Wilcox Strategies

10/04/2024

The advice is to "be weird" about bio-security. Not the words I would have chosen, but the sense of urgency is real. USDA says that 95 MILLION chickens in the US have been euthanized because of this disease. (Avian Influenza) It has caused bankruptcies in the industry. Not only the farmers lose their livelihood, all the staff that work at these facilities have their lives disrupted if the disease strikes and the only effective defense is near-fanatical isolation (biosecurity). Drives me crazy that I can't drive my truck on the farm anymore and can't invite friends to hunt, but a lot of people depend on this place for work and food. It's spread by wild birds and people whose clothes, shoes or vehicles have inadvertently become contaminated.

Poultry producers need to assume that any wild bird could be carrying highly pathogenic avian influenza.

07/22/2024

Kathy and I and the rest of the family just got back from our annual Wilcox Family business retreat. Every year we spend a weekend connecting to our history as a family with a mission to preserve a heritage business and our culture that keeps us together. Since my great-grandparents Betty and Judson Wilcox traded their Queen Anne Hill Seattle home for part of the farm in 1909, we have dodged business bullet after bullet. Every generation has been within weeks of bankruptcy and rebuilt the business again. We lost millions of dollars during the shutdown of many of our most important customers caused by Covid measures, during a time when our bankers were talking about asking for our homes as security. (This was made doubly painful when I was accused of profiteering by some) We've had several good years since then and nearly 30 members of our family in generations 3,4,5 and even 6 gathered last weekend to rededicate ourselves to our mission. This is only possible when we commit to honoring our family relationships and building understanding that we have to make good business decisions, too. It's hard to make two things come first, you family and your business, but unless you do that you will lose one or both.

07/17/2024

I was really glad to see Sean O'Brien, President of the Teamsters speak at the Republican convention. Many, possibly a majority of the members of private sector unions are Republican voters and their leadership knows this. I've heard from public sector union leaders that they know a significant minority of their members vote Republican. Republicans should be on the side of people who work hard in the private economy. O'Brien did just what he should have: he talked about the things we have in common and he was straight about the things on which we disagree. That's how politics should work. And Republicans should be competing for the votes of working people of all creeds, colors and identity. We have our profound dependence on the free market and the private economy in common. That's a lot.

06/21/2024

I've worked closely with the Association of Washington Business for all the 14 years Ive served in the legislature. Their efforts usually aligned well with the rural and small-town people of my 2nd LD and I'm a believer int he free-market system. They sent out an interview they did with me to their members this month. It's one of the few interviews I've done that is mostly business focused.

As he retires from the Legislature, J.T. Wilcox hopes to continue helping bring the employer voice to Olympia. He talked to AWB’s Brian Mittge about […]

05/17/2024

Probably the last long interview I will ever do on TVW. Glad it was with Austin Jenkins. My tip to newbies? When his voice gets real soft and gentle-like, brace for the stiletto under your ribs...https://tvw.org/2024/05/inside-olympia-representative-jt-wilcox/

03/28/2024

We've always felt that having board members from business backgrounds outside of Wilcox Farms was a critical part of sustaining our business survivability. We move the board meetings around to our operations in Oregon, Montana and NW WA but we often use the boardroom at the WA Historical Museum. Major topic for meetings yesterday and today was developing the newer generation of family and non-family management.

03/22/2024

Something politicians don't want to talk about: I've waited to say this until after I'm done. The reason for waiting is that like a lot of politicians, I don't want to look like I'm complaining and because doing so feeds and validates those who are creating this very serious problem.
Until I was Caucus Leader and unavoidably involved in very controversial issues I had no idea just how much online and in-person rage many politicians face. I also didn't know how much it affects one's psyche, sleep, decisions and family.
I've learned about how it affects other people in similar positions. Anything I've experienced is much worse for women, because some people become more unhinged around women and because it seems like there are more painful things that can be said about women.
There are many people, men and women who make a practice of vilifying politicians, journalists and other public figures. They also issue innumerable threats. I've learned that many people know the rules around threats and know that if you tell someone you are going to shoot them tomorrow at the capital, the police will come. If you say: "the Tree of Liberty must be watered by the blood of Tyrants and ### is a tyrant," it's threat but not definite enough to get you in trouble. Some of these people have further refined their threats by making remarks about the whereabouts of your family, or showing their weapons while hinting about you or your family.
The police can't do much. As I said, people who do these things know how much protection is provided by the 1st amendment and know where the lines are.
You might think that everyone in public life signs up for this and should be able to handle it. I don't disagree with that, but here is why everyone should be concerned. After years of this happening, I know it has changed me. Not because I'm afraid of violence, really. I'm often armed, there is good security in the capital and the odds of someone really following through on their vague hints is really, really low. But after years of seeing emails and on-lines posts from people, mostly who have never met me, talking about their hatred for me, calling me a coward, calling me a liar, a traitor, a greedy business owner...my assumption is that in every crowd there are people who really hate me and wish me nothing but misery and failure. It raises the psychic cost of every visit to crowds, especially political crowds, it diminishes my desire to take part in community events. The most important thing is that it raises the price every time I, as an elected official took a decisive action or stand, whether the people who would be angry are on the left or the right. It made it far more difficult to do my job for the voters.
So this was me, but imagine how this impacts someone who hadn't spent most of their life as an employer, as a public speaker as someone already fairly well known?
Imagine how it is for women, wives and mothers who seem to get so much more personal and extremely hateful comments. Imagine every day on-line speculation about infidelity, body shape, hair, their qualities as a wife and mother and all the foul, derisive names and descriptions that are applied just to women. It also seems that women always experience more scary comments about their children, too. It's not just elected women or journalists, either. It's most of the young women who help on campaigns, too.
As I said, politicians and journalists don't like to talk about this because to complain will always make it worse, that's why I'm writing this now.
What can you do?
If you are one of these cruel people, I don't think my writing will change you. I don't understand your motivation. I hope you change, but I don't have much faith.
If you are not one of these people normally, think before you hit enter if you are mad or if you are sending a strong message. Don't make it abusive or threatening.
Here's what I really hope you will do: Confront the people who don't behave. Let them know how normal people feel about their behavior. Let them know that they are being judged based on what they do online. If you know one of the people who organize this as a weapon, actively shun them and drive them away.
I am 100% sure this will get worse in the next 8 months. Please do your part for all of us, so we can get through this.

03/11/2024

Former Republican House Minority Leader, J.T. Wilcox (R-Yelm) and Senator Lynda Wilson (R-Vancouver), announce their retirements.

07/16/2023

Every year that the business can afford it, we try to do a Wilcox Family business retreat. It's really about the newest generations in the business getting a good briefing about the health of the business and then doing some problem solving in groups. Past topics have included turnover in our Montana processing plant and how to be a better employer for our Hispanic workers. This year the family management team presented feedback on these issues and then asked for ideas regarding how to have the strongest relationship with our contract producers. The 5th family generation, ranging in age from 33 to 3 years old had major input. There was fun, too. The farm is mostly about work, but we try to do some fun, too.

12/28/2017

As highly automated warehouse technology is deployed it will make existing investments obsolete and manual order-picking hopelessly uncompetitive. Probably means that all warehousing and distribution will be outsourced by many food companies. Also may mean that startups can do without capital investment in distribution resulting in more food supplier competition.

The NewCold cold-storage warehouse that has been under construction for about a year could have about 100 people working there by the end of 2018. The $50 million building is located on South Orchard Street near Fircrest.