Wheatsville Food Co-op will close its store at 3101 Guadalupe St. on Oct. 25, ending 45 years on The Drag, the co-op announced on Instagram. The store at 4001 S. Lamar Blvd., Ste. E, will remain open.
The details
The store is closing about two months before its lease ends Dec. 31 to allow time to move equipment and operations to South Lamar, general manager Tanya Carney told Community Impact.
“This decision was not made lightly,” she and the co-op’s board wrote in a letter published in the 2026 fall and winter newsletter. “Rising occupancy costs, declining sales and uncertainty about our ability to operate through the anticipated construction along Guadalupe have made it extremely difficult to keep this store sustainable.”
Carney credited the Guadalupe store’s success with making the South Lamar location possible and thanked the community that shopped there. Wheatsville is the only consumer-owned grocery co-op in Texas, she said.
Some context
Wheatsville first planned in May 2024 to replace the Guadalupe store with smaller neighborhood stores. In July 2025, it dropped that idea and agreed to buy two Fresh Plus stores in North Austin, then backed out of the deal that October, saying it was no longer financially viable.
What’s next
Guadalupe employees are expected to move to South Lamar, and the co-op’s nearly 30,000 owners will remain owners, Carney said. Money raised through its capital campaign will cover closing costs and investments at South Lamar.
Operating as a single store “will strengthen our finances and position us for future growth,” the letter said, though the co-op has no specific plans yet.
Closing Oct. 25
3101 Guadalupe St., Austin
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