Food Production and Office Move

The market plans to move the bread and pastry bakery, the food kitchen, and the offices to Hillsborough. Here is a letter I sent to several local newspapers about the move:

The scheduled move of Weaver St. Market’s “food production facilities” and offices to Hillsborough will result in a loss of around 80 jobs for Carrboro and have a detrimental effect on the town and the environment.
The environmental impacts are the most obvious: 80 workers driving 24 miles each work day equals around 2000 miles a day. That is a lot of carbon emission, and it doesn’t include the added distribution miles of having a non-centrally located “production and office facility”.
The workers will suffer most directly: adding an hour of driving onto their daily work routine; for many, having to buy a car; leaving their work community in vibrant downtown Carrboro; and for the bakers, having to start work at 2 a.m. instead of 4 a.m., to allow for extra distribution time.
Most of the food kitchen staff is Hispanic, live in Carrboro, and do not drive to work. The impact on the Hispanic community is unclear. Some may move to Hillsborough and some may be forced to quit, weakening the fabric of an important piece of our community.
Carrboro businesses should also not be happy about 80 downtown jobs leaving. That loss translates to a lot of lunches, dinners, drinks, shopping, etc., done elsewhere.
Ruffin Slater lists some benefits of the move in the latest Weaver St. newsletter, but they fail to persuade me that Weaver St. would be following its mission or benefiting the consumer-owners. Additionally, I would miss the fresh-baked bread and pastries, the fresh hot-bar, and my friends whom I would no longer see walking to work or taking a break on the market lawn.