Self care
Q: THANK YOU for writing the cover story "Self Care" in the October 2020 issue of the Reader. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the article and agreed with most every point that was made! As someone who is a self proclaimed "health freak" I am always looking for ways to increase my health and happiness. I used to focus solely on food and now am understanding how important so many other areas are in overall health such as social connection, joy, sense of community, time spent outdoors, etc. All of these areas your article covered in a an easy to understand yet comprehensive fashion. I have already set aside my issue of The Reader to share with others. We're all here together!
A: Yay!!! That makes me so happy to hear. I'm glad it was useful to you. I learned a lot from it too. Andy is a great and thoughtful writer. I'll pass along your feedback to him. I'm sure it'll make his day, as it did mine. Take care! -Liz Wermcrantz, Editor
Feeling safe
Q: I just wanted to say thank you, thank you, thank you for going the extra mile to make shoppers feel safe throughout the pandemic. I've noticed some less than kind comments in the newsletter lately, so I wanted to make sure y'all know how much your work is appreciated. I haven't gotten my groceries anywhere else since the pandemic began and I have no plans on changing that - you all rock!!
A: Thank you, thank you, thank you for the kind words. I will make sure to share this email with the staff. I really do appreciate hearing this and we will continue to keep the best interest of our staff and shoppers in mind when making decisions during the pandemic. Please take the best care. -Amanda Ikens, Owner Resources Coordinator-East
Personal containers
Q: Hello! I recently moved to Madison and I'm excited to become a regular at your stores. I was wondering what type of restrictions you have on bringing in personal containers for buying in bulk? Thanks for the guidance!
A: Welcome to Madison! Good question—Public Health has recently begun to allow bulk goods to be sold again, and we're working to get our bulk aisles ready. At this time, reusable containers are not allowed due to Public Health restrictions, but we will have paper and plastic bags available for you to use.
Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with. Best regards, Liz Hawley. Education and Outreach Coordinator
Bulk code lookup
Q: The bulk code lookup tool on this page isn't working: https://www.willystreet.coop/pages/bulk-department. It was working a few months ago, but now all I see is [view:plu_look_up=embed_plu] under "What Did I Buy?" Please help! Thanks!!
A: You can look up products including bulk on our e-commerce website, which can be found at the "Shop" link in the upper right hand corner of the home page. On the e-commerce site, just type the PLU number into the search bar. The PLU lookup feature on our main website has not worked for some time and I'll make sure it is removed. Sorry for the confusion! Take care, Ellie Habib. Webmaster
Wonderful service
Q: I have intended many times to let you know what wonderful service I had when I picked up my Sept. 10 order and weekly boxes. Wish I had asked the name of the young man (when one is 77, everyone looks young) brought my groceries out at Willy North. They were boxed, and one box appeared the right size for the weekly box. As he placed the boxes on the floor in back as I requested, I asked if somehow he was delivering the subscription as well and he said would bring those out too. I expected to wait because I’d arrived toward the end of my hour, 1-2, so that I could then get the subscription boxes in the same trip. It happened the truck had just arrived, so there was a delay for which he apologized as he put the boxes on the back seat and then BELTED THEM IN for stability. All this time, there was just a spit of rain on the wind.
I felt so very cared for with this kindness, and I hope you can figure out who he is to pass along my most sincere thanks.
Willy Street peeps are the best!
A: I hope this finds you well. I believe you are talking about our colleague Patrick. If so, you are absolutely correct in your assessment of his awesomeness. Patrick is truly delightful and we so appreciate his presence here at Willy North.
Be well and I'll make sure he is well aware of your kind words. -gianofer fields, Owner Resources Coordinator-North
Standing in line
Q: I stopped on Sunday at the north side Willy's. I had to stand in line to enter. ( I understand and appreciate why) I had to stand in line to check out (18 people in line). When I left 24 people in line to enter. With only three registers open. More people where in line then where shopping. Also overheard three employees saying they were going to go extra slow to face the store. Why would anyone be facing the store when registers where no being used. I have never had a problem getting rung up at Trader Joes but it continues to be a problem at north side willies. I very much appreciate this store, but it is not run with the customer in mind. Very frustrating. ( I use to be a manager at Walgreens so I have had some retail experiences.) Thank You
A: Thank you for writing, and I'm sorry this was your experience at Willy North.
I understand it must have been incredibly frustrating to hear employees saying they were going to go extra slow to face the store. The reason this was said is because Sunday was our quarter-end inventory and we had an external company come in that morning to count our Grocery and Wellness departments. Typically after they finish counting, the shelves are very disorganized and products are frequently pushed in front of incorrect shelf tags. Our employees take extra time facing the store after inventory to ensure everything is in the correct place.
For the safety of customers and employees we are currently using every other register so we can maintain social distancing. Typically three registers are enough to manage the number of people we are allowing in the store, however sometimes things do get backed up. We acknowledge this is unacceptable and have installed additional barriers at the checkouts so we can open more registers.
Thanks again for taking the time to share your feedback. -Jenny Skowronek, Store Director—North
Environmental awareness
Q: I've been here 2+ years now, after leaving Madison in 1990 to teach. It's a great city. (One of the best things about the old Madison was the network of coops.) I understand that the Northside store was created to fill a sort of grocery store vacuum in the area, and that as a result the products are a little more mainstream than in other stores. But it seems to me that the store could fulfill that mission without compromising core values of great coops. Today I bought a small "artisan" pie from a local bakery. Looking over the list of ingredients I discovered "palm fruit oil". If you google this you discover a number of things about palm oil which are disturbing. Why are we carrying *any * products with palm oil?! Shame. And why carry toilet paper products that are the lowest on the scale of environmentally friendly? I think there needs to be a good long look at how the values of the coop align with those of being environmentally aware and responsible.
A: I appreciate your feedback and comments. It is always good to be reminded about how we can do better. We try our best to make sure that any brands with products that contain palm oil are using sustainable palm oil, but we do not have a prohibition on non-sustainable palm oil. I will reach out to my co-workers and stress the importance of our properly vetting product ingredients to make sure we avoid it.
There are many shoppers who are looking for affordable options, and often these are not in alignment with our environmental values. We try our best to find a balance, but I know that does not sit well with everyone. Lately, making sure we have toilet paper is equally as important as many producers fall behind. I hope that you can understand that there are many among us that are just trying to make ends meet.
Thank you for taking the time to reach out to us. I appreciate hearing from you! -Dean Kallas, Grocery Category Manager
Many thanks
Q: Ever since the beginning of the April, when masks and social distancing were acknowledged as a way to help deter the passing of the CORONA-19 virus, the Co-op has been my primary grocery shopping place (I shop at Willy West) because I felt so much safer there than any other store with your required mask wearing and occupancy limits. You have continued with your requirements, and for that I'm very grateful! While I try to limit driving to limit my carbon footprint, I do drive extra miles to come to the Co-op, but try to limit how often. I was also so pleased to see that we can once again have access to bulk items, bring our own shopping bags, and continue to have occupancy limits. Together, doing what is best for everyone will help us get through this unfortunate crisis! Many, many thanks to the staff and board for doing what is best.
A: Thanks for writing in with your kind words and gratitude. I appreciate your support of our policies!
Take care, -Liz Hawley, Education and Outreach Coordinator
Giveaways
Q: I cannot enter to win the giveaway dehydrator because I don't use social media. so sad.
A: Thank you for the feedback, and I'm sorry that it took me a while to get back to you. We did have two of the four giveaways on social media platforms, and two with entry on our website, with the largest giveaway on our website (the chest freezers). We are trying to build our following on Facebook and Instagram, and having the giveaways there did what we expected, although—as you point out - a drawback is inaccessibility for some Owners who don't use one or both of those social media platforms. We are working on a way where Owners can enter through social media or our website, with all entries being put into one group to draw from. That way Owners can enter using any of these methods while we still build our profile on social media. We will keep working toward that solution!
Thanks again for sharing your feedback. Take care and be well! -Brendon Smith, Communications Director
Owner rewards
Q: Can you put a couple of weeks of owner reward flyers on the website? I make a lot of decisions based on what's on sale. These days, I'm doing all my grocery shopping online with the pick-up option. Because of the delay between shopping and being able to pick up (while I'm writing this, it's a 7 day delay), I can't see what's going to be on sale. That means that I need to place my order, and then go back in, in a few days, and make changes and email those changes to you. It's not a particularly convenient system for you or for me.
A: Thanks for your suggestion! I can certainly understand wanting to plan ahead in your shopping, especially with the pandemic in effect! Given volatility of pricing and supply - particularly of produce items, and especially during COVID - we aren't able to confirm sale pricing much farther ahead of time than we are already doing. If we are able to make any changes to better settle sale pricing, we will re-examine our process to see if we can give Owners more notice about upcoming sales. Thanks for shopping at the Co-op; take care and be well! -Brendon Smith, Communications Director
Toilet paper problems
Q: (My wife and I were at Willy Street East on Williamson last week, where I filled out one of those sheets for a comment on things. There wasn't enough room on the form to say it all, so attached is the whole story.)
The toilet paper dispenser in the rest room at East is a disaster. It presents a number of problems.
First of all, it is mounted too low. There should be at least 36 inches from the floor to the bottom of the dispenser. When you need some paper, you have to try to reach into the dispenser, but one can barely get into the place where the paper is. And you can't see how to get in.
Often, there is no small end to grab, and you need to try to spin the roll until you find one. Sometimes, when you do that, the paper ends up on the floor.
Even if you are able to locate some paper, the results are not good. The paper is far too narrow and too thin, To accomplish anything, you need handfuls of this thin paper, which does not work well with the kind of job at hand.
What you should be doing is making available in the restrooms the same paper that you have on the shelves that you are selling. That way you can put a small note on the wall near it and tell people which aisle to find it in.
In contrast, the hand washing system you have in the restroom works very well.
A: Thank you for sharing your concerns about the toilet paper dispensers and toilet paper at Willy St Co-op East.
As far as the TP dispenser height, we are required by local and federal building codes to provide Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant, accessible restroom facilities. ADA specifications state that toilet paper dispensers need to be at minimum 14” off the floor (for the bottom of the dispenser) and at maximum 19” off the floor (for the top of the dispenser). We are restricted by those parameters and we have installed them within those parameters.
I believe part of the problem you experienced is due to the ends of the TP rolls not being freed before the rolls are installed in the dispenser. They come glued down so the rolls don’t unravel in shipping or while being removed from the packaging. I have communicated with our staff and the company that cleans for us to request that the rolls are “started” before they go into the dispenser to make it easier for the user to find and grab the end of the roll.
Regarding the type of toilet paper we use in the restrooms, it is not practical for us to use the smaller, residential sized rolls that we sell in the store. With the small rolls we would need to restock the dispensers many, many times per day instead of the once or twice per day that we do now. Another consideration is that the large, 2-ply rolls we use is what was recommended by our supplier for an unbleached product with 100% recycled fiber that we are looking for.
I’m glad you are pleased with your hand washing experience. We have also been happy with the Green Seal certified, biodegradable and unscented hand soap we have provided at the hand washing facilities for the last several years. -Jim Jirous, Facilities Director
Senior hours
Q: Your Covid-19 update didn’t mention senior hours, if you still have them...
A: We do indeed! The first two hours we're open, 8:00am-10:00am, are reserved for those who are seniors or who have compromised immune systems.
Please let me know if you have any other questions I may help you with. Best, Liz Hawley, Education and Outreach Coordinator
Curbside pickup
Q: I really appreciate the option to get curbside pick-up. Is there a way (such as a surcharge) to shorten the time between placing an order and pick-up?
A: Thanks for your question about wait times for Curbside Pickups. The time-consuming part of shopping for other people is just that - the shopping! We have a process of selecting the products on a customer's order and then a second process of auditing those selections for accuracy, adjusting weights, and voiding out-of-stock items from the order. Finally, we package up the order in bags and boxes. All in all, it takes quite some time. Given that, and the variability of orders (we often get orders over $500, they take a lot of effort!), we only offer a certain number of pickup and delivery "slots" each day. We can only offer as many "slots" as we have staff scheduled to work in our eCommerce operation that day. Added charges, as you suggest, won't immediately impact that capacity - having more trained staff will!
We are working on hiring more folks into our eCommerce Department. Much of our team has been made up of staffers from other departments and sites that were closed down due to the health and safety policies that the County implemented early in the pandemic. As those staffers have been recalled back to their home departments, we've been in a position of having to temporarily reduce our capacity. Demand for the service is understandably rising, as well. The convergence of these two points is what you're experiencing with multiple day wait times between your order and your pickup. Once we have some additional staffers in and trained, we'll be able to offer more "slots" for you to choose from, and wait times for orders should go down. -Patrick Schroeder, eCommerce Manager
Opening plastic bags
Q: Maybe this question has come up before and I missed it. If so, sorry.
Your produce bags are exceptionally clingy, which was tricky enough before a pandemic. Now, licking my fingers to open a produce bag doesn't seem the wisest thing to do, if it ever was, and you can whip them through the air over and over and they still don't open. (From what I observe in the produce section, I am not alone in this challenge.)
Any tips you have for opening those things?
A: Thanks for the question! I think the produce bags that you are referring to are the home-compostable bags that are available in our produce departments. These bags are made from a 100% vegetable starch material, and unlike many of bio-plastics, are certified to breakdown in a home compost pile within 180 days.
The downside to this material is that it is very clingy, as you noted. I don't have any great tips for you— I've found that I'm able to get them open without too much hassle, but it's definitely true that it is harder than more traditional plastic bags. If you have had it with the compostable bags and would prefer the more traditional plastic, we do also have those available in our produce departments. If you can't locate which is which, feel free to flag one of our employees and they'd be glad to help. I hope this is helpful information! Best, Megan Minnick, Purchasing Director
Bulk section
Q: Just wondering if, with COVID 19, your bulk foods section is still available—e.g. for flour, beans, etc. Are there new rules, like no containers from home, etc.? Thanks.
A: I am very sorry to have missed your comment, but the good news that I can now report is that we have just been able to partially re-open our Bulk aisle.
• Bulk coffee is back.
• Most gravity bins (the kind where you pull down the handle) are open again and we’re working on filling more.
• Bulk kombucha and most bulk liquids are available at Willy East.
• We expect some herbs, spices, and bulk teas to return in the next few weeks.
• The scoop bins are not yet available and there are still supply shortages of some products overall. Please do not bring in your own containers to fill in the bulk department, except for growlers for kombucha that are not intended for drinking from directly.
Please let me know if you have any other questions. Best, Liz Hawley, Education and Outreach Coordinator
Paper Bags
Q: I’ve collected a huge number of clean paper grocery bags. Can you use them? I’d be happy to do whatever it takes to return them safely for reuse.
A: Thanks for asking! We’re not able to take the bags at this time, but I would recommend contacting neighborhood food pantries to see if they may be able to use them. Lussier Community Education Center and Middleton Outreach Ministries may be a good place to start. Thanks again, Liz Hawley, Education & Outreach Coordinator