits, businesses, and other organizations would be eligible for co-op membership.

Our bylaws currently have only one set of member eligibility requirements for both regular co-op ownership—or “common stock” as it is known in a legal and financial sense—and investor shareholders. Wheatsville’s investor shareholders are those owners who purchased what’s known as “preferred stock” in the co-op, which was offered in both 2005 to fund the expansion of our Guadalupe location and 2013 to fund the opening of South Lamar.

It is important to note that these are non-voting shares, which means that they do not give the investor shareholder any additional control or rights over co-op governance than any other co-op owner. However, they are a critical element of your co-op’s ability to raise capital to grow both the services we can offer and the impact we can have on our community. Without these investor shares, we would effectively have no way to raise capital beyond our retained earnings from prior fiscal years.

What are the benefits of this change?
First, by allowing trusts and similar legal instruments to be eligible for co-op membership, we introduce an option for survivorship of our outstanding investor shares. It is unfortunately a fact that the co-op’s founding generation is not getting any younger—a group that is heavily represented among our investor shareholders. The passing of an investor shareholder is becoming an increasingly common reason for redemption of shares. This presents a financial challenge to your co-op and negatively impact our cash position. By allowing trusts to be eligible, investor shareholders have a viable option to pass their shares on to the next generation of cooperators without them ever needing to be redeemed back to the co-op. This is an option we would likely encourage in future share offerings.

We also maximize eligibility for future investor share offerings. A real-life example may be helpful here. In 2010, Wheatsville invested the final $50,000 that our friends at Black Star Co-op needed to open their doors. We still hold that investment to this day. This was only possible because Black Star’s bylaws allowed for cooperative organizations to be members in addition to “natural” persons. The proposed bylaws change will allow your co-op to similarly solicit investment from a broader range of sources in any future efforts to raise capital. The goal is to better equip ourselves to ensure the health and future growth of Wheatsville.

What is the worst-case scenario of this change?
Let’s address the elephant in the room. The most cynical read of this proposed change is that it would allow a corporation or privately-owned business to become a co-op member and to thereby have a voting interest in our co-op. I will not deny that this is true. However, there are a few caveats to note here that significantly curtail any negative impact that this might bring:

1. There is already nothing stopping the CEO or another officer of a corporation from joining the co-op as an individual. This would entitle them to a vote and access to summary annual financial statements, among other rights. In other words, allowing (for example) HEB to become a member has little functional difference from allowing Howard Butt to personally become a member. Their rights and access would effectively be the same.
2. A corporation joining the co-op would have exactly the same say as you or me—one single vote out of 27,338 and counting. This is not enough to have any significant level of control over our co-op.
3. This was already the case in the not-too-distant past. When I first joined the co-op as both an owner and employee in 1999, the co-op had a number of businesses and other organizations as members. Several area housing co-ops were (and still are) members. But beyond that, Ballet Austin had a membership. So too did Half-Price Books when it was still located across the street in the building now occupied by Black’s BBQ and Hopfield’s. These are but a few examples, and none of them caused significant issues for the co-op as a business.
4. The board is empowered to set expectations and capital requirements for co-op owners—including any organizational ones—through our Membership Administration Guidelines, which co-op management is then obliged to execute.
5. As a final recourse, the board also has the ability to expel any co-op member under Section 251.152 of the Texas Business Organizations Code. Thus, should a significant problem arise from this eligibility change, the board already has the tools necessary to address it.

I would absolutely understand any co-op owner having skepticism regarding this change. Were I not so involved in the process, I might feel the same way. I hope the above sheds sufficient light on the reasons for the proposed bylaws change as well as its ramifications. Like each of you reading this, Wheatsville’s board and management want to position our co-op to grow and thrive into the future through additional locations and services. Making this change to the bylaws supports this goal by protecting our current cash position and allowing us greater fundraising flexibility in the future. I hope you will join me in helping to secure your co-op’s future by voting in favor.

Thank you for your loyal patronage and support of your co-op!

BOARD of DIRECTORS CANDIDATES 2023

Cameron Tepper 

Oh, hey there, didn't see ya! My name is Cameron Tepper (he/him). Six years ago, during my first week in Austin, I visited Wheatsville and got a hug from an employee who said, "Welcome Home, Brother." I knew at that moment that Wheatsville was a special place built in cooperation, by and for the community. I would be honored to serve on the board to support the vision of Wheatsville, and work to ensure its place in Austin for another 46 years with an emphasis in equity, transparency, and communication. My hope is to expand participation in the co-op and find more moments of connections for owners and potential owners to further impact and expand the cooperative model in Texas and beyond.

You might be asking yourself, "Yeah, this guy loves that popcorn tofu, but what makes him qualified to run?". For the past 8 years, I've worked in higher education supporting students in their college career in different positions such as managing a dorm at UT Austin, working in a disability services office, and academically advising students at St. Edwards. Recently, I changed fields, and work in recruiting for a local company. In all these positions, I approached the work through an equity lens. What has made me successful is having a varied background to approach all concerns with empathy, flexibility, and a positive perspective. 

Thank you for your time and see you in the produce section!

Brandon Hines 

For the past 30 years I have been a loyal shopper of Wheatsville as my primary grocery store. I have had the honor of serving on the Wheatsville Board of Directors for the past five years, with this most recent year serving as Board President. I am excited about the prospect of continuing to serve on the Wheatsville board. For my background, I attended the University of Texas at Austin receiving a Bachelor of Science in Communication and a Master in Business Administration. I have extensive experience in technology and media and have worked across industries such as health care, entertainment and finance. I believe that I bring a unique perspective and strong passion in representing Wheatsville members and promoting cooperative principles.

Over the past five years serving on the board, I have learned so much about the co-op. As a director, I focused my efforts on financial stability, owner outreach and inclusion & diversity initiatives. Working with management we have seen a year of profitability, the board has hosted a successfully community connect session, and both staff and the board have embraced diversity training. As board president I have expanded my focus to also include expanding the cooperative economy and board perpetuation. We have been largely successful with these initiatives but have much more work to do. I hope to have your support and vote to continue my work on the board on these important initiatives.

Cody Atkins 

Hi, my name is Cody Atkins and I’ve been connected to Wheatsville for almost fifteen years. I started shopping here before the Guadalupe store renovation and was hired as an employee in 2010. I spent 11 years working in various roles from Department Manager to Category Manager. I was a part of many big projects during that time which increased the efficiency and profitability of the co-op. I’ve almost certainly met many of you in the aisles at one time or another!

Prior to my employment at Wheatsville, I worked at another Texas-based grocery store for 10 years, with two of those years in their natural foods division. Since I left Wheatsville in October of last year, I have been working on the manufacturer’s side of the grocery business so I’ve been in and around the industry for 20+ years! I believe my experience will serve the co-op well if elected.
My wife and I currently live just east of town on a few-acre homestead with our two children. We enjoy gardening, DIY projects, and spending time outdoors.

Lisa Mitchell 

I have lived in Austin for nearly 25 years, and I have been a Wheatsville owner for several years. When I’m not working at my day job, I’ve been involved in organizations that serve the humans and animals of Austin, including my prior service on the Wheatsville Board. The pandemic has helped me focus on how I want to spend my precious free time and where I want to direct my efforts.

The pandemic has made me value Wheatsville more than ever. It is one of the few places I feel safe frequenting, and I have at times used and very much appreciate the curbside service. Wheatsville’s response during the pandemic motivated me to get involved again in the Board's work. I want Wheatsville to continue to thrive and serve as a center of community. These last few years have shown the resiliency of our co-op, and I want to help try to ensure its continued success.

Joelle Williams

Though currently in the tech industry today, my first career path and passion were in retail- store operations specifically, for 20+ years. I also took some time to complete an MBA in Strategic Design- the intersection of business and design. The thread that runs through each of these experiences is continuously working to have a deep and insightful understanding for the end user/client/customer- that is my ultimate passion. My skill and thought leadership as a strategic transformation consultant has resulted in successfully helping people understand opportunities and design clear, actionable solutions over time.

Having been in Austin 5ish years, I’d like to make an impact broader than my current reach. I’ve been an owner of the COOP since I moved here and instantly felt aligned with the values of Wheatsville and the community; which speaks to my desire to apply to be a part of the BOD.

An aspect I truly appreciate about Wheastville is that you already represent what many are just beginning to talk about today- Environmental- Sustainability- Government with a side of social justice and D&I. I classify Wheatsville as an early adopter and therefore a leader of Austin’s future- a microcosm how many would like to see their day-to-day community and I would like to be a part of this future vision.

Double Up Food Bucks Program

To address the issue of food insecurity in Austin, Sustainable Food Center (SFC) and Wheatsville Food Co-op have partnered to make it easier for people using SNAP benefits to buy fruits and vegetables. 

Beginning September 1st, with funding from the City of Austin, Austin area Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) clients will get a 50% discount on fruits and vegetables at both Wheatsville Food Co-op grocery stores (4001 S. Lamar Blvd and 3101 Guadalupe St.) thanks to the Double Up Food Bucks Program from Sustainable Food Center.

This is the first program of its kind in Austin. Austin joins Lubbock and Fort Worth as the only other Texas cities to offer Double Up SNAP incentives in grocery stores.

For SFC, access to adequate amounts of nutritious, culturally appropriate food is a human right. For the last ten years, SFC has provided SNAP and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) clients with the opportunity to purchase more fruits and vegetables at farmers’ markets with their monthly benefits. 

By expanding this program into local grocery stores, SFC hopes that the Double Up Food Bucks Program will reach more Austin residents than ever before.  

Mark Bethell, Executive Director of Sustainable Food Center says “Thousands of SNAP clients have used Double Up to purchase fresh, local produce at Austin farmers’ markets. Now, SNAP clients can access their Double Up benefits every day of the week and in two convenient locations. SFC is expanding food access options for Austinites on SNAP and supporting local businesses, who in turn, support local farmers”. 

As an Austin-based retailer with a cooperative business model, Wheatsville is committed to ensuring Double Up Food Bucks works well for their customers. Wheatsville’s two locations provide convenient highway and public transportation access to residents living in South, Southeast Austin, and Central Austin near the University of Texas. 

“As Austin’s only community-owned grocer, our goal is to make sustainable, healthy food accessible to all. Double-Up Food Bucks furthers that commitment by expanding our reach. We are thrilled to partner with the Sustainable Food Center to better meet the needs of our shared community”, said Bill Bickford, Wheatsville General Manager.

BACKGROUND INFO

•  In 2021, an estimated 14.7% of Austin residents experienced food insecurity, according to Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap. This means that about 1 in 7 people in Austin can’t always access the foods they need to stay fed and healthy. 

•  Food insecurity increases the risk for chronic diseases like high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, among others (source). 

•  Food insecurity rates among Black and Latinx Austinites are approximately 3x and 2.5x higher, respectively, than for White Austinites (source). 

•  A study in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease estimated that food insecurity costs the state of Texas more than $3.1 billion in additional healthcare costs (source). 

•  The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the country’s primary food safety net program. SNAP incentives on fruits and vegetables increase purchasing power for SNAP recipients and increase access to nutritious foods for SNAP recipients and their families. (source)

•  Nationwide, SNAP incentive programs provide an additional $20 million for SNAP recipients to spend on fruits and vegetables at grocery stores (source). 

•  Almost 40,000 people in Travis County received SNAP benefits in July 2022, resulting in approximately $11.6 million entering the local economy (source).  

To learn more about Wheatsville, visit our website HERE . To learn more about SFC’s Double Up Food Bucks Program in Austin, visit their website HERE or call their bi-lingual English and Spanish Help Desk line at 512-730-1807.

Vendor of the Month - Credo, Vegan Cashew Spread & Dips

All Credo products are made from 100% plants. Yep, no animal products!

Their story

It all started when their family went plant based. Adam’s family had a history of heart disease, so they decided to adopt foods that would improve their health while also being kinder to animals and better for the planet. When they tried to get their daughter Addy to eat more plants they realized how hard it was, so Adam created Credo in order to help everyone get reintroduced to how delicious plant based meals can be.

Changes Coming to Your Delis

The Wheatsville Co-op deli has a whole new deli concept in the works! Old favorites, new twists and faster service are coming soon. 

by Bill Bickford, General Manager

In the two decades-plus that I have had the privilege of being both a customer and manager at the co-op, our delis have always been a core component of our identity—the thing people most closely associate with our brand. When I introduce myself to new people and mention that I work at Wheatsville, their first response is invariably a comment about one of our unique deli products, such as our world-famous Popcorn Tofu or our vegan donuts, among others. These iconic menu items have been a huge part of our draw over the years, keeping folks coming in week after week.

Attempting to relaunch these deli favorites coming out of the pandemic has been something of a struggle, as regular shoppers will almost certainly have noticed. Over the past year, we have seen major shifts in product costs, sales patterns, and our ability to staff food service positions. This has forced us to make some temporary adjustments, such as suspending menu items and reducing counter service hours. We want to avoid this in the future, so we took a hard look at our menu. What we have found is that some of our deli menu offerings make very little economic sense. Co-ops put people over profit, but we still need profit to be a sustainable business!

This puts your co-op in a tough position. We have several menu items that are deeply held favorites, but don’t provide what the co-op needs to cover costs. In an environment characterized by significant upward wage pressure, rapidly rising costs, and fierce competition for workers, we ultimately have no choice but to consider some menu changes.

“faster for customers and easier for staff”

Behind the scenes, your co-op’s management staff have been hard at work developing an entirely new approach to our deli counter. This new program will include several long-standing, familiar favorites presented in new and exciting ways that we simply can’t wait to show you! We believe the end result will be service that is significantly faster for customers and easier for staff to execute. While I cannot offer more details than that today, I am beyond excited to do so very soon!

That said, I would be remiss not to note that these exciting changes will also come with some inevitable sense of loss. Some of the menu offerings you have grown accustomed to over the years must be retired or take a new form in order for us to grow something new. My ask is that co-op owners and customers give these new  menu items a try or two—They might just be your new favorites. 

Our sincere hope is that, when we have completed this project, we will have a deli that delights our shoppers while also being more economically sustainable and simpler for our staff to execute. I look forward to sharing more details in the coming weeks.