Dearest Cooperators,

I just wanted to take a moment to reflect with you all on the positive. It is extremely important to focus on the “bits of honey” in life. Humans are naturally attracted to consuming the negative fearful news. We have to intentionally find the positive and shine a light on it. There are tons of great things happening every day all around the world. Here is a great website to follow: Good News Network

Inflation is not so positive on the pocketbook sure, but a real perspective is important. Did you know that Americans spend the smallest fraction of their income on food (about 6.4% on average) compared to the rest of the world? We literally have the most affordable food in the world, even with this recent inflation. There are many unsustainable and uncooperative reasons why this is the case, but I am here to focus on the positive so I will leave those out of this note. Check out this map for percent of income reference:

The pandemic disrupted everything. Climate change weather events are affecting everything too. These issues were growing prepandemic and they are not going away. This gives us all a great opportunity to reevaluate how we operate. Growing and shopping local keeps money and economic security generation in our community. It also uses less fossil fuels for transportation which means less greenhouse gas emissions in our air. Reimaging our local operating system will indeed inspire new business and new technology. How can we not be excited at the possibilities?

Voting is so important. We get to vote right now through! Voter Registration Information | Guilford County, NC Voting for candidates that put people and planet first will give us the opportunities for thriving biodiversity, poverty elimination, and ensuring that clean air and water are ours to care for. We can even reverse climate change by how we eat. How cool is that? Co-ops, farmers markets, and local farmers provide that opportunity for us. Change is life and a life well lived has lots of changing and growing happening! Demand is also huge factor. If you see any food advertised on TV, just avoid buying it. Any company that can afford a national TV commercial is most likely taking shortcuts. Those shortcuts are on the backs of workers and our precious environment that sustains us. Actually, just kill your TV and go outside instead. Vote for change, vote for healthy local foods, vote for our lives!

What else can I say? “The hippies were right”!

Recycling, composting, walking, biking, gardening, sharing food, buying from companies that are taking sustainable actions (check out: B Corp Certification demonstrates a company's entire social and environmental impact), and many more are critical steps that we can all take in adapting to a new cultural norm of caring for the very environment that sustains us 12 Ways to Live More Sustainably. Reminder to Owners - you get rewarded for making these purchases at the Co-op! You are automatically enrolled in our Taproots Rewards program, which was designed to reward you for making those better choices. Click this link for more information: Become an Owner - Deep Roots Market

Why am I even bringing this up? People, we have all the power. Understanding this power and how to use it cooperatively with our dollars and votes is so important to take it back and make a better future. Deep Roots Market literally exists to serve this purpose. Also, I just started grad school for Sustainability and Environment for the purpose of educating people on the importance of Co-ops for a sustainable future and I am all fired up!

More good news? You all have raised enough money now that we can increase the LIMe discount! Starting November 1st, the discount will go up to 20% off! I am so proud of our front end team who really owned this program and push to ask! Also, THANK YOU!

I have so much more to share, but I do not want to scare anyone off with a long note, so I will end with a fun teaser. Next year’s Annual Owner Meeting is going to be an amazing event offsite. Mark your calendar for May 6th, 2-5pm. We are super excited to show you a good time! More details are coming to you after the new year. We want to celebrate cooperation and thank you for making it happen!

See you in the aisles,

Nicole, GM

Dearest Co-op Community,

Hi there, hello. It feels like a year has passed since I last reached out with a greeting and some news to share. It feels like coming up for air after working on a long-term underwater emergency building project. I do have lots of great news to share with you all. First, we made it through another year operating the best grocery store in Greensboro during a global pandemic and we are still here, stronger than ever before. 

2021 was our biggest sales year in Deep Roots' history (almost $5.5 million!). We are attracting some great talent to the Co-op. You can literally taste the difference on the hot bar. We are expanding the salad bar options too. We are working on a smoothie menu and are going to launch the program very soon. We are offering more Owner deals and bonuses than ever before. Our entire grocery department has been or is about to be reset with more and better options. We have reached out and made commitments with more local farmers of color. Our buyers don’t give up. If we can’t get something from a distributor, we go direct. We have been told by several new customers that we have the best customer service in town. This is the Co-op difference.

Although the challenges of a contagious virus keep us on our toes and disrupted deliveries keep us exhausted and push us past a normal day’s work, we keep showing up and improving your Co-op. You too have shown up and participated economically and that makes all the difference! This is why we do what we do, for community, for everyone, for the good of all. This pandemic and all of its related challenges have allowed us to shine and show why we exist. Your kindness keeps us going.

Humans coming together for a common good builds our individual and collective strength. Cheers to a New Year filled with community love, fresh local foods, healthy minds and bodies, and taking a seat at the great big table of how we move forward together for everyone.

See you in the aisles,

Nicole Villano, GM

*PS. In an effort to continue serving you, we go the extra mile every day taking extreme precautions to keep the store clean and each other safe. We are asking that everyone wear a mask while shopping, despite vaccination status or what your thoughts are on the matter. People are working here with health issues and anxiety. Just put a mask on, please. Ask if you forgot yours. We’ve got your back.

This has turned out to be a great time to try something new!

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to be felt in many aspects of our lives. One that is particularly challenging for our co-op is the impact on our food supply-demand for many products exceeding supply, reducing our ability to keep our shelves fully stocked to meet the needs of our Owners and Guests.

Early in the pandemic, panic buying was the cause of many of the out-of-stock situations that grocers experienced. Although the food industry was able to rebound somewhat, the sustained nature of the pandemic, combined with the slow pace of vaccination globally and the recent surge caused by the Delta variant, have resurfaced the problem. Many raw materials are scarce, and labor shortages persist for national manufacturers, distributors, and transportation companies.

Frozen foods, baking products, snacks, supplements, beverages, paper products, household cleaners, and pet foods have been particularly affected, but our co-op has experienced out-of-stocks in many categories.

While the food industry is taking many steps to mitigate the problem, recovery estimates continue to be pushed out, and out-of-stocks on some products from national suppliers are likely through the end of the year.

On the bright side, our co-op works with local farmers and producers, and the supply of these items remains relatively stable. We may have to offer new or different brands or fewer flavors or sizes on some familiar ones, but whenever we cannot stock an item, we will do our best to find and provide you with substitutes. We encourage you to try something new, and when in doubt or if you need assistance, please ask!

Our food system is robust, and we will resolve these challenges in time. Thank you for your support and patronage as we continue to navigate the effects of the pandemic. We’re all in this together!

Cooperatively Yours,

Nicole Villano, GM

Dear Deep Roots Co-op Community,

We have been trying to prepare ourselves for another ride in the masking mandated world. We are not looking forward to this. We are used to masking ourselves and have not stopped since we started. We are used to extra cleaning and have not stopped that either. We care about our community!

“Policing” the public is traumatizing. We are kind and caring people here and are not interested in upsetting anyone, ever. Heck, we prefer making you food and seeing you smile as a general vibe. We are, however, very interested in moving past the “time of COVID” and realize that this is part of the process. Looking back to March 2020, I remember thinking that this was going to be something that we would be dealing with for at least 2 years, so I am not surprised we are moving into this period again.

I can’t tell you how proud I am of the Deep Roots Team! I probably fail to communicate how wonderful, gritty, tenacious, and kind your Co-op team really is. This is no easy industry to be in right now. Handling major shifts and adapting to constant changes coming at us has reached a new level that I have never seen before. These fearless folks continue to push the Co-op towards excellence, even during a global pandemic when most everyone we know has been at home and getting paid to not go into work!

I am asking everyone to be kind to your Co-op people as we shift back into this difficult operation of REQUIRING MASKS. Starting at 5 pm Friday 8/13, you must wear a mask to shop at Deep Roots Market. If you forgot yours, no problem, just ask for one. We still have lots of great reusable ones to choose from and we encourage you to buy those (masks cost us money - money that could be put towards wage increases, which I am trying to make happen in a very tumultuous time in our economy).

Other news subject to possible changes - our Return Policy will remain intact. We will keep the café open with the same request that you do not linger more than eating your meal. The Community Room will remain open to bookings with these expectations - wear a mask, clean up after yourself (sanitizer is in the room for your use), maximum 10 people. We love chatting, sharing information, and even hugging, but please just wave or throw us a peace sign for now. We are busier than ever and crave distraction from the stress.

Reminders - we offer no rainchecks on any deals. In this market where catfish jumps from $3/lb. to $10/lb. overnight, it is not a wise or healthy practice. Online shopping is working well for us. You can use Mercato or Instacart. You can pick up or get delivery. You can even call and place a special order and we will bring them out to your car.

There are so many ways we can serve each other and I sincerely believe that this is our purpose in life. So now is another great opportunity for us to let our humanity shine. Join us! The world has never been so ripe for Cooperation!

See you in the aisles (with cute masks),

Nicole Villano, your GM

Dear Deep Roots Community,

I just wanted to take a few moments to reflect on freedom and what that means in the world of cooperation. As an Anthropologist, I have always been aware of the lack of freedom for so many people, especially in our food systems. I chose to become a Cooperator as a way to help fight against those injustices and to push our culture to make better choices. I love that Deep Roots is committed to only carry Fair Trade chocolate, palm oil, and coffee (just to name a few), and some of the biggest slave-based industries on the planet. Check out your personal impact {Slavery Footprint Survey}. I love how food co-ops basically exist as a model for how we can all live our best lives and hurt no one in the process. It is why we created the {Tap Roots Program} (scroll down this page to learn more). I wanted to create a guide and incentive to get our community to vote with their food dollars. We are making a difference. Yay!

Hey, you guys raised $1,466.15 in June for the East White Oak Community Center through our Round-Up Program. Bravo!

I am thrilled to announce that our beloved Community Room is now back open and ready for you to book {Community Room}. The break was good for us to be able to solve some issues that we were having with bookings, and the space was also utilized for some programs that served the immunocompromised, the ill and the elderly who were shut in over the past year. We worked with Cone Health’s Triad Health Network to prepare food boxes to be delivered and Deep Roots Volunteers who shopped for customers. Those programs will continue, but with a lower volume now. You will now find a small booking fee. This fee is only to combat the overbooking and no showing that was starting to snowball pre-pandemic. It also covers the labor involved in keeping up with the administration of those bookings.

You may notice some changes in the store and we hope that you like them. Bear with us as we get through it and please ask if you can’t find your favs. They might have been moved. We are expanding fresh food options through the Deli and the Ready Roots Program. Smoothies are next on the list. Also, we have been working hard to bring you the best that we have access to and developing systems that make our operations smoother. I am currently doing a wage analysis so that your staff are receiving fair and competitive wages too. This is something that I have wanted to do since I started this work. Did you know that our full-time staff get free basic medical health coverage? Yay!

Summer is a great time for dreaming up new potential for your Co-op, gathering with loved ones, spending time in nature, and eating from the local abundance. Enjoy the warmth, embrace the beauty, smell the flowers, make that garden salad, and eat those cookies and berry fresh pies! We love you!

See you in the aisles,

Nicole Villano, GM