Why is Weavers Way Germantown taking so long to open?

For months, Germantown residents and Weavers Way members have been anticipating the opening of the Northwest Philly food co-op’s new location at Chelten Avenue and Morris Street. When the Germantown store was first announced in May 2022, its opening was targeted for summer 2023. Six months later, when the co-op landed a $1 million grant for the project, the opening date had shifted to autumn 2023.

Autumn and winter have come and gone, but the gleaming new windows and doors at 328 W. Chelten Ave. remain papered over. Whispers of February, March, and April opening dates swirled around the neighborhood, but nothing concrete materialized. People craving walkable access to the member-owned grocery store’s selection of local, organic, and bulk goods — items mostly elusive outside of the neighborhood farmers markets — have started clamoring for a date on social media: “When when when? So eager,” one commenter wrote earlier this month in a Germantown Facebook group. When a neighbor suggested May, the response was predictable: “May. Arrgh.”

The frustration is mutual, said Weavers Way general manager Jon Roesser. ”If you walked in [the store] right now, you would be like ‘What’s stopping you from stocking the shelves and getting started?’ because it’s finished — except for this major piece of equipment.”

The source of the holdup is the store’s main circuit breaker, which was slated to ship earlier this year, in time for a late February opening.

For months, Weavers checked in with Siemens, the breaker’s manufacturer, who told them the breaker was all but done, save for a computer chip from a third party. “Literally every week, they’re like, ‘Yeah, it hasn’t arrived. It hasn’t arrived. It hasn’t arrived,” Roesser said. “The thing that was frustrating is we didn’t know where this chip was coming from. We didn’t know if it was on a boat stuck in customs or if it was overseas or what. We’re just in this incredible state of limbo.”

Last week, Roesser got good news: Siemens had shipped the breaker. It arrived in Philadelphia Tuesday morning. “I haven’t been this excited to get a package since I was a little boy on Christmas morning,” Roesser said.

That kicks off a series of actions that, if all goes accordingly, will result in Weavers Way Germantown opening May 15 — tentatively.

Anyone who’s taken a look at their home’s circuit breaker panel may wonder, A whole month to install a breaker? According to Roesser, this breaker is 6 feet tall, weighs 500 pounds, and shuts down the tremendous amount of power running through the store in the event of a huge power surge. Beyond that, its arrival sets in motion a cascade of final-hour hoop-jumping.

Now that the breaker is here, PECO will come out and shut down the transformer connecting the store to the power grid. Weavers Way’s electrician will hook up the breaker, running a conduit underneath the new store’s parking lot. That process should take a week altogether.

“Once that’s done, PECO can turn the power back on,” Roesser said. That gives Weavers Way the green-light to switch on the store’s refrigeration. “We have to give it a few days to make sure that everything is holding proper temperature. Then we can have the health inspector come out.”

Health Department certificate in hand, the city’s Licenses and Inspection department will come out to inspect the store’s adherence to safety and fire codes. “They’ll issue the certificate of occupancy and once that happens then we can start to stock the shelves,” Roesser said.

It’ll take a week to fill the shelves — five days for nonperishable items and two days for perishables. (The store will have everything from fresh produce to hot rotisserie chickens to a wellness section.) Then, and only then, can the store finally open.

Roesser said prospective Weavers Way Germantown customers have been understanding of the delay, “but you can tell, inevitably, people are also anxious, like, ‘Let’s get it open,’” he said. “It won’t be too much longer now.”