And to think, it all got started with three sharp dressed men...

Wheatsville Co-Op is celebrating its 30th birthday this year, so we lit the candles on an organic flour cake and asked general manager Dan Gillotte to break out the baby photos and share a few stories of the store’s wayward youth.

In the 1960s and 70s, Austin had its small share of co-ops… but for one reason or another, they all went the way of the dodo. Wheatsville’s founders, Gillotte explains, came from what he calls that “crucible of co-ops.” They had learned from their mistakes, and were ready to build something important and lasting.

Planning for the long term meant doing things a little differently. The product mix had to be more diverse; sure, they’d stock organic rice and tofu, but alongside conventional products as well. “The idea was not to be dogmatic about the stock,” Gillotte says. “They wanted to be a neighborhood grocery to their shoppers,” rather than an out-of-the-way stop for special occasions only. “Most co-ops are more ‘pure,’” he continues. “Wheatsville promotes local and organic, but we’re very responsive to our members in what we carry.”

With their guiding principles defined, the founders now needed some seed money. And, just like in most stories worth telling, it was ZZ Top to the rescue. The UT Students’ Association sponsored a concert which provided $13,000 in start-up capital, and the founders turned that money into their dream. On March 16, 1976, Wheatsville opened the doors of its original location at 29th and Lamar and began, one member at a time, to become an Austin institution.

And so the store was born, and christened… and, about five years later, it hit a growth spurt. Unable to squeeze its selection into its original space any longer, the co-op moved down the road to its current location at 3101 Guadalupe. Through the 1980s, the store continued to redefine itself, and what it meant to the city.

“It used to be that the food was all that mattered,” Gillotte says. “But as natural foods became more popular, they were carried by everyone. Wheatsville had to consider what they had to offer to differentiate themselves.” The answer? A locally-owned, community store that was both convenient and comfortable, providing a family atmosphere where shoppers felt at home… and had the opportunity, through membership, to truly make it their own.

A good deal of making the store comfortable, Gillotte says, is keeping it from becoming overwhelming to its patrons. By working to reduce “hyperchoice,” Wheatsville can offer a range of quality products, but still keep its aisles big enough so that shoppers don’t feel crushed by options. “We don’t have 800 kinds of olive oil,” he offers as an example. “But we have the ones you want.”

In its late teens (during the mid-90s), the store–like many of us–faced troubled times. During this challenging period, then-GM Dan Poe put out a call to the members: If you’ve ever cared, come back.

Thankfully, the members cared. They came back, and they stayed, building a store that was better than ever. “We became a major, thriving concern in that time,” Gillotte recounts. Since he became GM in 1998, the store has nearly doubled its sales; in fact, in the last two years, the store has grown faster than at any point in its history.

Clearly, Austin is the perfect place for a store with Wheatsville’s standards, and they’ve done a fantastic job of reciprocating. Listing all the locally-produced and Texas-based products on their shelves would be a daunting task for this magazine. “We’re often the first place a new vendor will go,” Gillotte says. “We don’t have all the bureaucratic hoops to jump through.” This responsive, flexible attitude has allowed Wheatsville to be among the first to stock brands like Goodflow and White Mountain, and they’ve just become the first official vendor of Casa De Luz tamales. Visit someday when you can spare the time to stroll the aisles; we promise, you won’t leave disappointed, or empty-handed.

And you’ll know that the money you spend at Wheatsville goes to improving Wheatsville. “Stronger business means we can give more money to charity, we can pay the staff better… and we can look at expansion,” Gillotte explains. That expansion, projected for sometime in 2007, will see an increase in retail square footage, a renovated shopping environment, and bigger sections for items like produce, meat, seafood, and prepared foods.

If you have interest in becoming a member, helping contribute to the expansion, or just learning about the history and philosophy of the co-op movement, please take the time to visit www.wheatsville.coop to find out more. Wheatsville’s story is 30 years strong, and still being written every day; they’d love for you to become a part of that story.

After all, this is clearly a store with legs… and they know how to
use ‘em.