Our television screens show a small town on the verge of rebirth. The reality for residents is not easy to understand.
I was expecting to be impressed by the Magnolia empire when I arrived. I assumed the Silos and other Magnolia-owned properties in town must be worth the hype after I learned that tourism in the area had doubled in the last four years. I was more absorbed by the city's unique places and culture than the places locals said were going to disappear as Magnolia took over.
The goal has always been to lift up the city of Waco. Instead, they're creating a utopia that caters to a small group of people.
Representatives for the couple didn't reply to Insider's request for comment.
Although just 139,594 people live in Waco, it has a reputation for tragedies so bad they get national attention. The F-5 tornado that killed 114 and injured 600 was the first tornado to hit the area. The city is still growing. The Branch Davidians cult compound was the site of a 51 day FBI siege that ended in a fire that killed 76 people. A biker shoot out stained the city. There were nine deaths, 20 wounded, and 177 people in police custody after the fight. It seemed like a break wasn't going to happen.
The city's luck seemed to have turned when the couple landed their deal with the network. He first saw her in a photo at her father's shop, and then he came by to see her. The sparks flew when they finally met.
The couple became business owners after they married. The original Magnolia Market was opened by Chip andJoanna in 2004. They began flipping houses at the same time. Their big break came in 2012 when they were asked to film a renovation series. The pilot of "Fixer Upper" was watched by 1.9 million people.
Magnolia became an empire during the show's five year run. They released a furniture line with Target and renovated home after home. The Silos, a brick-and-mortar store for fans to shop for their candles, gardening supplies, and furniture, opened in 2015. The Silos has 11 stores, a coffee shop, a bakery, and a lot of food trucks. Magnolia Table was opened by the Gaineses later in the year.
I saw the Silos for the first time in February, when middle-aged, white couples, and young, mostly white families were carrying bags. Children played with balls in front of the famous Silos towers, and others took to a miniature baseball field to pass the time while their parents were shopping. A restored church sits on a lawn next to cottage boutiques and almost all of the buildings are white. The grass on the outside of the Silos is real, so dogs can go to the bathroom. One Magnolia staffer told me that they thought of everything.
Magnolia branding is found in nearly everything at the Silos. The open water brand was created by the Gaineses. The aluminum bottles have a message from chip about plastic pollution. I didn't see any recycling bins at the Silos.
I visited the Silos for three days and it was almost completely surrounded by construction. There was a white building across from the back entrance that looked similar to the rest of the cottages. The shoppers thought it would be a Magnolia store. The Magnolia Hotel is going to be renovated a few blocks away. Fans will be able to tour the renovated castle from July to October of this year. They were trying to turn Waco into a tourist destination rather than a stop on the way to Dallas and Austin.
The two succeeded in many ways. Some visitors make day trips from other parts of Texas to see the world of Magnolia while others cross the country to see it. Between 30,000 to 35,000 people come to the Silos each week, and that number jumps even higher during Magnolia's birthday celebration that doubles as a festival full of vendors.
Seeing Magnolia in person is what most "Fixer Upper" fans wanted it to be. As I walked the grounds, I heard visitors say "amazing" or "awesome" many times. People were as impressed by the grounds as they were by the products, and nearly everyone carried a Magnolia- branded bag. Someone whispered, "This is so pretty." She asked how they were able to make it so pretty.
The Magnolia effect has been a good thing for the city. The population has been increasing since 2015, leading to new housing developments in the city. There were almost 130,000 people living there in 2015. The number went up to 135,858 by the year 2019. In 2015, 29% of the population lived in poverty, compared to 26.2% in 2019.
A non-Magnolia-owned satellite industry full of businesses that cater to tourists has arisen as a result of the rise ofChip andJoanna. Milo's All Day is a newer restaurant that serves food after a day of shopping. "Fixer Upper" alumni David and Rachel Ridley run a business called "Waco Tours" that brings fans of the show to the area.
The tour lasts two and a half hours and includes a free ice cream stop. The tour doesn't shy away from the fact that most people who visit town are there because ofChip andJoanna My guides made fun of the legendary duo.
"Any tourist business that's a part of our city is absolutely riding the coattails of what they started," said the company's director of marketing. We are thankful for that.
"They're real people, and we respect their privacy, even though tourists come for them," he said. We want to showcase our city, not because of the fame and notoriety of individuals, but because of the story that we think matters to all people coming through town.
The Magnoliafied areas of town were different from the rest of the city. Most of the buildings in town are older and the neighborhoods I saw weren't full of renovated homes. "Fixer Upper" houses sit next to properties that haven't been updated in a long time. The grease pit is a strip of fast-food restaurants located just down the street from the Silos. The Magnolia Table is surrounded by highways and has people waiting in line for hours to eat.
People told me that the real Waco is getting lost in the Magnolia boom. Increasing property taxes have led to gentrification. The trends for downtown and East Waco, a historically Black neighborhood, are sloping downward as the population and prosperity of the city increases.
The population decreased most in East Waco. The city has the lowest median household income. According to the Snapshot Report, a neighborhood in East Waco had a median household income of $20,782 in 2019. The locals say the development benefits newcomers.
In the last year, hundreds of new jobs have been created in the city by the opening of a Hello Bello factory in the area. According to the associate director of community relations and cultural wealth at Baylor University, these blue-collar jobs are often going to people who have recently moved to the area.
A representative for Hello Bello told Insider that the company opened their first US diaper factory in Waco. Hello Bello is the only independent diaper company in the US to make their own diapers from design to delivery. The custom, state-of-the-art, 312,000- square-foot integrated facility was brought to life by the Magnolia design team who assisted on general design, staging, and visual merchandising.
When I referred to it as a small town, Peacock corrected me, saying that he had never seen an episode of Fixer Upper. He said thatWaco is a small city.
At Grassroots Community Development, Peacock worked to make sure that residents were involved in the development of their neighborhoods, rather than being forced to adjust to it when it comes. He told me that he and his colleagues tried to slow down some of the changes in order to keep residents in the area.
Some residents think that some of the charm has faded. A waitress in downtown Waco told me she can't see the stars at night because she lives in a suburb. She doesn't like them.
I met Ritter at the fair trade market. The place has been open since 2006 and is a breakfast spot as well as a marketplace for independent sellers from around the world. The kitschy space was only an eight-minute drive from the Silos, but it felt worlds away from the clean lines of Magnolia.
He has lived in the area for two decades. Even though she's only been to the Silos once, she's always dealing with tourists because she works downtown.
I asked Ritter if he knew how busy a lunch would be based on the number of tourist buses there were. She said tourists ask her where they can find the couple. She doesn't let them know.
She lives in a suburb with her family. She may be forced out of her home because of the increased taxes. She doesn't want her daughter to have to change schools and she's frustrated that the positive developments brought by the Gaineses rarely benefit long time residents.
She thinks the Gaineses have done a good job for the city.
She said she loved Waco. It's a good place to live. The growing pains are more difficult than I thought.
Waco is not magnolia. It's a town that's hard to understand.
He hopes that tourists can see that there is more to the area than just the Magnolia Market and the Silos.
He told me to come for Chip and Jo.
As they talked about the Waco they know, I could hear the love in their voices. I found out fairly quickly that it isn't perfect.
The city of Waco has a lower median household income and a higher poverty rate than other Texas cities. White residents had a median household income of $48,905, while black residents had a median income of $26,464. People of color make up the majority of the population in the city, while the surrounding suburbs are mostly white, according to a report.
I remember when I was a college student in Alabama that Waco reminded me of that part of the state. As I walked through town, I heard dozens of "bless yous" and "thank Gods" as I was asked to bless the tour. A car-service driver who told me I could take my mask off as soon as I got into his car had a camouflage hat on with a reference to Biden and Harris on it. He said that it was because I kept my mask on in another car that I lived in.
"Fixer Upper" and "Fixer Upper: Welcome Home" give us a vague version of a traditional Southern lifestyle, but there is a stark difference between the two. The closest the Gaineses have come to announcing any political affiliation was in 2021, when they donated $1,000 to Shannon Braun's campaign for a school board seat. The Dallas Observer reported that Braun ran on an anti-critical race theory platform and said it was the most divisive threat to education. When Insider first reported on the matter, neither Chip nor Braun responded to any questions.
Some people in town were anti-gay. The driver who picked me up from the airport told me that he moved to Waco because his son was going to be forced to learn about homosexuality. It's not the first time that I've heard of homophobia in the area. The couple came under fire after it was reported that their pastor spoke out against same-sex marriage.
At the time of the article's publication, there was a now-unavailable post on the Magnolia website.
The post said thatJoanna and I have personal convictions. We care about you because you are our neighbor on planet earth. It's not about what color your skin is, how much money you have in the bank, your political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender, Nationality or faith.
There was an article published by The Hollywood Reporter.
"The accusations that get thrown at you, like you're a racist or you don't like people in the LGBTQ community, that's the stuff that really eats my lunch - because it's so far from who we really are," she said.
Same-sex couples have never been featured on "Fixer Upper" or "Fixer Upper: Welcome Home." I was wondering if there wasn't enough people who were comfortable with being out in town who would allow the Gaineses to film them.
Magnolia lovers or those benefiting from the tourist influx are likely to be thrilled by the idea of a "Fixer Upper" themed restaurant. There are still a lot of people who feel out of place because of the growth ofChip andJoanna.
My waiter at Balcones Distilling, an award-winning whiskey distillery in town, told me he's lived in the area for most of his adult life. The city keeps changing, and he thinks the Gaineses have their thumb in everything.
He said that when he tells people he lives in Waco, they think ofChip andJoanna. It is sad.
He was frustrated that Magnolia's growth has caused his cost of living to go up. He feels like he doesn't need to be in the city anymore, and he's thinking about leaving.
A college student and waiter at Milo's All Day told me there wasn't much to do on the weekends. He likes that the cost of living is low, but he didn't have many positive things to say about the city. As soon as he graduates, he's moving to California.
Magnolia will grow in leaps and bounds. The premiere of "Fixer Upper: Welcome Home" and the launch of the Magnolia Network will only increase interest in the world of the Gaineses. More tourists will be drawn to the Silos now that the Magnolia Hotel is open.
"They run it like an amusement park, so they're always going to have to add to it," the waiter said.
You can take the bus through the park, which has hiking trails and scenic views. The park is beautiful but I was most interested in the golden bamboo. It was originally planted to help prevent erosion, but has taken over the entire green space and pushed out some of the native species.
Waco seems to have embraced the bamboo rather than fighting the invaders. The 40-foot bamboo stalks hitting each other on windy days sounds like a wind chime in a 2020 video from the parks and recreation department.
The bamboo on the park's walking trails is nice to hear when you're out here with your friends and family.
The bamboo has become a way to get people into the area. You head to a trail to check out the bamboo and see all of the other greenery in the space. It is a victory for the city and the plant.
The same impact can be had byChip andJoanna. They already have the resources and platform to draw people to the city, but instead of continuing to create a Waco that is in their vision, they could work with locals to show off and lift up the parts of town that already shine
Magnolia has itineraries that tourists can use to plan their trips. Only one of the four provides stops at locations that aren't on the Gaineses' property, and they don't list any restaurants or stores that aren't Magnolia-owned. Magnolia could make a world of difference for the businesses I visited in town.
The Silos is separated from the rest of downtown by fencing. Magnolia Table is far away from anything to do in the area. Tourists could be in close proximity to locally owned and operated restaurants and stores if the businesses opened next to local spots.
They can coexist and help each other. It was heard from residents many times. If they grow with the community or create their own, it will be up to them. Magnolia can be a draw for people who want to see what the original Waco looked like.
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